The full script of the address by the Tamil Youth Organisation UK, at 2012 Maaveerar Naal remembrance event held at the Excel Centre, London. The address was made by Mario Arulthas of TYO UK.

"Vannakkam,

On this day each year, the 27th of November, we the Eelam Tamil nation come together in an act of remembrance.

Today, our nation - in the homeland, here in the UK, and right across the world - remember our brave young men and women who gave their lives to the struggle for Tamil Eelam. Who, when faced with a Sinhala Buddhist state, unleashing a brutal genocide upon our nation, rose up and resisted it. They are our Maaveerar. Witnessing the attempted destruction of our identity, our people, our spirit and our homeland, they fought to protect it.

So on this day each year, we stand in silence - inspired by their honour, their resolve and their selfless service to our nation. We bow our heads - humbled by their courage, their bravery and their unwavering determination. We light candles - moved by their compassion, their hopes and dreams… and our nation’s loss. We honour their families - respectful of those who nurtured them and instilled in them an absolute love for our nation and homeland. We lay kaarthikai pookkal - marking the glory and honour that is, and always will be that of our Maaveerar.

And above all else, we remember their sacrifice. The ultimate sacrifice.

For it was on this day, the 27th of November, that our first Maaveerar made that sacrifice. When Lieutenant Shankar died in the struggle for liberation. Since then, thousands and thousands of our Maaveerar have made that sacrifice for the emancipation of our nation.

Today we remember them.

But it does not stop here. Maaveerar Naal is not only a day of collective remembrance. It is a day of our nation’s collective resolution. We may come in sadness, we may stand in remembrance, but we leave determined. We leave resolved.

So on this day each year, we lay kaarthikai pookkal - and vow that the lives of our Maaveerar, their dreams and their sacrifice will never be forgotten. We honour their families - always aware and always mindful of our nation’s loss and its pain. We light candles - inspired to fulfil the hope and vision that guided our Maaveerar. We bow our heads - vowing to always work towards the freedom of our nation and our homeland. And we stand in silence - a cold rage within us but focussed and determined to continue the struggle against the genocide of our nation.

We are resolved.

Our Maaveerar died so that one day our nation could live in freedom, free from persecution, and, live in peace in our homeland. What we see happening to our nation today, only serves to vindicate their determination to struggle for Tamil Eelam.

To our people, the Buddhist Stupas springing up under every tree in the North-East do not radiate with peace and enlightenment. Instead, they haunt our roads…reeking of aggression and oppression – a symbol of the darkness which the Sri Lankan state has tried to throw upon our traditions, our beliefs and our culture

In the Sinhalisation of our place names, our school curriculums and our histories; and in the state’s attempts to demonise and separate us, the Diaspora, from those in the North-East, we see the Sri Lankan state’s attempt to erode our unique identity.

But still we stand defiant.

Our language, our culture and our history makes us who we are - a nation; and it is for this that we are targeted.

The horrors of Mullivaikkal and the genocide that continues today are not a question of human rights. What happened and what continues to happen to Tamils in the North-East, is precisely because they are Tamil. It is a culmination of the Sri Lankan state’s intrinsic intent to decimate the Tamil nation.

It is not one bad regime, but an on-going project of Sinhala Buddhist state formation. An increasing militarisation, colonisation and persecution that have been the vote-winning policies of successive governments.

A genocide does not take place because one government, however powerful, wills it. It takes place, because the public turn a blind eye to it or because they support it. The genocide of our nation takes place because it is mandated by an unwaveringly chauvinist majority population.

This is not a war-mongering cry or call to arms, but a reasoned, logical conclusion of a long analysis of our history. The genocide of our nation continues. For us, there is no change. There is no peace. There is no reconciliation.

What history has shown us time and time again, is that our nation’s safety, our nation’s security, and our nation’s peace can only be found in a two state solution, with the creation of Tamil Eelam.

History has also shown us that despite Sri Lanka’s attempts to crush the Tamil nation beyond repair, our nation has consistently proven that our spirit is not up for compromise.

We are not at the whims of our colonisers or oppressors.

Youth will always be the vanguard of the struggle. And the Tamil youth are made of no less.

Even today, in full knowledge of the danger they face, Tamil youth in the North-East have time and again shown their own resolve; in acts of protest against the ongoing and systematic attacks on our people, our culture and our unity. We in the Diaspora are humbled by the courage of our brothers and sisters at home. We are inspired by their defiance of the chauvinistic machine which threatens to destroy our Eelam Tamil identity and homeland.

Our nation did not choose a path of war. We talked, we debated, we voted, we lobbied and nothing came of it.

Then we striked, we fasted, and we protested, but the Sri Lankan state did not stall in its path of destruction; not till our Maaveerar resisted it.

Our Maaveerar stood for and died for our nation, our homeland and our right to self-determination. This is not up for negotiation. This is who we are. This is their legacy - what our nation is founded upon. And it is this that guides us forward.

Cold rage, focus, and determination.

Led by our history, the blood of nation and the dreams of our Maaveerar, we will continue to struggle for what our Maaveerar fought for.

Our nation, our homeland, our right to self-determination.

Tamil Eelam.

Nanri"