Arsonists target Kopay Heroes Cemetary

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 June 2006, 03:28 GMT]
Arsonalists alleged to be soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and collaborating paramilitaries set fire to the office building inside the Liberation Tigers' Kopay Heroes Cemetary on Rasa Veethy (road) Tuesday midnight, local residents said. The attackers forced open the main entrance, ransacked the office building, heaped the furniture and other photographs in the building, and set them on fire. The roof of the building sustained serious fire damage. Memorial stones were left undamaged, residents added.

SLA soldiers erased to the ground memorial stones in the Heroes Cemetaries at Kopay, Udupiddy Ellankulam, and the Kodikamam when they captured Jaffna in 1996.

Liberation Tigers rebuilt the cemetaries with new landscaping, and established well-manicured gardens in the same locations after the Cease Fire Agreement was signed with the Government of Sri Lanka in 2002.

Attempts at desecrating Heroes Cemetary by the SLA after the political cadres of the LTTE left Jaffna district has shocked residents in the area, sources said.