‘Tamil struggle will determine the future of democracy in Sri Lanka, both for Tamils and also Sinhala community.’ - Dr. Jude Lal Fernando
Dr. Jude Lal Fernando is a Research Fellow and Lecturer at Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Charles Devasagayam interviewed him recently while he was visiting Toronto. The full interview is given below:- * Freedom in the Tamil people’s context is nationhood, self-determination and homeland.
* There is a difference between ‘mother India’ and ‘other India’. ‘Mother India’ led by New Delhi is following the US/UK axis and is no more a friend of the Tamil struggle, but ‘other India’ is.
* Tamil Canadians should join hands with the other struggles of the Canadian people and build solidarity for the collective political aspirations of the Tamil people.
Charles Devasagayam: What made you to get involved with the Tamil struggle?
Dr. Jude Lal Fernando: It has two phases and the first one is 1983 July riots. As a Sinhala youth, I saw what was going on and it disturbed me deeply and my only response at that time was to learn the Tamil language and try to understand more and more deeply the issues between the Sinhala governments and the Tamil people.
The second one is the 1987 - 89 Insurrection that took place within the Sinhala society by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) where the same military that militarized the North and East of the Tamil people and attacked, raped and liquidated the villages, did similar kind of things. Of course they did not liquidate the (Sinhala) villages, but abducted, tortured, raped and killed the Sinhala youth. However, the JVP who led the Sinhala insurrection never recognized the Tamil struggle.
