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Tamils vow to determine their own fate in their homeland

More than thousand dignitaries assembled at the Jaffna University Kailasapathy hall on Sunday and declared, "we will defeat the Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism to reclaim our traditional land from the occupying forces and determine our own future in our own land using our own strength."

The gathering, named "the voice of Tamil nation" started at 10.45 am and concluded at 1.30 pm. It was presided by the president of the consortium of humanitarian agencies, S Paramanathan. Intellectuals, university academics, heads of institutions, religious leaders of Hindu, Christian and Islam religions, representatives of civilian based and village based organizations attended the gathering.

The event was inaugurated by the raising of the Tamil national flag by Selvakumar, past president of the university students association. Lamp was then lit by many dignitaries including Jaffna University vice chancellor, religious leaders, parent of a martyr, head of fishermen society, president of national uprising consortium and others.

Rev Fr Bernard explained in his talk the historical background. This was followed by speeches about the necessity for a Tamil nation by, head of the Nallur temple chapter, Srilasri Paramasamy Swamikal, Sahis Moulana, Moulavi of Jaffna Mosque, member of parliament S Sivajilingam and the vice chancellor of Jaffna university, S Mohanadas.

People who were gathered at the meeting then shouted slogans like, "We want our land", "Our leader is Pirabhaharan" and "We will establish self determination". People then stood up and spoke with emotion about the situation. At the end of the meeting everyone stood up raised their hands and read the declaration in unison. The declaration was released to inform the international community and the southern leadership about the situation in Tamil homeland. The text of the declaration is as follows.

"Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism is staging a dangerous dance in south Sri Lanka. This is nothing new to the Tamils. Ever since the island got independence Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism has maintained that the entire island must be in its control.

Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism has ignored the fact that Tamils have lived in this island for a long long time with their own sovereignty. It undertook many actions to make Tamils second-class citizens in this island.

Tamils are oppressed not only in the areas of citizenship, land, language and education they are also oppressed militarily. Historically, the northeast of the island has been the homeland of the Tamils.

Tamil speaking people hold the firm view that they must release themselves from the oppressive rule of Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism and live a life of freedom. Thirst for this freedom is the result of 50 years of experience of living under Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism. To day the Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism is showing its cruel face by refusing even the limited joint structure to channel tsunami relief.

We vow to defeat this cruel Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism and reclaim our land from the occupying forces and determine our own future using our own strength in our own land."

20 June 2005

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