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Don't belittle Tamil struggle, says Nedumaran

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI July 21. Amid a subtle display of support for the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the newly-launched World Tamil Federation president, P. Nedumaran, today appealed to the State Government not to ``belittle'' the armed struggle by Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Without mentioning the LTTE leader, V. Prabakaran, who is a proclaimed offender in India, Mr. Nedumaran said, a courageous Tamil youth just 20 miles away from Tamil Nadu had lent a ``face and identity'' to the Tamils across the world.

Wrapping up the two-day session held after the Madras High Court granted conditional permission, Mr.Nedumaran said the Eelam issue should not be exploited for local political objectives.

In an obvious dig at the Jayalalithaa government's anti-LTTE stand, he said, ``Do they have courage to make a similar sacrifice like the Eelam Tamils, who plunged into the war without any aspiration to become MPs and Chief Ministers.''

However, he said, the conference was not organised to drum up support for the LTTE as alleged by the State police which had denied permission for the event. ``I have been an LTTE supporter for the past 20 years. But, I know this is not the occasion to voice support for them,'' he said, amid thunderous applause and ripples of slogans hailing the LTTE and Mr.Prabakaran.

The federation objective, Mr.Nedumaran insisted, was only to restore the linguistic, cultural, historical and ethnic glory of the Tamils and finally, retrieve ``our land''. Leaving no one in doubt about the subject of his adulation, he said, during a recent visit abroad, a foreigner had asked him if he was a ``Tiger''. Speakers including the film director, Bharatiraja, praised Mr. Prabakaran referring to his title of ``valiant warrior''.

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