Hardening her stand on Sri Lankan Tamils issue, AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa on Saturday firmly backed a separate Tamil Eelam in that country saying it alone would end the decades long ethnic strife there.

"We have been asking for a ceasefire. It is not enough. Sri Lankan Tamils should get justice and lead a normal life.

They should get all rights that are available to Sinhalese. For this, a separate Eelam is the only way," Jayalalithaa said in a major shift in her party's stand on the issue.

Stating that separate Eelam was the only way to find a permanent solution to the ethnic issue, she told an election meeting here that "I will definitely do it. To form a separate Eelam, vote for AIADMK-led alliance."

AIADMK's manifesto had said it would press for separate Eelam if moves for devolution of powers in Tamil-dominated provinces failed to give equal status to the Tamils.
 
But her remarks today reflect a change in the party's position on the issue which has come to occupy the centrestage in the run-up to the May 13 Lok Sabha polls with political parties raising the pitch apparently worried about the electoral fallout of the humanitarian crisis in the war zone.

Dismissing as a "drama" and an "eyewash" the visit of Indian envoys M K Narayanan, National Security Advisor, and Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary, to Colombo to meet Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to press for cessation of hostilities, she said "nothing has happened since their
return."

Jayalithaa charged that Sri Lankan Tamils were being treated as "prisoners and slaves" in Army-run camps in Vavuniya, "forcing them to think that death is better than living like this."

Dubbing as "false" and "deceit" the claims by Sri Lankan government that it was taking steps to protect the Tamils, she alleged talks about devolution of powers to Tamils and finding a democratic solution were an "eye wash."

She said the sufferings of Lankan Tamils "reminded me of Hitler's concentration camps where Jews were persecuted."  By doing all this, the "Sri Lankan government was planning to annhilate the entire Tamil race," she alleged.

The former chief minister said she came to know about the sufferings and plight Sri Lankan Tamils after seeing the video footage provided to her by Art Of Living Foundation founder and spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravishankar a few days back.