Tamil MPs ask India to pressure Sri Lanka to end killings

Chennai, Oct 25 (IANS) A group of Tamil MPs from Sri Lanka sympathetic to the Tamil Tigers Saturday sought sustained Indian diplomatic pressure to force Colombo to start talking to the guerrillas in a bid to end the ethnic conflict.
'An Indian intervention is needed to force the war-hungry Colombo regime to come to the negotiation table, work out with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) a peaceful political solution to our issue within the ambit of a federal, united Sri Lanka and stop its military moves against innocent Tamil civilians,' Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Sri Kantha told reporters.
'Over 250,000 Tamils have become refugees in our own homeland and several thousands of our brethren are being killed by the military. Absence of food and medicines to the sick and the infirm ... are also claiming lives,' he said.
'Habitations in Wanni and Kilinochcyi have been reduced to rubble in the bombing that have killed countless children and the aged. People are suffering without food. The undeclared war must end. The Sri Lankan government must begin negotiations with the LTTE without delay,' added M.K. Shivaji Lingam, another MP from the same party.
The MPs also expressed sincere appreciation for the pro-active measures including Friday's massive human chain protest held in Chennai and called for political parties in India to speak in a united voice.
Political parties in Tamil Nadu, which is separated from Sri Lanka by a strip of sea, have threatened to resign their seats from the Indian parliament by Oct 29 if New Delhi does not bring about a ceasefire in the island nation by that date.(News-YahooIndia)