Thileepan remembrance event in Berlin, Germany (26/09/11)

Eelam Tamils across the world came together this weekend to remember Thileepan and his sacrifice.

September 26 is the anniversary of the death of LTTE Lt. Col. Thileepan in 1987 during his hungerstrike appealing for the Indian government of Premier Rajiv Gandhi to honour the security undertakings it gave to the Tamil people alongside its 1987 Accord with Sri Lanka.

See our feature 'Remembering Thileepan' (Sept 2011)

United Kingdom

Leicester, UK	Ilford, UK
Coventry, UK	Milton Keynes, UK
Mitcham, UK	Mitcham, UK

Germany

Tamil youths in Germany, held the second annual, indoor football competition in remembrance of Lt Col Thileepan, in Berlin on the 24th September 2011.

Winners were awarded 'Lt. Col. Thileepan Memorial Cups'.

The event began with the lighting the candle of sacrifice and a minute of silence to remember all those who have lost their lives in the struggle for freedom. 

Four of the leading Tamil youth sports associations jointly hosted the very successful event.

Australia

Tamils in Melbourne and Sydney commemorated the event with music and dance remembering the struggle for Eelam and Thileepan's poignant contribution.

The remembrance event in Sydney, started with the raising of the flag, the national anthem and the traditional homage to the fallen.

The Australian flag was raised by Mr Sellayya Sritharan and the Tamil Eelam national flag was raised by Mr Janakan Sivaramalingam.

Following this the large crowd waited in a long line to pay their respects to Lt Col Thileepan, Col Shankar and also to comrade Senkodi from Tamil Nadu who recently sacrificed her life in flames. The Tamil people gave a floral tribute which was an emotional highlight of the event.

As the crowd settled after paying their respects, the president of the Australian Tamil Sangam Mr Thiruvengadam addressed the crowd and spoke of Tamil unity as well as the root causes behind the sacrifice of these three great souls. 

A member of TYO-Australia, also addressed the crowd, concluding “Tamil Eelam is not a dream, it is my home”.

The event also incorporated a debate on whether or not there is unity amongst the Tamil people. The debate was convened by the renowned writer, Mr Mathalai Somu. 

Canada

See 'Canadian Tamil youth remember Thileepan'

Tamil Nadu, India

In solidarity with Eelam Tamils, the youth of Tamil Nadu held a remembrance event on 25th September 2011 at the Rajagopal Park in Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu. The event was marked with music and the lighting of candles as dusk fell.

In a statement, event organisers, the Tamil Youth Society, argued,

"In the name of a peace keeping force, they [Indian Central Government] deployed an army, which killed thousands of tamils, raped many tamil women, bombed schools and hospitals.

They [Indian Peace Keeping Force] even designed a sign advertising the corpses, saying ‘Tamil women’s breast meat is available here’.

This [Indian] army, who committed so many atrocities and war crimes, effectively taught Rajapaksa how to act.

They used illegal Kfir and chemical bombs to kill innocent Tamils. Rajapaksa then followed their lead and used the same kind of bombs to kill innocent people."