27 No­vem­ber marks Mar­tyrs Day -the Maveerar Naal. Maveerar Naal is a Tamil Na­tional Mem­ory Day. Every year, No­vem­ber is an emo­tional time for Ee­lam Tamils and the sup­port­ers of Ee­lam Tamil strug­gle for sov­er­eignty from Sri Lanka.  On this day, world­wide, Tamils com­mem­o­rate the sac­ri­fices of Ee­lam Tamil war­riors, free­dom fight­ers -men, women and chil­dren who laid down their lives and be­came mar­tyr-he­roes-Ma­ree­var. A renowned ac­coun­tant by pro­fes­sion au­thor Ni­mal Vinayag­amoor­thy, who is a mem­ber of the Transna­tional Gov­ern­ment of Tamil Ee­lam (TGTE) since its in­cep­tion and seeks a peace­ful po­lit­i­cal so­lu­tion to the Tamil Right to Self De­ter­mi­na­tion shares his feel­ings on the eve of the Mar­tyrs Day.

THE FIRST MAVEERAR NAAL CER­E­MONY WAS HELD ON 27 NO­VEM­BER 1989, ho­n­our­ing thou­sands of Ee­lam sol­diers who died fight­ing in the Ee­lam-Sri Lanka war. The date co­in­cides with the mar­tyr­dom of Tamil Ee­lam hero Lt. Shankar Sathiyanathan, in 1982. This day is com­mem­o­rated all over the world ex­cept in Sri Lanka as there the Ee­lam Tamils are not al­lowed by the gov­ern­ment of Sri Lanka to rem­i­nisce their dead ones.

Left with no de­mo­c­ra­tic op­tion to win their civil and po­lit­i­cal, eco­nomic, so­cial and cul­tural rights, the Ee­lam Tamil fight­ers formed the Lib­er­a­tion Tigers of Tamil Ee­lam to wage an armed strug­gle against the bru­tal­i­ties of suc­ces­sive Sin­hala regimes in Sri Lanka. While the war has ended, the trauma and pain of the af­fected fam­i­lies and those who fled by choice or by cir­cum­stance con­tin­ues. The mas­sive tragedy con­tin­ues to haunt the Ee­lam Tamil sup­port­ers.

In this strug­gle, thou­sands of young Tamil women and men laid down their lives to es­cape the clutches of the op­pres­sive Sin­hala regimes and re-es­tab­lish the lost home­land of the Tamils. The Maveerar Naal is a holy day for Ee­lam Tamils world­wide. Since 2009, even Tamils in In­dia have been com­mem­o­rat­ing this very spe­cial day.

Tamils have a very emo­tional and spir­i­tual at­tach­ment to this day. It is ob­serv­ing a col­lec­tive mem­ory. It is a day to col­lec­tively vent out the emo­tions of the com­mu­nity. Fam­i­lies in the north and east all had at least some­one sac­ri­fice their sa­cred lives for the free­dom of Ee­lam Tamils.

This day helps pro­mote the Tamil com­mu­ni­ty’s so­cial re­cov­ery from the vi­o­lent con­flict and bring to light the in­jus­tices and dis­crim­i­na­tion the Maaveerar and us as a pop­u­la­tion have been through. It is a pub­lic day and is ob­served at a pub­lic place to grieve some­one very dear.

Memo­ri­al­iza­tion is ex­tremely im­por­tant in or­der to keep mem­o­ries alive, to mark the high­est sac­ri­fices made by our women and men, and to re­fresh and recom­mit our­selves to con­tinue the strug­gle for tran­si­tional jus­tice and ac­count­abil­ity which is be­ing con­stantly un­der­mined by na­tional and in­ter­na­tional bod­ies.

Memo­ri­al­iza­tion up­sets those who per­pe­trated war crimes and geno­cide. It is well-nigh im­pos­si­ble for Ee­lam Tamils in Sri Lanka to be part of the pub­lic memo­ri­al­iza­tion processes and func­tions.

Strug­gling for one’s le­git­i­mate rights does not make one a ter­ror­ist. 

Whether the Sin­halese and the world like it or not, those who fought and were killed in the con­flict, fought the war to seek equal­ity, jus­tice and re­store Tamil pride, which had been crushed and col­o­nized by the Sin­halese peo­ples and their lead­ers sub­se­quent to the British de­col­o­niza­tion in 1948. The Maveerar fought for their peo­ple’s cause, hence they are he­roes.

