New Delhi: Expressing concern over the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, the CPI today asked the Government to take steps to stop the war in the island nation and insist on a political solution to the over 25-year-old ethnic crisis in that country.

CPI National Secretary D Raja today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and asked him to use the "close historic relationship" between India and Sri Lanka to bring the ongoing full-scale war to an end.

"The Indian Government should also make efforts for humanitarian assistance for civilians" who have been affected by the military offensive against LTTE, Raja said.

"Acording to reports, the Sri Lankan Army is using fuel-air bombings which is against all international norms; thousands of people have been caught in the War Zones. They have been displaced and rendered homeless, many of them wounded and hundreds of them have been killed," Raja said in a memorandum submitted to Singh.

The affected have not been getting medicines, food and other essential requirements for survival, Raja said and alleged that the Lankan Government is preventing UN agencies and NGOs from reaching aid to the affected people.

The Prime Minister expressed deep concern over the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Raja said.

"The PM told me that he would discuss this issue at the Government level and take a decision," the CPI leader said.

Raja also told the Prime Minister that efforts to stop the war and find a political soultion to the crisis in Sri Lanka should be taken at the highest level of the government, instead of dealing it at the official level.
Source : PTI