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Denmark Tamils remember 29th anniversary of death of fighters

An event was held in Denmark earlier this month to remember the sacrifice of Lt. Maalathy , Lt. Col. Kumarappa, Lt. Col. Pulendran and other LTTE cadres who lost their lives during the Tamil struggle.

Hundreds of people attended the event, with songs and dances performed in tribute to the fallen fighters.

The crowd also lined up to place candles and flowers before the photographs of the fallen cadres.

Amongst those remembered was Lt. Maalathy was the first female fighter in the armed struggle against the Sri Lankan state oppression to lose her life. Malathy was killed at the age of 20, on the 10th of October 1987, during a confrontation with the Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) in Jaffna.

See more in our feature here.

Lt. Col. Kumarappa and Lt. Col. Pulendran were among 12 LTTE cadre who were arrested midsea by the Sri Lankan Navy whilst travelling from Trincomalee to Jaffna, in October 1987, just weeks after the Indo-Sri Lanka accord had been signed. The arrested cadre were taken to Palali and were due to be transported to Colombo for further interrogation. They all committed suicide by swallowing cyanide on the 5th of October 1987 at approximately 5.05pm. 

The ten other cadres were Major Abdullah, Captains Karan, Ragu, Palani and Miresh, Lts Thavakumar, Anbalagan, Second Lt. Anandakumar, Lt.Reginald and Captain Nalan.

A memorial built in memory of the 12 cadres was destroyed by the Sri Lankan military in 2010. They reportedly built a playground on top of the memorial.

The destroyed Valvai memorial

 

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