|
Velupillai
Prabhakaran
Maha Veerar Naal Address
மாவீரர் நாள் -
National Heroes Day
National Heroes Day - November 27, 1996
During our long journey towards liberation
we have crossed rivers of fire. It is our commitment to our cause that
sustained us during these violent upheavals. The cause we have charted to
fight for -
the right to self-determination of our people
- is right, fair and just. From the beginning up to now, we are resolutely
committed to our cause. Our cause is our towering strength. It is because of
our firm commitment to our cause that we have our importance, individuality
and history"
My beloved people of Tamil Eelam,
 Today
is a day of veneration. It is on this day we venerate and pay our respects to
our heroes who adorn our temple of freedom as thousands of shining flames of
liberty.
Today is not a day of mourning to weep for the dead nor a sad day to
plunge into sorrow. Today is the sacred day of our martyrs.
Today we remember and venerate our fighters in our hearts who have
sacrificed their precious lives for a noble cause. Today we salute them for
their heroism and supreme sacrifice.
The price we pay for our liberation in terms of great sacrifices is
invaluable. The sacrifices made by our heroes for the cause of our people to
live with dignity and sovereignty are unparalleled in the history of the
world. An epic of heroism unique in history has been created on our soil.
The freedom struggle of the Tamils has been a raging inferno for a long
time. Several
forces have joined hands with our enemy in a continuous effort to extinguish
this fire of freedom. As a consequence, we have been facing various crises
and set-backs at different times. We are compelled to struggle alone against
formidable forces without support or assistance from anywhere. Therefore, the
price we pay for our freedom is immense. It is our martyrs who have paid
with their lives to protect and preserve the flame of national freedom.
During our long journey towards liberation we have crossed rivers of fire. It
is our commitment to the cause that sustained us during these violent upheavals.
The cause we have charted to fight for the right to self-determination of our
people is right, fair and just. From the beginning up to now, we are resolutely
committed to our cause. Our cause is our towering strength. It is because of our
firm commitment to our cause we have our importance, individuality and history.
The higher ideals of other Tamil groups could not withstand the political
upheavals that swept Tamil Eelam. But no force could break our will.
The
Indian military occupation of Tamil Eelam posed a major challenge to our
determination. At that historical conjuncture when we were hard pressed by the
military supremacy of a world power, we fought with fierce determination without
giving up the cause. During that dangerous situation, determination became our
ultimate weapon. It was by that moral power we were able to confront a great
military power of the world.
We are now facing a new challenge,
a new war of aggression. Our historical enemy, Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinism,
has taken institutional form in the guise of Chandrika's regime and has been
conducting a genocidal war against the Tamil nation.
Having mobilised the full military might of the Sinhala nation, it has
occupied the historical lands of the Tamils in the North.
The central strategic objective of this aggressive war was to destroy the
military strength of the LTTE by utilising several divisions of troops and
massive fire power. But the Sinhala army has failed to achieve this military
objective.
The grand strategy of the army was to unleash large scale conventional modes
of battles in the Jaffna Peninsula, a territorial region surrounded by sea and
extremely disadvantageous to us geographically. The plan was to bog us down in
the Peninsula and to destroy our military potential. We were aware of this
nefarious strategy.
Subsequently we organised a counter plan to fight back effectively
the advancing columns and make strategic movement of our forces so as to
preserve our military strength from annihilation. As a consequence, the
strategic objective of the armed forces in the battles of Jaffna turned out to
be a fiasco.
In the conduct of the war it becomes a necessary condition for a liberation
movement practising the art of guerrilla warfare to make strategic withdrawals
and to loose areas of control. This cannot be categorised as a military defeat
but can be regarded as a temporary set-back. By preserving our military power
and our determination, we could launch counter offensive operations at any place
and at any time chosen by us when the right objective condition prevails. By
such manoeuvres we could inflict heavy damage on the enemy's military power and
even regain lost territories.
This strategy is best exemplified at the battle of Mullaitivu where
we inflicted heavy casualties on the army and recaptured the territory. This
success was possible because we retained our military power.
This aggressive war that has been launched in the guise of a "war for peace"
and as a "war for the liberation of the Tamils" has seriously disrupted the
peace of the Tamils,
reduced them to refugees, as subjugated people, destroyed their social and
economic existence and brought them intolerable suffering. Though the Government
of Chandrika has been cheating the world with its
theory of peace, in practice it is conducting a brutal war against the Tamil
people.
Jaffna Peninsula has been transformed into an open air prison. Having
dismembered the region into different security zones with defence bunds, barbed
wire fences and innumerable check-points, this famous historical land of the
Tamils has been brought under the rule of military terror.
