Video footage of execution of Tamil presenter is cruel: DMK chief M Karunanidhi

CHENNAI: DMK today described as "cruel" the alleged execution scenes in a video documentary of a Tamil TV presenter by the Sri Lankan troops and asked if India still intended to participate in the upcoming commonwealth event in Colombo.

"We have been left wailing" over Britain's Channel 4 video that shows a group of soldiers surrounding a half-naked Tamil lady," DMK chief M Karunanidhi said.

The video claims that the woman, a Tamil TV presenter who had served in the LTTE, was executed after being captured by the troops and not during the final battle as claimed by the government. She was found dead with her clothes stripped.

"After watching the cruel scene, do our nation's Prime Minster ( Manmohan Singh), External Affairs Minister ( Salman Khurshid) and those voicing for India's participation in the Commonwealth conference still want to participate in it," he said in a letter to his partymen.

Political parties and various outfits are strongly opposed to India's participation in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka this month, with the Tamil Nadu Assembly recently adopting a resolution demanding New Delhi completely boycott it and also temporarily suspend that country from Commonwealth federation till Colombo ensured equal status for Tamils.

Karunanidhi said Tamils all over the world expected India to boycott CHOGM as a mark of rapping Sri Lanka for the latest video and grab the attention of the international community towards the incident.

"What is India going to do?" he asked, adding, if it will "shed tears" over her death.

Sri Lanka had dismissed the video documentary as "fake", saying attempts were being made to discredit the army ahead of the Commonwealth conference.

"It is nothing new for Channel 4 to discredit Sri Lanka at important times such as the UN Human Rights Council sessions and the upcoming Commonwealth conference," military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya had said.