LTTE gunmen assassinate TULF leader A. Amirthalingam and former TULF MP, V. Yogeswaran.
Sources
Chronicle of murders, Frontline Magazine, Volume 16 – Issue 17, Aug 14 – 27, 1999; Official website commemorating A. Amirthalingam life.
Quotations
“Mr. Amirthalingam will be long remembered by all the people of Sri Lanka for the important role he played in our history as a man who championed a cause he passionately believed in, through non-violent means. Moderation and the approach of logical argument and persuasion were his principal weapons. Parliament was his battleground. He used the forensic skills honed by the formidable encounters he daily faced in the law – courts to sharpen his debate for equality of treatment for the Tamil people. In this sense and setting we can locate him as a historical symbol of epic proportions,” Ranil Wickremasinghe, former Sri Lankan Prime Minister.
“Those who perpetrated this dastardly act stand condemned before the world. In a meeting with Mr. Amirthalingam in a recent year, I was impressed by his faith in democratic traditions and processes and by his commitment to the welfare of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. In his passing away, the Tamil people of Sri Lanka have lost an outstanding leader and the people of India a sincere friend. Please accept my heartfelt condolences,” late Rajiv Gandhi, former Indian Prime Minister.
Q: A large number of your contemporaries in Tamil politics such as Amirthalingam, Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam and Yogeswaran were brutally assassinated by the LTTE. For some time you were in the forefront to condemn the LTTE. How come you have changed your mind and remain a so-called proxy of the LTTE?
A: Killing of Amirthalingam, Yogeswaran and Tiruchelvam cannot ever be justified. They were wrong and they should have never been killed. That is my view that day and that is my view even today. That will always be my view. There is no question about it. But I cannot be looking at the past. I have to look at the future. If I live in the past the problem will never be solved.
The past is past. Because of lapses on the part of the successive governments the LTTE has intensified its struggle.
I have not changed and I am still the same and I am only doing what the time demands,” Rajavarothayam Sampanthan, Tamil National Alliance, All three communities must put heads together, Federalidea.
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