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Protest against civilian murders in Jaffna

Jaffna people have demonstrated their anger in unison by shutting down the entire peninsula following the murder of two civilians by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA). The protest is a demonstration of a nation’s fury at these acts of murder. The protest brought the entire peninsula to a standstill.

Two recent events demonstrate the united expression of the national awareness of the Tamil people. One is the rejection of the presidential election as irrelevant to the Tamil homeland. And the other is the widespread emotional commemoration of the Maveerar Day throughout the Tamil homeland. These two events confirm the Tamil people’s national awareness and should be seen as windows into their strength of conviction.

These united actions of the Tamil people have completely bewildered the forces that are against the Tamil nation. The Sinhala nationalists who are bent on continuing with their hegemony are upset at this strengthening Tamil national awareness. They are therefore carrying out devious schemes to blunt the rising Tamil national awareness.

In southern Tamil Eelam these devious forces have let loose a shadow war against the Tamil freedom struggle without identifying them. These devious forces having experienced some success in southern Tamil Eelam are now trying the same devious methods in the northern Tamil Eelam. They are dreaming that through this they can frighten and confuse the people and achieve their goal of blunting the Tamil national awareness.

The Neerveli murders of two innocent civilians must be seen as an aspect of this devious effort. They expected that this would diminish the people’s will, but what happened and what is happening is quite the opposite of what they expected. People did not take it lying down. The people of Jaffna have demonstrated through their peaceful but total protest that such acts will only strengthen their national awareness and their conviction to achieve freedom.

It is also worth noting that during the ceasefire period the feelings of national awareness and the conviction to struggle for freedom is lessened, but in the case of Tamil Eelam, murders like those in Neerveli have only helped to strengthen these feelings and convictions. This shows that even in loss and death people can find strength to fight.

We must view the two innocent lives that were lost in Neerveli as dedications to fuel the fire of Tamil national awareness.

04 December 2005

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