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“Our yearning is for freedom with dignity in our Homeland”

“We, the Tamil people converged here today reconfirm the resolution taken at the Vauniya Tamil Uprising conference that voiced the collective message of the Tamil people to the international community relative to the political void in which they are placed in the name of a cease fire agreement and the peace process that has failed to deliver” declared the organizing body of the Tamil Uprising Movement in Kilinochchi today 1 September 2005.

This declaration resonated aloud and filled the emotional atmosphere that prevailed when more than a hundred thousand people repeated the sentiment in one voice. People from all walks of life trekking long distances from the nooks and corners of the Kilinochchi district started converging in the Kilinochchi Public grounds early afternoon for this historic event.

“There is always a limit to the patience of a nation of people yearning for freedom and justice after having failed to achieve it through peaceful and democratic means for such a long time as five decades” said Rev Father Bernard, reading out from a message sent by the Bishop of Jaffna Dr.Thomas Savundaranayagam.

Professor S.Mohanadas, Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University said that the Tamil people had an identity of their own and sovereignty over their homeland before the invasion of this island by foreign powers and that proper arrangements were not made in the constitution for the Tamil people to share power equitably at the time of independence in 1948, which has resulted in the conflict that has made the Tamil people a numerical minority clamoring for justice and fairplay.

“We, as Tamil people request the international community to recognize our just struggle for freedom with dignity in the context of our historical background as an independent nation of people, the faith we had in democracy and negotiated means of achieving our political goals, the malice with which the majority rulers treated us during moderate political leaders’ negotiation attempts and during the two decades of war that killed thousands of our people” said Bishop Dr.Jebanesan of the Church of South India. Continuing further, the Bishop said that the Tamil people are grateful to the freedom fighters who attained martyrdom, for it is they who protected the surviving Tamil people and are the ones who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the oppressed Tamil people.

Religious dignitaries representing Hindu, Muslim and Christian faiths, representatives from Civilian Based Organisations in Kilinochchi and other Districts and District parliamentarians representing NorthEast also participated in the Uprising. Head of the NorthEast Secretariat for Human Rights NESOHR)Rev.Fr.M.X.Karunaratnam, detailing the human right violations against the Tamil people by successive governments, made a plea to the international community to take into cognizance the democratic mandate given by the Tamil people in 1977 for secession and in 2004 for negotiated political resolution under the leadership of the LTTE, an accepted norm according to UN charters for self determination.

01 September 2005

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