Remembering Thileepan

by admin
Sep 25, 2011

September 26 is the anniversary of the death of LTTE Lt. Col. Thileepan in 1987 during his hungerstrike appealing for the Indian government of Premier Rajiv Gandhi to honour the security undertakings it gave to the Tamil people alongside its 1987 Accord with Sri Lanka. Click image for details.

September 26 is the anniversary of the death of LTTE Lt. Col. Thileepan during his 1987 hungerstrike appealing for the Indian government of Premier Rajiv Gandhi to honour the security undertakings it gave to the Tamil people alongside its Accord with Sri Lanka.

See GTV's Tamil-language documentary on Thileepan's protest, with footage from that time: pt 1 and pt 2.

See 'Canadian Tamil youth remember Thileepan'

A hundred thousand people gathered in and around the Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna to support Thileepan in his hunger strike which he began on 15 September 1987 on a stage in front of the historic temple.

Thileepan, then the LTTE’s political wing leader for the Jaffna district, made five demands from the Indian government, including:
- the release of all Tamils held under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA),
- a halt to the state-sponsored Sinhala colonization 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.

Twenty four years, these demands are still being made of Sri Lanka by the Tamil people, and the international community.

Self-sacrifice for the greater good has a long tradition (Opinion)

Witness to Thileepan’s fast (Feature)

See also, the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord and the LTTE's response to it. 

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