By G Saravanan
Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on June 7, 2011:
CHENNAI: Reacting strongly to the Lankan daily The Island’s portrayal of Tamil Nadu as a key centre for LTTE propaganda operations, Chennai-based human rights NGO Manitham on Monday condemned the report as a pre-planned psychological attack on Tamils in the State to divert attention away from Sri Lanka’s war crimes.
“The daily’s brazen act to tarnish the State’s image internationally has to be condemned using the strongest words by all Tamils and even by the newly elected AIADMK government,” said Agni Subramaniam, executive director of Manitham.While Tamil Nadu had maintained, for years now, that no LTTE activities took place on its soil, The Island’s claim was not only baffling but also projected the State in a bad light among European countries and the USA, said Subramaniam.It may be noted that about three weeks ago, Sri Lankan authorities confiscated 45 cartons of Tamil books about Sri Lankan war crimes, that were sent from Chennai to Canada via transit cargo on a ship called M V Hansa Stavanger by Manitham International, on grounds that the books were ‘LTTE propaganda material’.Subramaniam said the Lankans were illegally holding these books though they were not banned in any country. He claimed the Sri Lankan government had published this “false propaganda” because of international pressure over alleged war crimes, as noted by a recent UN report. Earlier, Lankan newspapers portrayed certain Tamil leaders as LTTE men, but the new claim was alarming, he said.
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