"...Our Liberation struggle has achieved tremendous victories at great cost. All these achievements were victories which our movement earned in the course of our armed struggle. But my dear comrade Thileepan's death is different from everything else ; it is something to be pondered over because it is something qualitatively different.... My dear people, for whom did Thileepan die? Why did he die? What is the significance of his death? Thileepan died for the Tamil people. He died for the rights of the Tamil people. He died to safeguard our freedom and our honour.... A life is very, very precious. I am quite aware of that. But even more precious is our freedom, our honour, our rights..."Velupillai Pirabakaran on Thiyagi Thileepan
"Provocatively, Col. Shankar's killing occurred on the anniversary of the death during hunger strike of Lt. Col Thileepan, a day of profound sadness amongst the Tamil people. The LTTE leadership shares the Tamil people's outrage and treats the killing of a senior leader with utmost gravity...The attack on Col Shankar and the date chosen for it highlights the Sri Lankan government's ongoing determination to seek the military option in solving the Tamil national question..." LTTE condemns assassination of Shankar, 26 September 2001
"Shankar was the founder-commander of the LTTE's marine division, "Kadal Puligal" (Sea Tigers). He pioneered and developed the LTTE's undersea attack unit, which consists of well-trained frogmen. Shankar also established and developed the LTTE's anti-aircraft unit, which has downed a large number of planes and helicopters with its anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles. Shankar was involved in the planning and execution of the recent LTTE attack on the Katunayake Air Force base. He was perhaps Pirabaharan's closest confidant... Vaithilingam Sornalingam -
Velupillai Pirabakaran on Thiyagi Thileepan
English Message from Saturday Review, 28 September 1987
"Our Liberation struggle has achieved tremendous victories at great cost. All these achievements were victories which our movement earned in the course of our armed struggle. But my dear comrade Thileepan's death is different from everything else ; it is something to be pondered over because it is something qualitatively different.
Thileepan by sacrificing his life in the ahimsa arena has established an incomparable record.
His death is a great historical event, which will bring about decisive changes in the history of the Tamil Eelam Liberation struggle.His sacrificial death has touched and aroused the conscience of Tamil Eelam.
It has also made India bow its head in shame.
My dear people, for whom did Thileepan die? Why did he die? What is the significance of his death? Why is it that his death is a revolutionary event which has aroused the people?
Thileepan died for the Tamil people. He died for the rights of the Tamil people. He died to safeguard our freedom and our honour.
By his death he has shown how a Tamil freedom fighter is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for the people, for the land he loves. A life is very, very precious. I am quite aware of that. But even more precious is our freedom, our honour, our rights.
I loved Thileepan dearly, because he was a dedicated freedom fighter. When I saw him battling for life I was very very disturbed but I did not regard Thileepan as an ordinary man. I viewed him as a self consuming sacrificial fire.
India has expressed its deep sympathies over Thileepan's death. The Indian High Commissioner has also said that this death is meaningless. He has also gone on to say that if Indian assurances had been accepted, Thileepan may have lived. What has happened?
We handed over our arms when the Indian Govt. assured us that the rights of our people would be granted that our people and our, land would be protected, that the Tamil speaking people would be given the opportunity to rule themselves in their traditional homelands.
It is because we trusted the assurances of the Indian Govt. that we handed over our arms. You are all aware of what has happened after all these promises. While Tamil refugees are unable to get back to their own homes, Sinhala colonisation is going on at a hectic pace. Tamil territory is being gobbled up.
The Police Administration of the Sinhala state Is being stepped up in the Tamil homeland. The Sinhala Chauvinist state machinery is hurriedly infiltrating the Tamil areas.
Under cover of the Peace Accord and with the assistance of the peace keeping Force the Sinhala state is trying to root itself in Thamil Eelam.
Thileepan who realised the great danger, resolved to see an end to all this.n ere is no point In combating the Sinhala state to win our demands.
It is India which interfered in our ethnic problem. It is India that guaranteed the rights of our people. It was India that took over our arms. It is India that has stopped our armed struggle. Therefore it is against the Indian Govt. that we have to demand our rights. This is the reason why Thileepan launched a Dharmista struggle against India. Moreover he chose as his spiritual weapon the great instrument bequeathed by India.
Twenty four hours before Thileepan died after refusing to take even a drop of water, we gave prior information to the Indian Commissioner Mr. J. N. Dixit.
Nothing happened even eight days after he started his death fast. Instead the media which are under the control of the Indian Govt. especially All India Radio unleashed a malicious campaign of lies against us.
Thileepan's fast was deliberately distorted and vulgarised. On the 9th day the Indian High Commissioner came to Jaffna. He gave us assurances which were absolutely meaningless.
Meeting with Dixit
I told him that the Tamil speaking people had been betrayed every time by accepting empty assurances. I told him please forward constructive proposals. Please see to it that our demands are implemented.
Till then the fast will not be given up. I also told him that if you are interested in Thileepan's life why don't you come and see him? In the presence of our people please give him your assurances I told him. Then I said we would give up the fast. The Indian High Commissioner refused to comply."
[ 25 September 2009, infotamil ]
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Vaithilingam Sornalingam alias Shankar
Born September 1949
Sri Lanka
Died September 26, 2001
Sri Lanka
Occupation Founder and leader of the air wing and marine division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Vaithilingam Sornalingam
(September 1949 - September 26, 2001; Tamil: வைத்தியலிங்கம் சொர்ணலிங்கம், alternative spellings include Vythilingam Sornalingam; often referred to by his nom de guerre Colonel Shankar) was founder of the air wing and marine division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and a relative of Velupillai Prabhakaran. He was educated in Sri Lanka, and worked for some time in Canada before returning to Sri Lanka and joining the LTTE.
