The leader-elect of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) Sivagnanam Shritharan, called on Tamils to vote in favour of the common candidate Pakkiyaselvam Ariyanenthiran, as he praised and recalled the sacrifices of LTTE fighters from the Eastern Province.
“We are at a key juncture in our history,” Shritharan told an audience in London this week, with Sri Lankan presidential elections scheduled for this month.
The leader-elect of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) Sivagnanam Shritharan, called on Tamils to vote in favour of the common candidate Pakkiyaselvam Ariyanenthiran, as he praised and recalled the sacrifices of LTTE fighters from the Eastern Province.
“We are at a key juncture in our history,” Shritharan told an audience in London this week, with Sri Lankan presidential elections scheduled for this month.
“General elections are now key events for Tamil people. The election battlegrounds have turned into opportunities for our people to show that they are still here... Each election is a battleground.”
Shritharan has spoken out in support of Ariyanenthiran, who secured the backing of several Tamil political parties and civil society organisations last month. Ariyanenthiran previously represented the ITAK as an MP from Batticaloa.
“The defeat of Jayasikurui and the freeing of Kilinochchi was due in large part to fighters from Batticaloa, Amparai and Trinco,” said Shritharan, referring to Sri Lanka’s failed 1997 military operation that was beaten back by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
“Those fighters' tears, blood and flesh are still on Kilinochchi's earth. The buildings we have built today stand on the blood and tears of these brethren from the Eastern homeland.”
“I am not saying Northerners didn't also fight. But large numbers from the East gave up their lives in the North. In those days I was a volunteer with war support groups. We would take 6 or 7 heroes' bodies daily for burial at Theraavil Resting Home. They had no mother, father or siblings to mourn. We have buried so many fighters like this in Theraavil. When we showered them with flowers and then sand, they had no relatives to cry for them.”
“It is from those Eastern homelands we are seeing this common candidate. So, what is our message to the spirits of the fallen?”
“What are we going to say to those mothers of the disappeared?” the parliamentarian continued.
“We can't take up arms again. How many of us know how to fire a gun! How many of us know how to make a bomb, to fire an artillery! Yet, in these 15 years not one of us have thought about taking up a gun, a bomb or firing a shell.”
“Over the 15 years we have shown to the world we are a peace loving people. But neither the world nor Sri Lanka are ready to give us a just political solution. They are asking us for goodwill. "You behave with goodwill, you give them ground here, you behave nicely."
“But they are asking us to be submissive to those who unleashed a war on us, who killed scores of us, who destroyed our property. They are telling us to listen to them, to do as they say. Is this justice? The perpetrator is the judge. The one who killed us is now a policeman. This is what we are asking - through this vote we can send a message to the world.”
Shritharan went on to reiterate his support for Ariyanenthiran and urged Tamils to vote for him this month.
“Each vote cast for the conch symbol is for our people,” he said. “It is for those who gave up their lives for our people.”
“There are many Heroes Resting Homes in the North,” he said, referring to the now destroyed LTTE cemeteries, which housed the graves of thousands of fighters.
“But give a moment to think about those who lie in Theraavil Resting Home. If we fail to support the candidate from the Eastern homeland then we will be judged by history as a people of empty word and those who failed to use their vote as a weapon.”
When asked by the audience on ITAK parliamentarian Sumanthiran’s remarks that the common candidate is an "absolute waste", Shritharan replied “if that is the depth of Sumanthiran's intellect and depth of knowledge then go and ask him”.
“No diplomats exerted any pressure on me on this matter,” said Shritharan, replying to another question from the audience, as he detailed his conversations with foreign diplomats prior to coming to London.
“They are asking again, “Why is a common candidate being fielded?”. I asked the South African ambassador recently why they are taking Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) but not Sri Lanka. He simply said "Best of luck Mr Shritharan. I can only wish you well but I cannot express an opinion. We will consider this, we will study this. Maybe in future we may support you in an ICC referral."
“The Canadian ambassador also said this. But it is some people amongst us who are denying genocide happened. So why not get a mandate from our people at this ballet? Not to win the election. But to say with one voice what happened to us was genocide and we deserve international accountability. I believe it [a large vote] will take us to the next step in our struggle.”
