TNA urges calm

“We are very shocked and saddened by the suicide of of the 18 year old student, Rajeswaran Senthuran,” the leader of the TNA, R Sampanthan and the TNA MP Mavai Senathirajah said in a statement on Thursday.

Expressing shock and sadness at the news of a Jaffna student committing suicide in protest over the ongoing detention of Tamil political prisoners in Sri Lanka, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) urged calm.

“We understand that he has expressed his feelings. His action should be carefully considered by all groups. We wish to express our condolences and sadness to his family.In such a situation it is important that everyone safeguards the peace. We will express and share our agony and grief without any violence.”

Meanwhile, students at the University of Jaffna held a demonstration calling the Sri Lankan government to account, after a school student committed suicide over the ongoing Tamil political prisoners crisis.

Demonstrators called for justice for the death of 18-year-old Rajeswaran Senthuran, who took his own life in protest at the Government’s failure to release Tamil political prisoners.

The student, from Kopay North, left a suicide note in Tamil,

The note read:

“To Tamil Eelam; give freedom, shed light

His Excellency the Presidency’s good-governance regime must rehabilitate and release all political prisoners immediately.

Not a single Tamil political prisoner can remain imprisoned any longer. When even I have realised the urgent need to release these political prisoners, it causes me much pain that this good-governance regime has not realised it.

In Tamil Eelam,

Yours, with love for the Tamil people greater than life,

R Senthuran”