Oslo, Apr 11: MDMK chief Vaiko has asked the European Union not to turn a blind eye to the "sufferings of Tamils" in Sri Lanka and to pressure Colombo to end its offensive against the LTTE so that an "ancient race" could be prevented from being "totally wiped out".

"The situation today is very bad. A whole ancient race is about to be wiped out. I would appeal to the European Union to put pressure on the Sinhalese government {to end its military offensive on the LTTE}," he said.

The firebrand Tamil politician, who was speaking at a conference organised by the Art of Living foundation of Indian spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar here, asked European nations to "not turn a blind eye to sufferings of Tamils in Sri Lanka" and also urged more active intervention by the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) in the nation.

The government had formally scrapped the four-year long tattered ceasefire with the LTTE in January this year, also thereby terminating the role played by Norway, the main facilitator for talks from the side of the EU, to mediate between the warring groups. Earlier this week, the LTTE had urged Oslo to exert pressure on Lankan government to stop its military offensive in the island's north.

Rejecting the possibility of a "military solution" to the ethnic problem, Vaiko said that unless Tamils were accepted as a "separate nation" and their inhabited zones were regarded as their "traditional homelands, no negotiation would lead to a solution. "Their armed struggle is an answer to years-long repression by the country's government. Millions of Tamils have become refugees around the world," he said on Thursday.