We, the Tamils of Sri Lanka, are a very distinct people. We have inhabited the country as long as anyone else. In fact, certain historical accounts suggest we have lived there longer than the Sinhalese. We have historically lived in the northeastern place. The Indo-Sri Lankan agreement merged the northern and eastern provinces. These are matter that can't be brushed aside. 

We have been demanding that the Sri Lankan unitary constitution must be transformed into a federal constitution where we will have effective power sharing arrangements. We will be sovereignly competent. We don't want ambiguity. We want control of resources, land, law and order, socio-economic affairs, finances pertaining to our territory to a substantial extent and internal self determination.

We did not demand separation. That came much later when the Sri Lankan government began suppressing the people. The LTTE was a manifestation of the failures of the Sri Lankan government to accommodate Tamil aspirations in a reasonable way -- unleashing racial pogroms in 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, when the Tamil people carried out non violent protests.