Solidarity with Jaffna University students and all those oppressed under dictatorial, militarised Rajapaksa regime
ACTION
- Protest at High Commission of Sri Lanka, 13 Hyde Park Gardens, London W2 2LU
Friday 7 December 4pm, this is an urgent first protest and we will keep protesting until the students and all political prisoners are released
- Call to register your protest: 020 7262 1841
We demand:
- Immediate release of all Jaffna University students
- Drop all charges against them
- Release all political prisoners
- End the attacks on all democratic rights now – including freedom of speech and the media, freedom of association and the right to free and fair elections, the right of all to vote without interference, freedom to stand in elections for parties which accept equal rights for all, regardless of nationality, religion, caste and sex. Support the work of bodies like the Civil Monitoring Committee investigating kidnappings, disappearances and extra-judicial murders.
- For a democratic struggle to end Rajapaksa’s dictatorial regime
- Defend the right to self-determination! Support a mass movement of Tamil workers and poor for the right to determine their own future. Full and equal rights of any minorities to be guaranteed in all areas. Allow the right of self-determination of the Tamil-speaking people, up to and including secession, according to their wishes, while safeguarding the rights of all minorities.
Tamil Solidarity strongly condemns the Sri Lanka regime and its military and police who attacked students at Jaffna University on Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 November. We condemn all the harassment against Tamil students and we demand the immediate release of the arrested students and the dropping of all charges.
We are launching a campaign: Release All Political Prisoners in Lanka
On the 27th the Sri Lankan army went to the student accommodation and attacked. There they stopped the students lighting the flames in remembrance of the fallen heroes in the struggle for the rights of Tamil-speaking people.
The next day the Sri Lankan military and police brutally attacked students while they were peacefully on a demonstration march to against the Sri Lankan military harassments inside the university accommodation. Following the violence at least ten students have badly injured and four students were taken by the Sri Lankan military and police. They have also now arrested ten more students under the Prevention of Terrorism act on 5 December. It now appears that around 25 people have been arrested.
This comes in the aftermath of the genocidal slaughter of Tamil-speaking people by the government of Sri Lanka in 2009. Over 146,000 Tamil-speaking people were massacred by the Sri Lankan military and many,
many more were injured.
300,000 civilians were surrounded by the army and forced into detention camps. Many young people are still in detention, without trial, without their families’ knowledge and without rights.
The UN and the world powers were without doubt aware of this but kept their silence while these horrendous killings took place.
What took place in the final phase was also a direct violation of so-called “international law”, but the ruling classes of the great powers ignore such niceties when it comes to their own interests.
Three years after the so-called end of the war the genocidal policies of the Sri Lankan regime continue. ‘Resettlement’ policies have forced tens of thousands onto the streets and into penury as a military land grab and privatisation takes place.
Land has been confiscated by the government and illegally sold to Indian and Chinese big business. In effect, the north and east of the country still remain as an open prison camp.
The Sri Lankan government has a reputation for trampling democratic rights – freedom of speech, freedom to organise politically, the right to protest – across the whole country. Sri
Lanka is one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist and attempts to crush any voice of dissent.
Unsurprisingly there is a lot of fear among the Tamilspeaking people – but anger is also rising.
But we can hold no hope that the UN or any international government will help their struggle. We point to the courageous struggles of ordinary people to defend rights and fight to improve them – from the hundreds of thousands of diaspora Tamils who marched and campaigned against the war in 2009, to the masses rising up in Egypt and Tunisia to overthrow brutal dictators, to the inspirational strikes across Europe against the austerity measures that attempt to make ordinary people pay for the bosses’ crisis.
Without building resistance from all the working people and poor against the Sri Lankan regime and linking it up with the struggle of the masses that is taking place across the world, we have no real chance of achieving meaningful victory in the struggle for the rights of Tamils and all oppressed in Lanka.
Join Tamil Solidarity – and join the fightback!
Get involved:
- Log on to the Tamil Solidarity website to check on our analysis and campaigning activity here and internationally: www.tamilsolidarity.org
- Join us in our campaigning work by emailing us your details: info@tamilsolidarity.org
- Get your student union, community group, or trade union to back the campaign.
- Donate to our campaign fund. We urgently need financial support to maintain our important work. You can make payments via the website.
Build a mass movement to fight for:
- Withdraw the troops from the North and East; for immediate rebuilding of homes under the people’s control
- Stop the settlement-occupation programme
- Shut down the official and unofficial prison camps. Immediate release of all detained there
- For the full disclosure of those disappeared or held by security forces
- End deportation of Tamils from Britain to Sri Lanka and sale of arms
- For a full, international, independent inquiry into war crimes
- Fight for freedom of speech and other democratic rights in Sri Lanka
- Shut down the free trade zones. End attacks on all workers’ rights and pensions. Stop all privatisation
- Help the campaign for trade unions, fully independent of state interference
- For a democratic struggle to end Rajapaksa’s dictatorial regime
- For the right to self-determination for Tamil-speaking people