"Maaveerar naal serves not only as a reminder for us to call for the end of oppression of Eelam Tamils, but for us, as a Tamil nation, to stand strong and united as we always have to commemorate our brothers and sisters who have sacrificed their lives, their youths and their ambitions for our homeland.Today, we students have once again reunited to honour thousands of our fallen heroes who have sacrificed their lives for the freedom of Tamil Eelam. It’s heartbreaking to say that all of their graves have now been desecrated and destroyed by the Sri Lankan state. However, our maaveerar will never remain unmarked pages in our history. Each one of these courageous men and women will remain forever engraved in our hearts, serving as pillars of our nation.
To cause the premature death of an innocent person is murder. To cause the premature deaths of large numbers of innocent people on racial and ethnic grounds, to destroy the very fabric of a nation, that is genocide. Faced with this genocide, this massive onslaught against our nation, these men and women displayed a bravery that has been unmatched, and rose up stand as our protectors, our guardians.
We, away from the Sri Lankan government, who live secure in our warm houses, who return in the evening to find hot food and familiar faces waiting for us, are blessed by those who have laboured in the mud, who have known no peace and fought for a crust of bread. This is something that us Tamils should never forget because without their suffering, we will never be where we are today.
Let me remind you that it is me and you who are held hostage, it is me and you who are tortured, it is our brothers and sisters being abducted and raped and the blood dripping from their hands, its mine and yours.
As the future of our homeland, it is our duty to pass on what we have today to our tomorrow especially when our identity is under threat. When so many young men and women made such valiant sacrifices... gave up everything they had for us... we need to ensure that our lives here are not pettily squandered... and the sacrifices that they made were not in vain.
Bearing this in mind, when we all walk out this door today and someone asks us, ‘Why are there events such as Breaking the Silence and youth Maveerar Naal’, our answer to their question will be ‘we do such events because We ask you not to turn a blind eye, but we ask you to break the silence’."
- A speech delivered on behalf of King’s College London’s Tamil Society, at this week's Youth Maaverar Naal held in London.