The incidents of arrests, detention, torture, rape, murder, disappearances and
the discovery of the disappeared in mass graves reveal that a covert genocidal
policy is practised in the army controlled areas.
The military atrocities occurring in the occupied areas and the anti-Tamil
persecution taking place in the South have exposed the real racist face of the
Government. Compared to previous Sinhala Governments, it is Chandrika's
regime which has inflicted a deep wound in the soul of the Tamil nation.
From the beginning we realised the Government of Chandrika would not do
justice to the Tamils nor would it resolve the Tamil national problem. We were
deeply dismayed when her Government adopted
an intransigent and bellicose attitude during peace talks with the LTTE. The
talks ended inconclusively when the Government refused to grant even meagre
concessions to the urgent day-to-day needs of the Tamils and gave primacy to the
interests of the military establishment.
Since the Government believed in military supremacy, in military approaches
and in a military solution, it did not treat the peace talks seriously and
deliberately created conditions for the failure of the negotiating process. From
the beginning until today the deepest aspiration of this Government is to
achieve military hegemony in the Tamil homeland and to subjugate the Tamils
under military domination.
This approach pre-dominated by militarism and chauvinism has complicated the
ethnic conflict and firmly closed the doors for peace. It has aggravated the
armed conflict. It has seriously disrupted the Sri Lankan economy. In totality,
Chandrika's Government has been caught up in an insurmountable crisis. The
international community is now beginning to realise that Chandrika's "war for
peace" is not only destroying the Tamil national life but also plunging the
entire island into a major catastrophe.
To distract the world's criticism from her hard-line military approach and
for the escalation of the war, Chandrika is sending peace signals. While issuing
statements that she is prepared for talks with the LTTE through third
party mediation she has also laid down ridiculous conditions that we should
surrender arms before talks. No liberation movement with self-respect could
accept such humiliating conditions.
Having unleashed an intense propaganda campaign categorising our
liberation movement as a "terrorist" organisation and our freedom struggle
as "terrorism" this Government is making every effort to ban our organisation
locally and abroad.
Furthermore, the Government is making
massive military preparations to escalate the war and issuing statements
that the LTTE would be wiped out within next year. In these circumstances, we
have grave doubts about Chandrika's peace gesture. We are not opposed to peace,
nor are we opposed to a resolution of the conflict by peaceful means.
We want an authentic peace, a true, honourable, permanent peace, a condition
in which our people can live with freedom and dignity in their own land without
external coercion determining their own political life. We have grave doubts
whether the forces of Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism will allow such a peaceful
life to the Tamil people.
Chauvinistic Sinhala Governments committed to repression and military
solutions will not resolve the Tamil national problem by peaceful means.
Historically the Tamils have learned this lesson. We do not believe that
Chandrika's regime, which is the guardian and the political representative of
Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism will bring authentic peace to the Tamils by
resolving the ethnic conflict. Because of this distrust we sought third
party mediation.
We have made statements a year ago, calling for international mediation if
possibilities of peace talks arise in the future. At that time, the Government
of Chandrika did not favourably consider our suggestion. Instead, it escalated
the aggressive war in the North, intensified the ethnic conflict and undermined
the conditions of peace.
The Government may entertain a notion that it has gained military hegemony
by the occupation of Tamil lands and that this position could be used as a mode
of pressure to its advantage in the peace talks. As far as we are
concerned, peace talks under such conditions cannot be free and equal.
We cannot expect justice from a Government that attempts to barter the rights
of our people with military power as its trump card. It is for this reason, we
want peace talks to be held in a congenial environment free from the pressure of
military aggression. Our position is that political negotiations should be
preceded by creating conditions for de-escalation, withdrawal of troops
and normalcy. We are prepared to talk and reach an agreement on these issues.
We do not expect Chandrika's Government to accept our just position.
For years the forces of Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism believed in and practised a
policy of military domination and oppression. Chandrika's regime too,
is functioning under the shadow of military power. Therefore we have serious
doubts whether Chandrika's Government will give up the policy of military
domination and resolve the conflict on the basis of moral power and justice.
We cannot gain our rights by pleading with the Sinhala rulers. We must fight
and win our rights. History has not recorded any liberation struggle that has
won without fighting, without bloodshed, without death and destruction, without
sacrifices.
Therefore let us struggle. Let us struggle facing set-backs as challenges
and victories as inspirations, let us continue to struggle with confidence under
any difficulties and hardships. Let us struggle with unfailing determination
until we drive the occupation army from our soil, until we achieve the
liberation of our nation.
Let us remember and venerate our martyrs today with a solemn pledge that we
will wipe the tears of our beloved ones who are suffering under military
occupation and repression. |
