TNA Ex-MP to begin hunger strike in South Africa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 18:12 GMT]
M.K.Eelaventhan, a former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament in Sri Lanka, in a press statement issued Wednesday, announced he will begin hunger strike on Thursday, 9 April 2009 at 8:30 am at the Mariamman Temple, Mt. Edgecombe, South Africa. He said by starting his protest on "the soil from which freedom struggle of South African people was won," he hopes to draw the attention of freedom fighters nobel laureates like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu to recognize the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Full text of the press statement follows:

Tamil National Alliance member and former Sri Lankan MP Mr. M. K. Eelaventhan, is embarking on a hunger strike, demanding that the international community take immediate action to stop the war against Tamils in Sri Lanka. Mr Eelaventhan has been in politics for sixty years, fighting for recognition of the political aspirations of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

In his own words, Mr. Eelaventhan says that the inaction of the international bodies and their failure to recognize the genocide committed against Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government, has led him to question the purpose of his life at the age of seventy six when toddlers and even unborn babies are being brutally murdered by heavy weaponry of the Sri Lankan Army even within demarcated safe zones. Therefore, he is acting on the sentiments of the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka and around the world by undertaking this sacrifice. By initiating this effort on the soil from which the freedom struggle of the South African people was won, he hopes to urge world leaders and freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu to recognize the plight of Tamils and take an open stand against it. His demands of the international community are:

• A permanent ceasefire be demanded from the Sri Lankan Government with immediate effect
• Humanitarian aid must be able to reach the affected Tamil people under supervision of INGO's
• Unrestricted access to the detention camps be granted to independent local and international NGO's and
• Peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam must be resumed to resolve the political question of Tamils based on right to self determination.

Mr. Eelaventhan will be commencing his fast on Thursday, 9 April 2009 at 8:30 am at the Mariamman Temple, Mt. Edgecombe, South Africa. Members of the Tamil community have volunteered to join him and he urges the likeminded Tamil Diaspora or concerned human rights activists to join him simultaneously in this effort.