The ter­ror­ism la­bel given to the LTTE group of Tamil free­dom fight­ers who fought for the peace and free­dom of all Tamils in Sri Lanka is a clear de­pic­tion of the Sri Lankan gov­ern­men­t’s ef­fort to di­min­ish the Tamil strug­gle and deny the rights of the Tamil pop­u­la­tion, forc­ing them to the sta­tus of a per­ma­nent mi­nor­ity in their own land. This ter­ror­ism la­bel con­tin­ues to deny any op­por­tu­ni­ties for the Tamil strug­gle to­day to seek the help of in­ter­na­tional gov­ern­ing bod­ies.

Re­spect­ing the dead is revered in every cul­ture. Yet, the Sri Lankan state does not have this and treats even the dead as their en­e­mies and brands their fam­i­lies ‘ter­ror­ist fam­i­lies’. All our war he­roes ceme­ter­ies which once stood up with pride on No­vem­ber 27, have been razed to the ground and con­verted as mil­i­tary play­grounds or ar­eas un­der army oc­cu­pa­tion. The moth­ers, wives, sis­ters and rel­a­tives of our he­roes can­not even visit the places where our he­roes are buried.

Strug­gling for one’s le­git­i­mate rights does not make one a ter­ror­ist. As the say­ing goes, one man’s goose is an­other man’s gan­der. A per­son who is vo­cal for his peo­ple’s rights may be des­ig­nated as a ‘ter­ror­ist’ by a coun­try, but for his peo­ple, he is a ‘hero’ fight­ing for the com­mon cause of peo­ple. Across the world -from Canada to Eu­rope to Aus­tralia, Ee­lam Tamils have been ob­serv­ing the Maveerar Naal in a peace­ful man­ner.

Strug­gling for one’s le­git­i­mate rights does not make one a ter­ror­ist. 

Maveerar Naal is not a glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of war or pro­pa­ganda to restart an armed con­flict, but a day of col­lec­tive prayer and griev­ing for our com­mu­nity and our beloved dead ones. The Ra­japaksa broth­ers take pride in pro­claim­ing that they have elim­i­nated LTTE from the face of the earth. Then, why are they still deny­ing the Tamils to ob­serve No­vem­ber 27 as a day of re­spect to their dead he­roes? What is the state scared of? Whom are they scared of?

Maveerar Naal is not a glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of war or pro­pa­ganda to restart an armed con­flict, but a day of col­lec­tive prayer and griev­ing for our com­mu­nity and our beloved dead ones.

The Ee­lam mar­tyrs in­spire us to con­tinue our fight for Tamils right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion sans weapons, in a peace­ful de­mo­c­ra­tic man­ner. Memo­ri­al­iza­tion will help vic­tim fam­i­lies to re­call the hor­rors of war and pro­vide the phys­i­cal, emo­tional and psy­cho­log­i­cal space for so­lace. The de­nial of this by the Sri Lankan gov­ern­ment is a de­nial of jus­tice.

With great pride and ho­n­our, I salute our free­dom fight­ers, our Maveerar who re­lent­lessly fought in the bat­tle­fields till the end mo­ment and ded­i­cated their lives to their goal to se­cure the free­dom of all Ee­lam Tamils.

With great pride and ho­n­our, I salute our free­dom fight­ers, our Maveerar who re­lent­lessly fought in the bat­tle­fields till the end mo­ment and ded­i­cated their lives to their goal to se­cure the free­dom of all Ee­lam Tamils.

Ho­n­our­ing the fallen lives of our Maveerar, let us com­mem­o­rate their unimag­in­able sac­ri­fices and con­tinue the Maveer­ar’s ul­ti­mate dream of se­cur­ing free­dom and the Tamil’s right to de­cide their po­lit­i­cal des­tiny.

A qual­i­fied and highly re­spected Cer­ti­fied Gen­eral Ac­coun­tant, based in On­tario, Ni­mal Vinayag­amoor­thy is a mem­ber of the Transna­tional Gov­ern­ment of Tamil Ee­lam (TGTE) since in­cep­tion.