The military says any event banned because LTTE is still proscribed organisation, four years after army defeated group.
Sri Lanka’s military announced a ban on commemorations of the island’s defeated Tamil Tiger rebels following reports that sections of the ethnic Tamil minority were planning to hold events.
The military said on Monday, any event was banned because the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Known as LTTE was still a proscribed organisation, four years after the army defeated the group to end a decades-long separatist war.
Small and low-key ceremonies are usually held at this time every year to commemorate rebels killed during the conflict, a so-called “heroes’ week” that coincides with the anniversary of the death of the first rebel.
Local media have reported that more organised events were planned this year in the island’s former northern war zone after the main Tamil party won local elections there in September.
“Promoting and propagating separatist ideology within Sri Lanka directly or indirectly, even by using media freedom, and attempting to commemorate or glorify terrorists that belonged to a proscribed organisation would be illegal,” the military spokesman said in a statement.
The remembrance events also coincide with the anniversary of the birth of LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was killed in 2009 in the final bloody raid against the rebels in the northeastern district of Mullaittivu. Authorities have been keen to erase any symbol of the Tamil Tigers, removing rebel war cemeteries and dismantling monuments set up by the guerrillas in the former war zones.
There have been no attacks blamed on the guerrillas since 2009 although the government has repeatedly said it fears rebel remnants may try to regroup.
Loading comments…