Chennai, Saturday 9 May 2009: India is doing what it can to help the beleaguered Tamil community in Sri Lanka lead “a life of dignity and honour”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday.

The PM told journalists while on a campaign tour here that he was “deeply concerned over the very difficult situation in Sri Lanka” where thousands have died in a military onslaught aimed at crushing the Tamil Tigers.

“This has caused great concern to people everywhere. We are doing all we can to ensure that the Tamil people in Sri Lanka are assured a life of dignity, peace and honour in Sri Lanka,” he said.

Manmohan Singh said the Indian government’s topmost concern was to provide relief and succour to the mass of Tamil civilians displaced from the truncated war zone still held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

India also wanted the fighting to end, he said. “Our position in the past is that we would certainly want Tamil people to get (a settlement) where they can lead a life with dignity and respect.”

Manmohan Singh emphasised that any solution to the conflict in the island nation needed to be found “within a unified Sri Lanka”.
(Agency)