Don't deviate from agreed venue for memorial statue, JUSU warns VC of Jaffna University
[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2018, 23:16 GMT]
The Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) has conveyed an ultimatum to Prof Ratnam Vignswaran, the vice chancellor of Jaffna University and the administration under him, to respect what they had previously agreed with the student leaders on launching a statue in remembrance of those who sacrificed themselves confronting the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in 2009. The University administration and the JUSU came to an understanding in a meeting on 19 April that the students could proceed with their plan of launching Mu'l'livaaykkaal memorial monument. The only dispute they had was on the venue, and it was the university administration that proposed the site to be alongside the Maaveerar memorial statue. But, now the University administration has come under pressure from the University Grant Commission and the SL Ministry of Higher Education, the student leaders said.
The ultimatum in means in practice that the students have given a limited time frame to the VC and the administration to make their decision. “We would continue the construction and launch a mass struggle if the Vice Chancellor and the University administration continue to succumb to the pressure from the top,” a student leader told TamilNet.  The renovated Maaveerar Remembrance square within the premises of Jaffna University, where a statue for Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance is to be launched by the Jaffna University Student Union
The JUSU has braved all the challenges posed by Colombo and its military to suppress the memorial days marked by Tamil students at the University in the past, the student leaders said adding that they would resume the construction work of the memorial statue. The Maaveerar memorial, destroyed by the SL military, was renovated by the students last year and Tamil Heroes Day was marked on 27 November 2017 with a renewed resolve. The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) has repeatedly been vowing to create a memorial venue at Mu'l'livaaykkaal for the people to remember those who sacrificed their lives. However, it has so far not managed to initiate the move, and the current council's term is set to expire in October 2018. It is under these circumstances, the JUSU has taken up the initiative, and is fully engaged in the work to set up the monument alongside the Maaveerar memorial statue at the premises of the University of Jaffna. The JUSU is also renovating the site of the Pongu Thamizh (Tamil Resurgence) declaration, which was launched in 2001 as a mass uprising based on the Right of Self-Determination of the nation of Eezham Tamils.
Related Articles:27.11.17 Jaffna University community marks Tamil Eelam Heroes Day wit.. 24.11.05 Jaffna Campus Heroes' Memorial unveiled
Chronology:
|