Heroes day celebrations continue amid SLA sabotage

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 November 2006, 16:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers have desecrated Heroes cemetaries located in Kopay, Ellankulam in Udupiddy and in Kodikamam as part of a wide spread attempt at sabotaging the Heroes day celebrations and muzzling the emotional support of the residents of Jaffna district in paying homage to those who died in the Tamil national struggle, civil society sources in Jaffna said.

A group of SLA soldiers who arrived in Buffel armored vehicle to the main Jaffna Campus building Friday morning, forcibly removed the decorative arches erected in front of the campus, and removed the decorations, students said.

SLA troopers, Thursday and Friday, have destroyed the platforms erected for the celebrations in the three Heroes cemetaries and also have razed to the ground several memorial stones built as memorial to dead cadres of Liberation Tigers in the cemetaries, local residents said.

Red, Yellow decorations in front of the cemetaries and the name boards have also been removed by the troopers, sources said.

Suspecting that cadres of Liberation Tigers will be present during the celebrations near the cemetaries as the final day approaches, large number of SLA troopers have beens stationed close to the Heroes cemetaries, local residents said.

Unconfirmed reports from Saatti area in the islets indicate that Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) troopers have destroyed the memorial stones in the Heroes cemetary using heavy military vehicles. Since the SLN has barred residents from using the road leading to the cemetary, no additional information is available on the extent of the destruction of the cemetary.

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