CHENNAI: Armed with the UN panel report on mass killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka, AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Friday demanded a public apology from Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for what she called the DMK patriarch's 'dubious claim' that hostilities in the island nation had ended following his hunger strike on April 27, 2009.
Jayalalithaa in a statement said the UN Panel report made it clear that the carnage of hapless Tamils lasted till May 2009, which refuted the claim of Karunanidhi that hostilities had ended as a result of his three-hour long fast on April 27, 2009.
"Karunanidhi's self-proclaimed image of the saviour of the Tamil race lies in tatters. The Tamil people expect nothing short of a public apology from him."
Quoting extensively from the UN panel report that described how tens of thousands of Tamils were systematically killed from January to May 2009, she made a strong criticism of Karunanidhi by stating that he staged an 'obnoxious' drama of a hunger strike.
Citing the telecast of a footage by a British TV channel on August 25, 2009, which showed the killing of Tamils, she said it led to an outcry for trying Rajapaksa for war crimes.
"Significantly, neither the Union nor the State governments raised even a whimper of protest."
On the contrary, in October 2009, Karunanidhi sent a delegation of MPs from the DMK, Congress and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi 'to wine and dine' with the Sri Lankan President.
"They returned with gifts and claimed that all was well in Sri Lanka and that the Tamils there had nothing to really complain about."
Urging the Union government to initiate steps to make Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his cronies stand trial in the International Court of Justice for war crimes, she said otherwise, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's 'platitudinous assertions' on Sri Lanka before the Tamil Nadu electorate recently would ring resoundingly hollow.