CONTENTS
OF THIS SECTION

Community Organisations

Past Militant Organisations

Books related to the Struggle
at Tamil Nation Library

TAMIL EELAM STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM

"வாழ்க ஈழத் தமிழகம்,  தலை நிமிர்ந்து வாழ்கவே..."

Thanthai Chelva	Nadarajah Thangathurai	Sathasivam Krishnakumar	Velupillai Pirabakaran	Maveerar	Mamanithar	Nattu Patralar

"...Throughout the ages the Sinhalese and Tamils in the country lived as distinct sovereign people till they were brought under foreign domination ..... We have for the last 25 years made every effort to secure our political rights on the basis of equality with the Sinhalese in a united Ceylon ..... It is a regrettable fact that successive Sinhalese governments have used the power that flows from independence to deny us our fundamental rights and reduce us to the position of a subject people ..... I wish to announce to my people and to the country that I consider the verdict at this election as a mandate that the Tamil Eelam nation should exercise the sovereignty already vested in the Tamil people and become free." Statement  by S.J.V.Chelvanayagam Q.C., Leader of the Tamil United Front, February 1975

"...We are not chauvinists. Neither are we lovers of violence enchanted with war. We do not regard the Sinhala people as our opponents or as our enemies. We recognise the Sinhala nation. We accord a place of dignity for the culture and heritage of the Sinhala people. We have no desire to interfere in any way with the national life of the Sinhala people or with their freedom and independence. We, the Tamil people, desire to live in our own historic homeland as an independent nation, in peace, in freedom and with dignity." Velupilllai Pirabaharan, Undying Symbol of Tamil Resistance to Alien Sinhala Rule

"... The LTTE had for almost three decades fought the Sri Lankan military and defended its right to carry arms as a means of protecting the Tamil people living in the island.  Since the war intensified in 2007, several thousand Tamil civilians have died. The recent thrust by the military into the Northern strong holds of the Tamils have seen an escalation in the deaths and has resulted in untold misery with people succumbing to starvation and lack of medical supplies....We need to do everything within our means to stop this carnage....We have decided to silence our guns... We have not forgotten that it is for our people that we fight. In the face of the current conditions, we will no longer permit this battle to be used as a justification by the forces of the Sinhala state to kill our people. We willingly stand up with courage and silence our guns... " We are silencing our guns - LTTE, 17 May 2009

Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom & tamil nation. org

A visitor from Singapore wrote: "...I was going through (your website) and am impressed with its layout and all. What disappointed me was your call to arms along racial lines which is contrary to what most mainland Tamils favour..."

Our Response: "tamilnation.org has made no call for arms and makes no call for arms - whether on 'racial' lines or any other line. We do take the view that the armed resistance of the people of Tamil Eelam to alien Sinhala rule is not unlawful - and the double negative is deliberate...

We, together with many Tamils, will continue to grapple with (and agonise over) the question of moral laws and ethical ideals in the context of an armed struggle for freedom. The question  troubled Arujna in the battlefield of Kurushetra.

What then should be our response to armed resistance? There is no mechanical rule which will provide us with an easy answer. Each of us have our dharma - our way of harmony. We seek a coincidence of our own words and deeds.

tamilnation.org believes that means and ends are inseparable. We are mindful that the resort to violence to secure political ends brings in its train consequences which offend the conscience of humanity...

 We take the view that the Sri Lankan government and its agencies have during the past several decades, committed systematic violations of the rights of the Tamil people, including grave breaches of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Genocide Convention.

We judge that the struggle for Tamil Eelam has justice on its side and that... by so judging, and by placing in the public domain the facts on which that judgment is founded,  we are more likely to bring a just peace in the island of Sri Lanka, than by remaining a passive spectator.

And here, we find the words of Martin Luther King persuasive:  '..The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.' The charge is genocide and the struggle is for freedom."  Nadesan Satyendra in Violence and Integrity, February 2001