IN SOLIDARITY WITH TSUNAMI AFFECTED: A member of the Pakistan Red-Crescent Society, collects funds for people severely affected by the Dec. 26 earthquake and series of tsunamis in Asia, in Islamabad, on Jan. 1. Pakistan sent army medics and engineers to Indonesia and ordered two naval ships to join relief efforts in Sri Lanka. (Photo: AFP)

Colombo : A Tamil guerrilla leader has urged the Sri Lankan Navy to act like the Indian Navy and come to the rescue of the tsunami-hit Tamil population in the island’s north and east.

The head of the rebels’ Sea Tigers unit, known as Colonel Soosai, also called upon the people to beware of post-disaster diseases like the ones he said killed many in Gujarat after the 2001 earthquake.

“The Sri Lanka Army says it is in Jaffna to protect the civilians. If that is the case why is it using its helicopters to search and rescue only its soldiers missing in the peninsula?” Soosai said in an interview put out by TamilNet, a Website run by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). “We see what the Indian Navy is doing to help the tsunami-devastated people on the south Indian coast. The Indian Navy, despite suffering losses in the disaster, is actively involved in the evacuation and medical care of people in Tamil Nadu," he said.

Soosai also urged the Sri Lankan government not to differentiate between the Tamils and Sinhalese populations in relief and rehabilitation work. “We should now ensure that the people rescued from the tsunami devastation are protected from diseases rather than let the enormity of the tragedy make us inactive.”