Tamils mark 25-years of Tiger sacrifice

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2007, 10:11 GMT]
November 27 Heroes Day remembrance events were being held in Vanni since Sunday amid air attacks and Deep Penetration Unit attacks that have been stepped up by the Sri Lankan forces. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has deployed soldiers close to the Heroes cemeteries in SLA controlled areas of NorthEast, including the cemeteries that have been desecrated by the Sri Lankan forces in Batticaloa, Ampaa'rai and Trincomalee. From 27 November 1982, when the first LTTE fighter Lt. Sankar died, until 20 November 2007, a total of 19,877 fighters are declared war heroes by the Tamileelam Heroes Secretariat.

954 Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) fighters have been killed in action, up to November 20, in 2007, the second year of defensive war faced by the Tigers, following the breakdown of the Norwegian facilitated February 2002 Cease Fire Agreement, last year.

According to the statistics provided by the Tamileelam Heroes Secretariat 7,161 war heroes were from Jaffna, 5,002 from Batticaloa-Ampaa'rai, 4,467 from Vanni (Vavuniyaa, Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts), 1,782 from Trincomalee and 1,139 from Mannaar.

21% of war dead heroes are females and 27% of the Black Tiger war heroes are women. 30% of war dead Black Sea Tigers are women.

On Sunday, LTTE Leader Velupillai Pirapaharan participated in the inauguration event of the three-days long remembrance of Heroes Day, paying homage to fallen senior LTTE commanders and leaders during the 25 year long struggle, spearheaded by the Tigers.