Sinhalese and Tamil University students met in Jaffna.

JAFFNA, SRI LANKA, March 13, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Sinhalese students led by Wasantha Mudalige, the covenor of Inter University Students' Federation (IUSF) met with Tamil Jaffna University Student Union leaders in Jaffna to explore means to work together to abolish Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). But the Jaffna University Tamil students urged the Sinhalese students to first address long standing Tamil grievances to which Sinhalese students agreed.

Tamil University students gave a memorandum., including mail grievances:

1. Tamil people, whose homeland is the North East, are a unique nation with a unique language, religion, and cultural identity.

2. United North Eastern Provinces are the traditional ancestral homeland of the Tamil people.

3. Tamils are entitled to autonomy.

4. As a nation self-determination belongs to Tamils and that they have the right to determine their political destiny through it.

5. Tamils should be given the opportunity to decide their political destiny through an internationally supervised and conducted referendum.

6. Justice should be given through the international justice mechanism to those who have been subjected to genocide, genocide, and forced disappearances.

7. Sinhalese occupational army stationed in the Tamil homeland should be withdrawn immediately.

8. Occupied Tamil lands should be released immediately

9. 6th Amendment Act of the Sri Lankan Constitution should be abolished, and a political space should be created for the Tamil people to express their political aspirations.

10. Prohibition of Terrorism Act (PTA) should be repealed and the Tamil political prisoners languishing in jails for a long time should be released immediately without any conditions.

A permanent solution to the Tamil National question and thereby a solution to the economic problem can be reached only where the agreement on the above matters.

BACKGROUND:

The Tamil people living in the North East have been fighting for their rights through non-violence and armed means for more than 75 years. The Sri Lankan government, which depicted the Tamil people's rights struggle as terrorism among the Sinhalese people in the south and among the international community, massacred thousands of Tamil people and occupied the Tamil homeland everywhere with the occupational Sinhala army.

Since the independence from the British in 1948, Tamils have been waging peaceful non-violent struggles for our self-determination. These peaceful struggles were brutally suppressed by the use of force by the successive Sinhala - Buddhist Government, resulting in Tamil youths turning to armed struggle, which was suppressed by Sri Lankan Security forces killing tens of thousands of Tamil civilians and sexually assaulting and raping Tamil women.

According to the November 2012 Report of the UN Secretary-General’s Internal Review Panel on UN Action in Sri Lanka, over 70,000 people were killed during the final six months of the war that ended in May 2009.

Several were killed when Sri Lankan forces repeatedly bombed and shelled an area designated by the Government as No Fire Zones (Safe zones). Even hospitals and food distribution centers were bombed. Several also died of starvation and bled to death due to lack of medical treatment.

International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) in February 2017 handed over details to the UN of Sri Lankan Military-run "Rape Camps", where Tamil women are being held as “sex slaves.”

According to a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office report in April 2013, there are over 90,000 Tamil war widows in Sri Lanka.

Thousands of Tamils disappeared including babies and children. The UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances stated that the second-highest number of enforced disappearance cases in the world is from Sri Lanka.

Militarization of Tamil's traditional homeland is continuing, and Tamils' historical identity is destroyed with the aim to change demography in favour of Sinhalese, using several government departments, including archaeological, forest, survey departments, and Ministry of Buddhasasana as well as Mahaveli River Development Agency. Also, Government-sponsored Sinhalese settlements are continuing.

Continuing land grab in Tamil's traditional homeland by the Security Forces and the Government converting Tamil's traditional and historical places into Sinhala-Buddhist areas by establishing numerous Buddhist temples in Tamil areas, including after destroying Hindu temples. As of now, around 200 Hindu temples were affected by this act of the Government.

Tamils are suffering ever since PTA was enacted over fifty years in 1979 and several Tamils were executed over the years and spent years in prison. On the same day PTA came into effect one Tamil student Inbam was abducted by the police from his home and his badly tortured body was left on the street. On the same night first Tamil disappearance took place when Tamil student Bala was abducted by the police and disappeared.

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