Thileepan Anna was not just a symbol of ultimate sacrifice but also a symbol or sheer determination, courage and peace. His last few words, I am confident that our people will, one day, achieve their freedom. It gives me great satisfaction and contentment that I am fulfilling a national responsibility to the nation, not only gives us courage and strengthens our national spirit but it also reminds us that we too have a national responsibility to fulfil. This is exactly what we remember Thileepan Anna for, every year on September 26th. Today marks the 27th anniversary of the death of Lt. Col Thileepan, after he fasted to death on hunger strike, appealing to the Indian government to honour pledges made to the Tamil people. Thileepan, a former medical student, was the political wing leader of the Jaffna district for the LTTE. On the 15th of September 1987, Thileepan took to a podium around the historic Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna. Over 100,000 people had gathered to hear Thileepan outline 5 demands to the Indian government: - the release of all Tamils held under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), - a halt to the state-sponsored Sinhala colonisation of Tamil lands, - an end to the building of new Sri Lankan military camps in the Tamil areas, - the withdrawal of the Sri Lankan security forces from Tamil schools, and - the disarming of Sinhala and Muslim paramilitary militia.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 12:20:13 +0000
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