"...it is essential, if man is not to be
compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to
rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human
rights should be protected by the rule of law..." -
Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, adopted and proclaimed by the General
Assembly of the United Nations on December 10,
1948
''The LTTE's armed struggle was in rebellion against
a continuing Sinhala tyranny and oppression... (It) is
lawful because the rule of law for the Tamil people had
ceased to exist; because the Government of Sri Lanka
had become a racist government; and because the
oppressed people of that racist government were
compelled to take arms to defend themselves against
that oppression.'' - Letter from the International
Secretariat, LTTE to President, European Parliament -
Tamil Nation, 15 September 1991
"Imagine a habitual wife beater who has been at it
for twenty years. Imagine the little woman protesting
arguing, screaming, grappling, and having come to the
end of her tether one day, snatching the nearest
kitchen knife to defend herself against further
attacks. And then she says:'You have tormented me
enough. It is impossible to live with you any more.'
With that she files papers for divorce. If you were the
judge, what causes would you attribute to the break up
of the marriage? The Sri Lankan Government (as probably
the habitual wife beater) attributes the causes to the
wife snatching the kitchen knife and asking for
separation! To any oppressor resistance to oppression
is naturally the beginning of the problem..." -
S.Sivanayagam, Head Tamil Eelam
Information Unit, 1984
''The term 'Tiger' is a misnomer. They are not
running wild in the jungle, but moving about in Jaffna
and its district, hiding among the people, clean cut
young men... They do not need to camouflage themselves
to pass undetected among the ordinary passers by of the
city. No wonder the Tamils refer to them as 'our boys'.
That is precisely what they are. Talking to them, in
and around Jaffna, makes everything clear. The turning
point for most was the 1977 anti Tamil riots; the
discovery as one 'Tiger' put it to me, that ahimsa was
not sufficient.... The Tigers seem better disciplined
and less frightened than their police and military
opponents. The trouble is that the police and the army
are up against an enemy which is being shielded by the
community.'' - David Selbourne: Sinhalese Lions and
Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka, Illustrated Weekly of India,
Bombay, 17 October 1982
''It is the common habit of established governments
and especially those which are themselves oppressors,
to brand all violent methods in subject peoples and
communities as criminal and wicked. When you have
disarmed your slaves and legalised the infliction of
bonds, stripes, and death on any one of them who may
dare to speak or act against you, it is natural and
convenient to try and lay a moral as well as a legal
ban on any attempt to answer violence by violence...But
no nation yet has listened to the cant of the oppressor
when itself put to the test, and the general conscience
of humanity approves the refusal..." - Sri Aurobindo,
Bande Mataram 1907
