Colombo, February 1 (newsin.asia): Students of Jaffna University in Sri Lanka’s Tamil majority Northern Province, have announced a plan to observe Sri Lanka’s Independence Day on February 4 as a “Black Day” saying that since independence from Britain in 1948 successive Sri Lankan governments have cointinually denied the Tamils their legitimate rights and heaped disabilities on them.
The Black Day agitation has secured the support of C.V.Wigneswaran, former Chief Minister of the Northern Province and leader of the Tamil Makkal Koottani (TMK) or Tamil Peoples’ Alliance, a new outfit he has floated in opposition to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
Announcing this decision through a press release on Friday, Wigneswaran said that the student’s plan is justified and should be supported. He said that the Black Day will bring to the attention of the world the fact that since independence from the British in 1948 and even ten years after the end of the war in the island, successive Sri Lankan governments have only discriminated against the Tamil people, and failed to address their basic concerns.
He charged that Sri Lankan parliaments dominated by the majority Sinhalese community have continually denied justice to the Tamils. They have perpetrated “genocide” on the Tamils, and had failed to address charges of war crimes.
Governments have forced the Tamils to protest day and night against the forcible occupation of their lands by the Lankan military. Tamils have been forced to continually protest against the endless illegal detention of Tamil political activists and failure to trace missing persons. Governments have failed to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act , he said.
Wigneswaran asked supporters of the TMK to take part in the events of the Black Day throughout the Tamil-speaking Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka.
