In the context of reports of top Lankan Military Officers visiting India for training, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting him to instruct the Defence Ministry to desist from giving any training to Lankan Armed Forces personnel anywhere in India and send them back to their native place immediately.

In the context of reports of top Lankan Military Officers visiting India for training, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting him to instruct the Defence Ministry to desist from giving any training to Lankan Armed Forces personnel anywhere in India and send them back to their native place immediately.

In the letter to the Prime Minister, the copy of which was released to the press here, Jayalalithaa said imparting training to personnel belonging to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in Defence Training Institutions in India and allowing them to visit Tamilnadu showed utter disrespect to the sentiments of the people of Tamilnadu.

Jayalalithaa said she was writing the letter as it came to her notice that Air Vice Marshal Jegath Julanga Diaz of the Sri Lankan Air Force and Rear Admiral S Ranasinghe of the Sri Lankan Navy had arrived at Coonoor in Nilgiris District of Tamilnadu yesterday along with 25 other trainees.

They would be visiting the Defence Service Staff College at Wellington today as part of their training programme, she said.

'You may recall the Resolution passed by the Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly in June, 2011, urging the Government of India to take up with the United Nations Organisation the issue of declaring those found guilty of war crimes as war criminals, and also to initiate action by working with

the Nations for the imposition of an economic embargo on the Government of Sri Lanka till the Tamils, who are now living in camps in Sri Lanka, are resettled in their own places and are allowed to live with dignity and with equal Constitutional rights on par with the Sinhalese citizens.'

She added that Tamils across the world feel that their sentiments had been trampled on by the Government of India not only by its inaction on this resolution but also by continuing to give preferential treatment by way of providing technical training to defence personnel belonging to Sri Lanka

She recalled when nine Sri Lankan Air Force personnel were  undergoing technical training at the Air Force Station, Tambaram, Tamilnadu, she had issued a statement condemning the Centre's action and requested these personnel be sent back to Sri Lanka.

'Instead of sending them back to Sri Lanka, the government of India is now providing training to these personnel at the Yelahenka Air Force Station, Bengaluru. Again, it has now come to my notice that Air Vice

Marshal Jegath Julanga Diaz of the Sri Lankan Air Force and Rear Admiral S Ranasinghe of the Sri Lankan Navy, who are undergoing training at the National Defence Academy, New Delhi, along with 25 other trainees belonging to various countries have arrived at Coonoor,

The Nilgiris District, Tamil Nadu, yesterday and are visiting the Defence Service Staff College, Wellington, today as part of their training programme.'

'Imparting  training to personnel belonging to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in Defence Training Institutions in India and allowing them to visit Tamilnadu reveals the utter disrespect shown to the sentiments of the people of Tamilnadu.'

'The people of Tamilnadu are frustrated and outraged by this callous and adamant attitude of the government of India in persistently giving training to personnel belonging to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in India.'  

'I, therefore, request you to give suitable instructions to the Ministry of Defence to desist from giving any training to personnel belonging to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces anywhere in India and send such personnel back to Sri Lanka immediately,' she added.