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Home > International Conferences > World Federation of Tamils Conference UK, 1988 > Conference Conclusion
The Tamil National Struggle & the Indo Sri Lanka Peace Accord -
An International Conference at the Middlesex Polytechnic, London
30 April & 1 May 1988
1 May 1988
Around 230 delegates and invitees from more than 100 Tamil Associations from Australia, Africa, Brunei, Canada, Europe, India, Malaysia, Middle East, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, participated in an International Tamil Conference at the Middlesex Polytechnic in London on the 30th April and the 1st of May. The speakers at the Conference included Mr. Thilagar of the Central Committee of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mr. A.P. Venkateshwaran, former Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, Mr. Krishna Iyer, a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Mr. P. Nedumaran, President of the Tamil Nadu Kamraj Congress, Mr. V. Gopalasamy, M.P. from the D.M.K., Mr. Aladi Aruni, M.P. from the A.I.D.M.K., Dr. Karen Parker, U.N. Representative for Disabled Peoples International, and Professor A.J. Wilson.
The theme of the Conference was the 'Tamil National Struggle and the Indo Sri Lanka Accord". Mr. Krishna Iyer expressed his grave concern at the failure of the Accord to secure peace and Justice for the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Mr. Venkateshwaran deplored the failure of the Accord to resolve the central issues of the Tamil struggle before calling upon the combatants to surrender arms.
The Conference expressed its sense of outrage at the genocidal situation that had developed in Sri Lanka which had led to around 125,000 Tamils seeking refuge in India, more than 50,000 in Europe, and more than two hundred thousand in their own homelands in Sri Lanka a genocidal situation which was itself but a culminating stage of a continuing oppression of the Tamil people by successive Sri Lankan governments over several decades an oppression which included the disenfranchisement of the plantation Tamils, state aided colonisation of the homelands of the Tamil people, the downgrading of the Tamil language and the enactment of the Sinhala only law, discriminatory employment policies, the inequitable allocation of resources to Tamil areas, the exclusion of eligible Tamil students from Universities, the refusal to share power within the frame of a federal constitution, and the resort to state sponsored violence against the Tamil people as a way of intimidating them into submission.
Mr. Thilagar of the Central Committee of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam presented a report to the Conference on the stand of the LTTE on the Indo Sri Lanka Accord and the Conference resolved to call upon all Tamil Associations around the world to adopt and act on the report. Mr. Thilagar stated that whilst the LTTE recognised India's role as a regional power, the Indo Sri Lanka Accord had failed to address itself to the national aspirations of the Tamil people.
The Conference resolved that ad the Tamil people as an oppressed people had the inalienable and inherent right to engage in armed struggle against that oppression and recognised the right of the Tamil people to self determination.
The high note of the Conference proceedings was the unanimous resolution recognising Velupillai Pirabaharan and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as the true leaders of the Tamil National Struggle and in this sense this International Tamil Conference performed an historic role.
The Conference resolved that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were combatants in International Law and had been recognised as such in the Indo Sri Lanka Accord by both the Indian Government and the Sri Lankan Government.
The Conference called upon the Indian Government, the Sri Lankan Government, other member states of the United Nations, and non governmental agencies with consultative status to recognise the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as the true leaders of the Tamil national struggle. The Conference called upon the Government of India and the Government of Sri Lanka to agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities in Sri Lanka and to accede to the request of the LTTE for a cease-fire and commence unconditional negotiations with a view to reaching a political settlement on the basis of the recognition that in Sri Lanka today there are two nations the Tamil nation and the Sinhala nation and that two nations may live together by force of reason but cannot be compelled to live together by force of arms.
