Remembering Revolutionary Tamil Journalist D.Sivaram / Taraki

Seventh year remembrance of assassinated Tamil journalist Dharmaratnam Sivaram / Taraki was remembered on the 6th of May, 2012 in London. The event was co-organized by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), International Association of Tamil Journalists (ITAJ), and TamilNet.

It was not just a remembrance day for Sivaraam, but remembering his contribution to the Tamil Nation, in order to take forward the Tamil national struggle. It is a significant event at this crucial moment, where Sri Lankans and Eelam Tamils are facing challenges in different level, an activist said to Lankanewsweb.

Despite of the divisions that created by chauvinist forces, progressive Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and foreign nationals took part at the event. This eye opening and thought provoking event contained talks and presentations of journalists, human rights activists and intellectuals.

Mr.Bashana Abeywardane, an exiled journalist and a founder of Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), detailed how Sri Lanka had masked the genocide of the Tamil nation through 'war on terror' rhetoric. Noting that the Tamil freedom struggle was "unlike other conflict areas, the population was the insurgency", Abeywardene said, "therefore the entire population had become the target". Drawing on Sivaram's writings, Abeywardene said the events of 2009 was an attempt by the Sri Lankan government to make the people relinquish their political aspirations by reducing them to mere survival instinct.

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