In his own words, Mr. Eelaventhan says that the inaction of the international bodies and their failure to recognize the genocide committed against Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government, has led him to question the purpose of his life at the age of seventy six when toddlers and even unborn babies are being brutally murdered by heavy weaponry of the Sri Lankan Army even within demarcated safe zones.

Therefore, he is acting on the sentiments of the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka and around the world by undertaking this sacrifice. By initiating this effort on the soil from which the freedom struggle of the South African people was won, he hopes to urge world leaders and freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu to recognize the plight of Tamils and take an open stand against it. His demands of the international community are:

A permanent ceasefire be demanded from the Sri Lankan Government with immediate effect
Humanitarian aid must be able to reach the affected Tamil people under supervision of INGO’s
Unrestricted access to the detention camps be granted to independent local and international NGO’s

and

Peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam must resume to resolve the political question of Tamils

Mr. Eelaventhan will be commencing his fast on Thursday, 9 April 2009 at 8:30 am at the Mariamman Temple, Mount Edgecombe in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. Members of the Tamil community have volunteered to join him and he urges the likeminded Tamil Diaspora or concerned human rights activists to join him simultaneously in this effort.