Quotable: Political leader OKs ethnic cleansing by Tamil Tigers

Posted By Prerna Mankad Thursday, June 7, 2007 - 5:24 PM Share

In response to the government's eviction of nearly 400 ethnic Tamil civilians from Colombo, Sri Lanka today, Dharmalingam Sithadthan, a Tamil political leader, stated,

"It is OK for the LTTE [the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] to indulge in this sort of ethnic cleaning because they have no moral responsibility, but a government can't behave like this."

It's not clear whether this quote was delivered sardonically (it doesn't appear to have been). In any case it's hardly the type of comment to attract support for the evicted Tamils in what was clearly a ruthless and politically provocative action by the Sri Lankan government and police.

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