முருகதாசுக்கு வீர வணக்கங்கள்.

உங்களின் ஆத்ம சாந்திக்கு பிரார்த்திக்கின்றேன்

தமிழ் உறவுகளே முத்துகுமார் தொடங்கி முருகதாஸ் வரை எம் மக்களின் விடிவுக்காக தம் இன்னுயிர்களை கொடையாக்கியவர்களை எம் மனதில் தாங்கி நாம் எமது விடுதலைக்கு எந்தெந்த வழிகளில் பங்காற்ற முடியுமோ அதை செய்வதற்கு உறுதி கொள்வோமாக! தயவு செய்து உயிர் கொடைகள் இனியும் வேண்டாம். முருகதாஸ்க்கு எனது கண்ணீர் அஞ்சலிகள்.

எங்களுக்கு ஆயிரத்தெட்டு பணிகள் இருக்கு. எல்லாம் இயக்க ரகசியம். சொல்ல மாட்டம்.

உப்பிடிச் சொல்லிச் சொல்லியே காலத்தைக் கடத்துங்கோ. ரகசியமெண்டு பம்மாத்துக்காட்டாமல் செய்யுங்கோ. சொல்லாதையுங்கோ.

A Harrow Tamil martyrs himself to protest against the Sri Lanka government

A TAMIL from Harrow poured petrol over his head and burned himself to death in protest at the civil war which is devastating large parts of the population of Sri Lanka.

Murukathasan Vanakulasingam left his family last Tuesday to fly to Switzerland and take part in a mass protest against the attacks on Tamils by the Sri Lankan government.

But on Thursday night, hours before he was expected to fly home and return to his job, the 27-year-old computer science graduate set fire to himself outside the gates of the United Nations headquarters in Geneva.

He left a letter ten metres away, explaining he had sacrificed his life to draw attention to the plight of his fellow Tamils who are caught up in an increasingly bloody civil war.

Murukathasan's family found out about his death when it was reported on websites, and they spoke to the Harrow Times about the anguish of finding out he had taken his own life.

His sister Arumdevi, 24, said: “All he did for the last few weeks was watch television and get angrier and angrier that nobody was doing anything about how many people are dying. He was very sad.

“Everyone is calling and saying he is equal to gold, they are praising what he has done.”

Murukathasan lived with his family in Grange Avenue, in Belmont, since 2000, and had been working for the last few months as a cashier at the local Sainsburys.

He was expected back at work on Friday, but when he did not return, his family started scouring the Internet for any news of him.

The protest Murukathasan went to join was sparked by reports 120 Tamil women were forced by Sri Lankan soldiers to abort their children.

The government and Tamil Tigers, a separatist guerilla organisation, have been embroiled in a 25-year civil war, with the Tigers fighting for an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka.

In recent months, the country's government has started an aggressive crackdown to try to win the war, but this has led to the deaths of many Tamils.

His brother Velmurugam, 24, said his brother should be remembered as a martyr who died for the people of his country.

He said: “He wanted to protest about what he was seeing happen in Sri Lanka, but nobody knew he was going to do this.

“We are sad because we have lost a life, but we are very proud of what my brother has done.

“There is a genocide going on, 100 people are dying every day. But the international community doesn't want to do anything about it.

“We want there to be freedom for the people of Sri Lanka because that will be the price of his sacrifice.”

Murukathasan's father has flown out to Geneva to identify the body and bring his son home to Harrow, and his mother Puveneswary has been inconsolable since hearing of her son's death.

The Tamil community is planning a memorial service and funeral in Harrow, when it is thought as many as 50,000 could come to pay their last respects.

Councillor Thaya Idaikaddar, who represents Roxeth ward and is a leader in the international Tamil community, said: “Even though I appreciate and admire his courage and what he has done, I am pleading with people not to do it.

“We don't want any further incidents like this, we don't want any more loss of human life.”

- http://www.harrowtimes.co.uk/news/4135332....ree_his_people/

Edited February 18, 200916 yr by கந்தப்பு

முருகதாசின் மரணம் பற்றி இன்று இலண்டன் கார்டியன் பத்திரிகையில் செய்தி வெளியிட்டு இருக்கிறார்கள்.

Tamil killed himself 'to guide others to liberation'• Sri Lankan was shattered by events in native land

• Seven burn themselves to death in a month

His life had taken him from the northern tip of Sri Lanka to a pebble-dashed semi in north-west London and finally to a cold square in Geneva. But it is for his death that the 26-year-old Tamil, Murugathasan Varnakulasingham, is likely to be remembered.

