RIGHT TO SELF DETERMINATION:TAMIL EELAM

".. Self determination is not a de stabilising concept. Self determination and democracy go hand in hand. If democracy means the rule of the people, by the people, for the people, then the principle of self determination secures that no one people may rule another - and herein lies its enduring appeal..." Nadesan Satyendra in Why Division, 1998

"Throughout the ages, the Sinhalese and Tamils in the country lived as distinct sovereign people till they were brought under foreign domination. ...We have for the last 25 years made every effort to secure our political rights on the basis of equality with the Sinhalese in a united Ceylon. It is a regrettable fact that successive Sinhalese governments have used the power that flows from independence to deny us our fundamental rights and reduce us to the position of a subject people...I wish to announce to my people and to the country that I consider the verdict at this election as a mandate that the Tamil Eelam nation should exercise the sovereignty already vested in the Tamil people and become free." -  S.J.V.Chelvanayakam Q.C. Leader of Tamil United Front, 1975

"...In all regions of the world conflicts turn violent over the desire for full control by state governments, on the one hand, and claims to self-determination (in a broad sense) by peoples, minorities or other communities, on the other. Where governments recognise and respect the right to self-determination, a people can effectuate it in a peaceful manner. Where governments choose to use force to crush or prevent the movement, or where they attempt to impose assimilationist policies against the wishes of a people, this polarises demands and generally results in armed conflict. The Tamils, for example, were not seeking independence and were not using violence in the 1970s. The government response to further deny the Tamil people equal expression of their distinct identity led to armed confrontation and a war of secession..." Implementation of the Right to Self Determination, as a Contribution to Conflict Prevention , UNESCO International Conference of Experts, Barcelona 1998

1. The 1973 Statement by S.Kathiravetpillai, M.P. for Kopay from 'Coexistence not Confrontation' - A Statement on Eelam,

"Pancha Seela or Coexistence is the only solution to the problem of the two nations in Ceylon. It recognises not merely facts of two thousand five hundred years of Sinhala and Tamil history but also the fundamental right of the Tamil people to self determination; of Tamil Eelam to separate statehood. It unshackles the two nations and sets them free" -

2. The historic statement by S.J.V.Chelvanayakam Q.C. M.P., (affectionately known to the Tamil people as Thanthai Chelva) at his election victory in January 1975, when he won a mandate for Tamil Eelam,

3. Text of the Vaddukodai Resolution at the First National Convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front, May 1976,

4. Tamil United Liberation Front - Tamil Eelam Manifesto which was endorsed by the Tamil people at the General Elections in July 1977,

5. Statement of the Political Committee of the Liberation Tigers written by Anton Balasingham, 1983

5. Statement by Nadesan Satyendra at the Thimpu Talks, 1985

"...The Tamil delegation here at Thimpu asserts a proposition founded on common sense and justice - and in the ultimate analysis all sound law is common sense and justice. It is a very uncomplicated business, this question of international law. It is simple. And the simple proposition is this: 'A people who are subjugated by an alien people have the inherent right to free themselves from such alien subjugation'. And it is this right which is the right of self determination - a right which has today, become a peremptory norm of general international law..."

6. Justice Satchi Ponnambalam, on the Tamil Eelam demand in international law, July 1991

"...(The) perceived solution of self-determination has evolved and taken shape by the compulsions of more than three decades of political struggles of the Tamil people and their political leaders which ended in the ignominious failure to arrive at any just solution by the process of negotiation between the two parties. There lay in ruins the scrap-heap of broken pacts and dishonoured agreements as to proposals for Regional Councils, District Councils, Provincial Councils, Provincial/Regional Councils, District/Provincial Councils - all tentative concepts and toothless bodies with no genuine devolved powers of decentralization..."

7. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran on the Tamil Eelam demand in international law, 1991

"...a social group characterized by distinct objective elements such as a common language and a common struggle, acquire subjective elements such as a sense of solidarity, of sameness or oneness and has a relationship to a defined territory," such a group clearly constitutes a "people" and-is entitled to self-determination... the Tamils of Sri Lanka, who are united on the basis of such objective factors as a distinct language etc., and by such subjective factors as a passionate yearning for freedom, and who have a long-established relationship to the Northern and Eastern provinces constitute a people, and are therefore entitled to self-determination in the form of secession, in the face of denial of effective representation in Sri Lanka's existing constitutional and political situation...."

8. Statement by the Political Committee of the Liberation Tigers,  in March 1991

9. Written Statement by International Educational Development submitted to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in April  1998, 

10. Report by Professor  A. J. V. Chandrakanthan on the Conference on "Articulating a Vision for the Tamil Nation" held at  Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford in April 1998, 

11. Nadesan Satyendra on  Why Division, in 1998

"It is sometimes said that to accord international recognition to these separate national formations will lead to instability in the world order. The argument is not dissimilar to that which was urged a hundred years ago against granting universal franchise. It was said that to empower every citizen with a vote was to threaten the stability of existing state structures and the ruling establishment. But the truth was that it was the refusal to grant universal franchise which threatened stability ... Self determination is not a de stabilising concept. Self determination and democracy go hand in hand. If democracy means the rule of the people, by the people, for the people, then the principle of self determination secures that no one people may rule another - and herein lies its enduring appeal." 

11. External Self Determination, Internal De-Colonisation by Dr.S.Sathananthan in 1999,

12. Eelam & the Right to Secession by Professor M.Sornarajah, June 2000

13. Statements at the United Nations Commission of Human Rights recognising the right of the people of Tamil Eelam to self determination,

and other related documents.