Former Lanka PM asks help from India to combat LTTE

Former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe today appealed to India and the international community to provide help to his country for curbing the militant activities perpetrated by the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Chennai (Tamil Nadu), May 5 : Former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe today appealed to India and the international community to provide help to his country for curbing the militant activities perpetrated by the Tamil Tiger rebels.

"I think the Sri Lankan Government now has to talk to the Indian Government, with the EU (European Union), with the United States and decide what course of action has to be taken. Because unless and until we can get mobilised and get together all our people and international support which we had earlier, it is not possible to resolve this conflict. The government so far has not been able to do that," said Wickremasinghe, who stopped here on his way to home after a ten-day trip to Dubai.

Terming the situation in Sri Lanka as 'serious', he said that his United National Party (UNP) would discuss a strategy, as soon as he returned to Sri Lanka.

Colombo and New Delhi have been deeply concerned as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) recently acquired air capability, striking Sri Lankan army bases in the recent past.

Hundreds of people in the island nation have been killed in spiraling violence since July 2006 that shattered a truce brokered in 2002.

ANI