A little after eight o'clock last Thursday night, the computing graduate and part-time Sainsbury's shelf-stacker doused himself in petrol in Geneva and set light to his body outside the United Nations complex in the Place des Nations. Police officers rushed to try to save Murugathasan, who stood "burning like a torch", but he was too badly injured. A few metres away, they found a letter typed in Tamil and English explaining why he had chosen to die: "We Tamils, displaced and all over the world, loudly raised our problems and asked for help before [the] international community in your own language for three decades. But nothing happened ... So I decided to sacrifice my life ... The flames over my body will be a torch to guide you through the liberation path."

Seven Tamils - including Murugathasan - have burned themselves to death in the past month to protest about the treatment of their people by Sri Lanka's Sinhalese government. Most were in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, but on 14 February, another British-based Tamil allegedly tried to set himself on fire outside Downing Street, but was arrested before he could do so.

The wave of suicidal demonstrations has been provoked by the Sri Lankan government's latest attempt to crush the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE). In an attempt to end the country's 30-year civil war, Colombo has dispatched 50,000 troops to the north-east of the island. However, the offensive has left 200,000 civilians trapped between the two sides, and some estimates say 40 civilians are being killed each day. Both sides stand accused of atrocities: the LTTE of using civilians as human shields and forcing people to join its ranks and the government of indiscriminate shelling and setting up internment camps for Tamils.

According to his younger brother, Velmurugan, Murugathasan had become obsessed with the suffering of the civilians and had begun to devour reports and images of what was going on in the country he left seven years ago. "He was a very emotional guy and it just made him worse. He couldn't eat and he just cried."

He added that the reports reminded his brother of the two years the family spent in a camp for displaced people in Kilinochi after the war forced them to leave their village in Jaffna. "He always worried about the people who were going through what he had gone through."

Although Murugathasan joined tens of thousands of fellow British-based Tamils on their protest march through London at the end of January, he could not shake a feeling of powerlessness. "He went to Geneva saying that he was going to participate in the protests," said Velmurugan. "He kept talking about the guys who had burnt themselves in India, saying: 'They're doing this for us. What are we doing for them?' "

But Murugathasan gave his family no hint of his intentions and they remain convinced that his suicide was a spur-of-the-moment decision. Velmurugan said: "He rang home last Monday, he sounded normal and said he would be coming back on Friday."

His brother, he added, was not a tough guy. "He was very soft. If he fell and hurt his leg, he would cry." The family learned about the death through the Tamil media and said they had had no contact with the Swiss or British authorities.

His mother, who has been inconsolable, sat weeping in the living room of the family's home in Harrow. A few feet away was a makeshift shrine with Murugathasan's picture on a table flanked by the television and stereo and surrounded by incense and flowers.

Thaya Idaikkadar, a local Labour councillor and chairman of the British Tamil Councillors and Associates, said: "He did not do this for himself or his family, he did it for his people. He was pushed into it because the media won't tell people what's going on." However, he was keen to add that Murugathasan's actions could not be condoned. "We do not support any form of suicide - our advice is that no one else should ever do what he did."

The family is now trying to plan what they think could prove to be "a small state funeral", with thousands of Tamils from all over the UK coming to pay their respects.

Velmurugan, though, is still struggling to understand what was going through his brother's mind as he stood in the Place des Nations. "Maybe he told himself: 'By losing my life I can save thousands of people.' These were the only weapons he had. He had only himself to burn."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/1...-protest-geneva

London Tamil burns himself to death at UN

A TAMIL man from London burned himself to death outside the United Nations building in Geneva in protest at his people's treatment in Sri Lanka.

Computing graduate Murugathasan Varnakulasingham, 26, left his home in Harrow to attend a demonstration in the Swiss capital, where he doused himself in petrol and set himself alight last Thursday.

Police tried to save the part-time Sainsbury's shelf-stacker but his injuries proved too great.

Mr Varnakulasingham is the seventh Tamil to burn to death in the past month in protest at the Sri Lankan government's military offensive against the Tamil Tigers, which has led to civilian deaths and accusations of human rights violations.

His suicide note left outside the UN building read: "We Tamils, displaced and all over the world, loudly raised our problems and asked for help before (the) international community in your own language for three decades. But nothing happened."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/art...t+UN/article.do