Indian President urges equality for Tamils

IANS: Sri Lanka must make efforts to provide its Tamil minority “a life of peace, dignity and equality,” Indian President Pranab Mukherjee said on Thursday. The President told Parliament that India was making progress in its engagement with Sri Lanka.

This involved “our efforts to resettle and rehabilitate the internally displaced persons there,” he said, referring to thousands who were pushed out of their homes due to the war with the Tamil Tigers.

The President made no reference in his speech to allegations of human rights abuses that Sri Lanka is battling, including the alleged cold-blooded killing of the 12-year-old son of the slain Tamil Tiger chief.