Tamils in Jaffna marked the beginning of Lt. Col Thileepan’s 1987 hunger strike, with a remembrance ceremony by the remains of a destroyed memorial.
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A group of Tamils, including some former LTTE cadres, gathered at the site of the destroyed Thileepan memorial in Nallur, Jaffna.
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Lamps were lit and a moment of silence held in remembrance of the Thileepan, who passed away after refusing food and water for 11 days.
Thileepan, a former medical student, was the political wing leader of the Jaffna district for the LTTE. On the 15th of September 1987, Thileepan took to a podium around the historic Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna. Over 100,000 people had gathered to hear Thileepan outline 5 demands to the Indian government:
- the release of all Tamils held under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA),
- a halt to the state-sponsored Sinhala colonisation of Tamil lands,
- an end to the building of new Sri Lankan military camps in the Tamil areas,
- the withdrawal of the Sri Lankan security forces from Tamil schools, and
- the disarming of Sinhala and Muslim paramilitary militia.
See a video of his speech below.
The exact spot where he Began his strike was the site of a memorial built the year after his death. The tower was destroyed by the Sri Lankan army after they captured Jaffna in 1996. Despite being reconstructed during the ceasefire period, the memorial was destroyed again in 2007. The remnants of the tower were once again demolished further in 2012.
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| The Thileepan memorial tower shortly after its reconstruction in 2007. | The destroyed memorial in its present state. |