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Early life
Sornalingam was born in September 1949, the second of six sons. He studied at the Tamil Maha Vidyalayam in Vanni and later as a boarding student at Hartley College in Point Pedro, Sri Lanka between 1959 and 1969. While there, he lived in Thamotheram House, and proved himself a talented sportsman, representing the college in cricket and football.
[2] He then went on to the Hindustan Institute of Engineering Technology in Chennai, where he studied aeronautical engineering.[citation needed] Some time after completing his studies, he moved to Montreal, Canada, where he worked for Air Canada;
[3] while there, he was known to have become involved with the LTTE as early as 1973. Though he did not formally become a member of the LTTE at that time, he assisted in setting up their Office of Overseas Purchases, which was responsible for acquiring communications equipment, ships, radar, and armaments.
LTTE membership
From Montreal, Sornalingam moved to Chennai in July 1983, and from there went back to Sri Lanka; upon his return, he chose to become a full time member of the LTTE, and began his rise through the ranks. He participated in a gun battle near the Tamil Information Centre in Chennai in 1985 in which he and his colleagues kidnapped the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam military commander Kannan; Kannan was later exchanged by the LTTE for Pottu Amman, who had been kidnapped earlier by the PLOTE. During these years, three of his brothers who were involved with the LTTE died: Manoharan committed suicide by cyanide after his capture by the Sri Lankan navy; Vaseekaran, alias "Lieutenant Siddharth", died in a bomb blast when preparing for an attack in Mannar and a third brother was arrested by Sri Lankan forces and presumed dead after no further news was heard of him. In 2000, Sornalingam accompanied Prabhakaran in his meeting with Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim, acting as an interpreter; he and political wing leader S. P. Thamilselvan were the only ones whom Prabhakaran trusted closely enough to accompany him to that meeting.
Sornalingam was killed by a claymore mine on September 26, 2001 at around 10:45 AM in the jungle near Vanni, while driving alone from Oddusuddan to Puthukkudiyiruppu.
Sornalingam's killing was part of a series of attempts around the same time on the lives of LTTE leaders, including Gangai Amaran and S. P. Thamilselvan; An LTTE press release a few hours after his death attributed the attack to a special deep penetration unit of the Sri Lankan army, and claimed that the date of his killing had been chosen deliberately to coincide with the anniversary of the death of Thileepan, who had died 14 years earlier in a hunger strike protesting the policies of the Sri Lankan government and the Indian Peace Keeping Force.
Government newspapers denied the LTTE's charges and instead attributed the attacks to an alleged internal power struggle in the LTTE.[4] His funeral was held at the Great Heroes' Commemorative Hall in Mulliyawalai; he is survived by his elder brother, a doctor in the United Kingdom.[1] The book ATM Interworking in Broadband Wireless Applications was also dedicated in his memory.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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LTTE condemns assassination of senior leader [TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 September 2001, 13:09 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in an official statement issued from its headquarters in Vanni Wednesday, strongly condemned the killing of one of its senior leaders, Colonel Shankar. The statement said the LTTE leadership "shares the Tamil people's outrage and treats the killing of a senior leader with utmost gravity."
The full text of the press release follows:
"The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in an official statement issued from its headquarters in Vanni Wednesday, strongly condemned the killing of one of its senior leaders Colonel Shankar."A deep penetration commando unit of the Sri Lankan Army triggered a claymore mine on Col. Shankar's vehicle and he was killed on the spot. The incident occurred around 10.45 a.m. today near Oddusudan in the heart of Vanni, Northern Sri Lanka.
"Col. Shankar has been an active participant in the Tamil people's freedom struggle for nearly two decades. He was a close confidante of the LTTE leader, Mr. Vellupillai Pirapaharan and accompanied him in the first historic meeting in the Vanni with Oslo's Special Envoy, Erik Solheim, in November 2000.
"Provocatively, Col. Shankar's killing occurred on the anniversary of the death during hunger strike of Lt. Col Thileepan, a day of profound sadness amongst the Tamil people. The LTTE leadership shares the Tamil people's outrage and treats the killing of a senior leader with utmost gravity.
"Whilst maintaining to the international community that it is committed to a negotiated settlement, President Chandrika Kumaratunga's regime has repeatedly sought to sabotage the Norwegian peace initiative and continued its military operations. As a result of repeated Sri Lankan acts of aggression, formal and informal efforts to de-escalate the conflict have proved futile. The attack on Col Shankar and the date chosen for it highlights the Sri Lankan government's ongoing determination to seek the military option in solving the Tamil national question. Prospects for peace talks through Norwegian facilitation, stalled earlier through Colombo's efforts to sideline Mr. Solheim, have been further set back by the killing of this senior LTTE leader."
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| from right: Colonel Shankar, Mr. Tamil Chelvan, the head of the LTTE's political section, Mr.Velupillai Pirapaharan, leader of the Liberation Tigers, Mr.Erik Solheim, Norwegian peace envoy, Mr. Jon Westborg, the Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo, Ms. Kjersti Tromsdal, an executive officer of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry in the northern Vanni October 31, 2000. (Library photo) |
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