A speech at the recently held 'Youth Maaveerar Naal' at King's College London, by a representative for the Tamil Youth Organisation UK.

"We, the Eelam Tamil youth gather here today, to remember the ultimate sacrifice. We remember those that perished in a struggle against the oppression, destruction and genocide of our people.

Today, we remember selflessness. We remember the selflessness of the brave young men and women, who gave up their personal hopes and aspirations and devoted their own lives to a struggle against the oppression of our people.

These were people like you and I, they also had dreams and ambitions. These were future doctors, lawyers, entertainers, teachers, artists and future parents. But recognising the dire circumstances our people were living through, our brothers and sisters, rose courageously to be the van guards of our nation’s inalienable right to exist, so that one day each one of us could live out our own dreams in our own homeland, free and dignified.

Today, we remember love. We remember the love that these martyrs showed for our people. A love that empowered them with the strength to defy, until their very last breath, the barbaric Sinhala state oppression, of our people.

Today, we remember principles. We remember the principle of a nation’s fundamental right to self-determination that our people fought to uphold.
 
Today we also recognise that remembrance alone is not enough.

Standing here today, we the Tamil youth recognise that the fundamental rights of our nation, continues to be trampled upon.

We recognise that the Sinhala state continues its unyielding systemic destruction of our nation’s Eelam identity, and homeland.

We recognise the on-going, unchallenged, militarisation, colonisation and oppression of Eelam Tamils in our homeland.

We recognise that despite several regime changes, the Sinhala state has and will continue to undermine our Eelam Tamil nation.

Standing here today, we realise. We realise that, we the Tamil youth in the diaspora, enjoy the fundamental human rights that our Eelam people have sacrificed their lives for.

We realise that, bestowed upon us are the very freedoms that thousands of Eelam Tamils have given their lives for.

We realise, that until our people in Tamil Eelam are able to enjoy the same freedoms as us, we cannot rest.

We realise that, together, we the Tamil diaspora’s youth, unconstrained by the sri lankan state oppression, harnessing the power of the talents we possess, can break the shackles on our homeland.

We, the Eelam Tamil diaspora’s youth, armed with the selflessness, love, resolve and principles of those that stood defiantly against genocide, can continue to uphold our Eelam identity, and work to ensure that our people in Eelam, can break free of the tightening Sinhala state grip.

Standing with our recognition of the present, and fuelled by our past, we can drive for a better future, to make sure that our brothers and sisters did not give their lives away in vain."