TN SHUTS DOWN COLLEGES TO PREVENT ANTI - LANKA PROTESTS

The Indian government had ordered 438 Arts and Science Colleges in Tamil Nadu to close immediately till further notice as student organisations across the state geared up for a massive protest starting next Monday (18).

The students were demanding that India votes against Sri Lanka on a resolution expected to be moved at a meeting of the United Nation's Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. The US was expected to move the motion against Sri Lanka on war crimes and rights violations against Tamil civilians during the final phase of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). All political parties in Tamil Nadu have been pressuring the Indian government to vote against its

British media released photographs that suggest that the 12-year-old-son of Prabhakaran, the chief of the rebel Tamil Tigers, was executed in cold blood by Sri Lankan forces in 2009

neighbour.

The government's decision to close colleges was seen as a bid to avert any law and order problems in Indian campuses. The emotive Sri Lankan Tamils issue was resurrected recently when British media released photographs that suggest that the 12-year-old-son of Prab- hakaran, the chief of the rebel Tamil Tigers, was executed in cold blood by Sri Lankan forces in 2009. Colombo says the photos were morphed.

In the Indian Parliament, the DMK, which is a partner in the UPA government, has made both poignant appeals and threats to demand that India show its support for Tamils in Sri Lanka. It has asked the government to make its stand clear, something that it is yet to be done. The Congress-led UPA government had voted against Sri Lanka in another resolution last year following pressure from the DMK, which had then threatened to pull out of the coalition at the Centre. ( NDTV)