Eight pilots of the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) are presently
undergoing training at the Indian Air Force base at Thaamparam (Tambaram)
near Chennai in Tamil Nadu, highly placed sources told TamilNet. News of
this training spread like wildfire when the Sri Lankan Airforce personnel
were taken Monday to the Chealaiyoor (Selaiyur) police-station for visa
verification purposes. "People of Tamil Nadu need no further proof that this
war of decimating Tamils in Sri Lanka is being undertaken at India's
insistence and instructions. This confirms our fears that Indian troops have
also been sent to fight there," a veteran Tamil activist told TamilNet.
SLAF personnel in Tamil Nadu
"Even as the Indian Government is shedding crocodile tears
about the safety of several hundred thousand Tamil civilians subjected to
artillery shelling and aerial bombing in the Vanni, it has taken upon the
treacherous mission of training pilots of the Sri Lanka Air Force," he
added.
According to eye-witness accounts, the SLAF pilots were accompanied by their
Indian Air Force counterparts. The training mission has been undertaken when
the genocidal war has revealed its cruelest face ever, killing scores of
Tamils everyday, most of them helpless children stuck in the "safety zone"
declared by the Sri Lankan Government.
