Towards a Just Peace - An
International Conference
organised by the International Federation of Tamils,
at the University of London, 15 February 1992
Conference Conclusion
This London Seminar organised by the International Federation of Tamils in
association with the Bolton Tamil Association, The Essex and London Eelam Tamil
Association, the Federation of Tamil Associations of the United Kingdom, the
International Tamil Foundation, the London Tamil Forum, the Tamil Refugee Action
Group, the Tamil Refugee Housing Association and the Walthamstow Tamil Sangam
- Recognising that a people have the right to be
free of domination by another people;
- Recognising that the right of self determination
of a people is a peremptory norm of the law of
nations;
- Recognising that the subjective political
consciousness of the Tamils taken together with
their objective conditions of existence in Tamil
Eelam, including in particular their relationship to
a defined historical territory, constitutes them a
'people';
- Recognising that the people of Tamil Eelam have
the right to self determination and the right to
freely choose their political status, including the
right to freely associate with or disassociate from,
other people;
- Recognising that a people are entitled, in law
and in justice, to resort to an armed struggle to
free themselves from a continuing and oppressive
domination by another people and recognising that
the armed struggle of the people of Tamil Eelam led
by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is lawful
and just;
- Recognising the desire of the people of Tamil
Eelam for peace and believing that justice and peace
are inseparable;
- Recognising the emergence, today, of many long
subjugated peoples into a new world order of free
and equal nations; and
- Being determined to respond to the challenge of
history in forging a peaceful future for the Tamil
and Sinhala peoples in the island of Sri Lanka
Calls upon the two parties to the conflict, the Sri
Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam
1. to express their willingness to accept mediation
in the conflict between them and to agree upon a
mutually acceptable neutral mediator
2. to express their willingness to commence
negotiations with a view to entering into an
internationally guaranteed accord to establish an
associative structure within which the Sinhala people
and the Tamil people may live in peace and in freedom.
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