Sri Lanka’s army commander and alleged war criminal, Shavendra Silva has ‘banned’ this year’s public Maaveerar Naal commemoration events and threatened that any efforts taken to remember will result in legal action and isolation, according to Tamil Newspaper Kalaikathir.
Silva insisted that the current coronavirus guidelines in place will not allow any remembrance events to occur. “Relatives have the right to remember ordinary people who died in the war. This can be done from home. However, Maaveerar Naal commemorations attempting to commemorate terrorists cannot be held in public. Therefore, any attempts to honour LTTE cadres will not be permitted,” he said.
Silva, the head of Sri Lanka’s Coronavirus response team, threatened that “doing so will result in legal action under the Coronavirus Act” and claimed, “no country would permit such events to occur”.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa handed full powers to the Sri Lankan police to arrest violations of measures imposed to limit the coronavirus, which has resulted in multiple incidents of police violence across the North-East towards locals, being overlooked.
Yesterday, Sri Lankan police disrupted Tamils from preparing Thuyillum illam’s in the North-East for Maaveerar Naal and interrogated volunteers and politicians present at the site.
Read more here.
We need your support
Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.
Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view
We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.
For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.
