(File Photo)

Students from the Jaffna and Eastern universities issued a statement declaring that they are “a nation with a traditional homeland and are entitled to nationhood and the right of self-determination,” in a proclamation released to mark February 4th as a 'Black Day' for Eelam Tamils.

The students reiterating their need to protest said that this was an extension of their unanimous desire to seek an acceptable permanent political solution to the national issue of the Eelam Tamils, whose aspirations have throughout history they claim have been asserted through the Vaddukkoddai Resolutions, Thimpu Principles and Ponghu Tamil Declaration.

The students noted that the Tamil nation had in 1977 expressed its yearning for freedom through the Vaddukkoddai Resolution that sought to establish a Tamil nation-state based on the right of self-determination, and it was approbated during the Thimpu Talks in 1985 but due to lack of political will, it planted the seeds for the emergence of armed struggle.

“Must be acknowledged is the destruction - through the genocide that has been committed against the Tamils by and with the support of the successive Sinhala governments of more than 75 years,” they said, “including the atrocious genocidal campaign of 2009, past and ongoing mass murders and exterminations, land expropriation, rape and destruction of cultural”.

The students said that any attempts at offering a solution should be grounded on Thimpu Principles, They rejected all attempts that seek to curtail the Tamil nation’s aspiration within the 13th Amendment adding that “the recognition of the Tamil nation’s inalienable right to self-determination is the only political solution to the Tamil national question that would guarantee the nonrecurrence of the aforementioned atrocities and oppression”.

Detailing a list of issues, the students denounced on legislation such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and Online Safety Bill, adding that those laws have denied them the right to seek justice. 

They ask that expropriation of land in the guise of and through the Department of Archaeology, Department of Wildlife Conservation and Mahawali Development Authority must be terminated immediately, and actions must be taken to release, to the rightful owners, the land hitherto expropriated. They also called for the release of Tamil political prisoners and international investigations into the enforced disappearances. In addition to this, they’ve asked that Sinhalese settlements be removed from the homeland and that the circulation and distribution, of narcotic drugs with the assistance of the security forces to Tamil youths be stopped indefinitely. 

The unstudentson further said that intimidation and arrests of journalists, crackdown and prohibition of memorialisation events should be stopped.

“Firm is our stance that any political solution - which is capable of guaranteeing sustained peace in Sri Lanka - for the Tamil nation canvassed based on its traditional homeland, nationhood and the right of self-determination must be reached only with a mandate of the Tamil nation,” they concluded. 

Read the full statement here.