Tamil Nadu activists speak out: Interview with Loyola College Students

12 November 2013

Students from Loyola College in Tamil Nadu remained steadfast in their call for a complete boycott of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo by the international community, and continued to call for Sri Lanka to be suspended from the Commonwealth.

In an interview from Chennai, Joe Britto from Loyola College said to the Tamil Guardian,

    "We, the students of Tamil Nadu, we strictly condemn that - that conference shouldn't be happening in Sri Lanka, and we will protest on the streets, and we will raise our voice against the Sri Lankan Commonwealth conference."

    "There is only one resolution for our Tamil people, that should be a free Tamil Eelam, only."

    "We, the students, we are ready to do anything, so it should not happen - the Commonwealth conference in Sri Lanka. We request all our Tamil students living in Canada, living in the UK, living in Norway, anywhere Tamil students are, they should not allow the Commonwealth conference to happen in Sri Lanka."

The Loyola students were speaking from Chennai, where they started a hunger strike calling for a international independent investigation into genocide in March 2013, in a move that sparked mass student protests across Tamil Nadu.

Speaking on the Commonwealth, another Loyola student went on to say,

    "The country that has committed genocide is going to chair the conference, it's shocking even to hear that it's happening."

    "I do not need to tell you what happened in 2009, we all know what happened. It is unbelievable - such a genocidal government must be not be allowed to host the Commonwealth. If not, not just Tamil students in Tamil Nadu, but Tamil students, people, activists worldwide will come together to protest. We are not saying this as a threat, but it is our duty and we call for support from Tamil people all over the world. ”
 

Fellow college student Sembiyan also stressed the importance of expanding the struggle for Tamil rights, adding,

    "We need to unite not just as Tamil Eelam Tamil students, neither as just Tamil Nadu Tamil students nor as just human rights activists students but as world students."

    "We are pushed to a limit, at this point we are in need to put aside our celebrations and entertainments and focus on liberating Eelam. We need to set that as our priority."

The point was reiterated by his colleague who added,

    "We will rise and we know what our goal is, it is in our hands on achieve, and uprising and uniting as one is the only force that will make it possible and we are sure it will happen.”

The interview concluded with a student noting,

    “The scars of the massacre in Mullivaikal hasn't even healed yet but Sri Lanka, who committed the massacre is the hosting Commonwealth... Rajapaksa must been tried for his crimes in international court of justice."

    "Tamil people should be served justice, Eelam must triumph. ”

http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=9169

Edited November 12, 201312 yr by துளசி