Idinthakarai Coastal Village (Tirunelveli District,Tamil Nadu, India)

September 11, 2011
8:00 AM

First of all, our sincere thanks to all the friends from all over the world for calling the Koodankulam police station and for taking up the police harassment issue with the authorities here in Koodankulam. It did help us immensely. We may turn to you again in the days ahead as you are our “somebody to lean on.”

We have begun the day with a beautiful mass at the Idinthakarai village church that stands tall on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. The priest gave a wonderful sermon on “forgive and forget.” I have no idea if he had the 9/11 terrorist attack in his mind. We naturally thought of the 9/11 victims and remembered their friends and families. The priest mentioned our struggle against nuclear power in his sermon also and prayed for its success. Many of us who are not Christians also enjoyed the sermon and the service.

We have met with and sought the support and blessings of the Catholic Bishops of Thoothukudi, Palayamkottai, Kottar, the CSI Bishop of Nagercoil and some Hindu religious heads. The Thoothukudi Bishop has issued a strong statement demanding the immediate closure of the Koodankulam plants. We expect similar statements from others also.

We plan to be on a continues hunger strike for a few days here in Idinthakarai and the details are going to be worked out in a few hours. We are very particular about the nonviolent nature of our struggle and earnestly hope that the police and government authorities respect our Constitutional right to protest peacefully and nonviolenty.

Thanks again for your support and we will be in touch.

S P Udayakumar
People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy