"...All together eleven lives were
sacrificed on that day. I would consider that
day the 10th of January 1974 was the day when
the Tamil Eelam struggle became the struggle of
the Tamil people..."
It is twenty seven years today since the 4th
International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies
took place in Jaffna viz on 10.01.1974. The whole
of Jaffna peninsula was in a festival mood
through out the period while the conference was
taking place. All roads and lanes were decorated
with Banana plants, coconut trees, casuarina
branches etc. Pandals were erected on the roads
and the traditional Thoranams were hung along the
roads for miles and miles. People behaved as if a
wedding was taking place in their own homes. I
would call it a period of awakening of Tamil
awareness.
The seminar was conducted mainly in the
Veerasingam Hall and Tamil scholars from all over
the world submitted papers at the conference that
lasted almost ten days. On the last day a public
meeting was arranged by the organisers to enable
the public to listen to the speeches by the
scholars. A massive stage was erected in front of
the Veerasingam Hall and over fifty thousand
people congregated on the esplanade. It was a
great experience to listen to the speeches by the
scholars, as their utterances were very
informative. We felt proud to hear that Tamil was
one the three oldest languages of the
world we live in. Every Tamil who listened to
the lectures felt proud to be born a Tamil.
While Professor Naina Mohamed from India was
delivering his lecture tragedy struck. Several
vans and jeeps filled with armed policemen drove
in and started shooting at random and hitting
people with their batons and riffle butts. People
began to run aimlessly. There was a stampede.
I saw the policemen chasing the innocent and
scared people and trampling over those fallen on
the ground. I put my youngest son on the ground
and tried to safeguard him by crouching over him.
At that time one policeman hit me on my left
elbow that hurt me for months thereafter. I had
five children with me, out of them two of our
sons went missing in the crowd. There were some
youngsters trying to lower down girls and ladies
into the ditch surrounding the Jaffna Fort with a
view to safeguard them from the police attack.
And another set of our boys, were helping these
girls and ladies to climb out of the ditch near
the Muniyappar Temple.
I told my wife and my two daughters that I
would pick them near the Temple and crawled along
with my youngest son to my car. I put my son in
first and crept into the car - an old Ford Anglia
- and started driving on the esplanade towards
the temple. I felt sorry that I had to drive over
abandoned bicycles. My eldest son - 12 years old
- who was hiding under a truck saw my car and ran
behind it and caught us up at the temple. It was
a big relief to see him alive. But we were
terrified to hear that our other son, who was
only 10 years old, had gone missing. We loaded
the car with four more girls known to us and
drove home after dropping those girls at their
respective residences. When we arrived home we
were overjoyed to see our second son had already
found his way home.
While remaining at the esplanade I saw the police
shoot at the electric wires that fell on the
crowd and nine innocent lives were lost on that
night. This included a good friend of mine Mr.
J.F.Sigmaringham (St.John's College), a great
teacher, social worker and an outstanding
co-operator. Earlier on the same day two more
civilians died of electrocution during a
procession on the Hospital Road. These two deaths
were attributed to the non co-operation on the
part of the then mayor of Jaffna, who was a
stooge of the government - a Quisling.
All together eleven lives were sacrificed on that
day. I would consider that day the 10th of
January 1974 was the day when the Tamil Eelam
struggle became the struggle of the Tamil
people. Even though the name of the Tigers
were not widely known at that time I saw a few
youngsters standing up to the policemen and
fighting them by throwing with aerated water
bottles and stones. I can still visualise those
bottles crashing the windscreens of the police
jeeps. It was touching and encouraging to note
slightly elderly men collecting empty bottles and
stones and handing them over to the youngsters
who were attacking the police. I take it, that
was the birth of the Ellai Padai and Uthavuppadai
of today.
A struggle that started with empty bottles has
grown to the extent of using 152mm calibre
artilleries, T56 riffles, Basukas, RPG launchers,
Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers (MBBL) etc. etc.
The few hand full of youngsters of the 10th of
January 1974 are now transformed into a
conventional army facing the might of the 125,000
strong Sinhala army.
Let us resolve that we extend our support
unreservedly to establish peace, safety, security
and dignity to our people back in Tamil
Eelam.
I request all readers of this article to devote a
few minutes in silence today to pay our respects
to the eleven Tamils, who sacrificed their life
on the 10th of January 1974 for our cause. They
are among our MAVEERAR. May their souls rest in
peace.
