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People march in Vadamaradchi condemning Sinhala Chauvinism

Representatives of fishermen societies, civilians and school students took part in the march. The protesters shouted slogans such as, "Let us live like the way the Sinhala nation is living", "We will not rest until we recover our land and sea", and "Who is protected by the security forces?"

Members of parliament Sivajilingam, Sivanesan and Pathmini Sithamparanathan also took part in the march. The march started at 9.30 a.m. from the Thikkam junction and wound round for four Kilometres and reached the Supparmadam junction.

As the protesters passed the military camps along the coastline they handed out leaflets in Sinhala that stated, "Please go back to your own place". The protesters also symbolically handed out gunny bags for the security forces to take their possessions with them

At the end of the march, a meeting presided by Suriyakumar, president of the fishermen society, took place. In the meeting, a letter was submitted to the Tamil national leader V Prabhaharan. Copies of this letter were also handed out for the European Union and the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan. The text of this letter is as follows.

Sri Lankan government portrayed, in the international arena, the 23 years of war against the struggle by the Tamil for their rights as a war for law on order. Under this pretext it killed thousands of Tamils and destroyed their property worth billions. We have not recovered from the loss of our land and our homes. The leaders in the international community and the leaders with Sinhala hegemonic attitudes in south have been made to realize that the Tamil leadership has created a conventional armed force that has given the Tamils much pride. It is this Tamil military strength that necessitated the ceasefire agreement. Even three years after this ceasefire agreement normalcy has not retuned to the life of Tamil people. In this situation, 70% of the devastation caused by the tsunami in Sri Lanka is in the Tamil areas. We strongly condemn the Sinhala chauvinistic opposition to our request for a joint structure to channel the aid given by the international community for tsunami relief.

Tamil people have taken the brunt of the Sinhala chauvinist attacks and have lost life and property for decades. We cannot bear this anymore. The Sihnala chauvinistic leadership is misleading the Sinhala people by feeding them with chauvinistic ideas in order to strengthen their power base. This leadership cannot crush the rights and the freedom of the Tamil people by this. International community respects our military strength, our political strength and our national unity.

Inability of south Sri Lanka to produce a good leader is clear from the current tragic situation there. It is therefore not useful to wait for the Sinhala leadership to gain our rights and freedom. It is the Sinhala chauvinist leadership that has recently paved the way for the creation of an environment to liberate our homeland. We must proceed along the path for which we started our armed struggle. If this Sinhala government is staging a cruel dance just to set up a joint structure when will we gain our freedom? The waiting is enough. Let us rise up. Our dear leader, people are standing fully behind you. At this juncture when the south Sri Lankan politics is in a confused state, give us the order for the final war for our freedom. We are awaiting your order with feeling and determination.

21 June 2005

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