
Tamils vow to determine their own fate in their homeland
-Chorus echoed all around Jaffna University
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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