Lt. Seelan commemoration held in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 July 2003, 18:07 GMT]
The twentieth death anniversary of Lieutanant.Seelan (Charles Antony), the first attack commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was observed in Trincomalee, his birthplace, at an event held at the LTTE political office in Eastern port town Tuesday, sources said.



A large cut-out of Lt.Seelan was erected in front of the Trincomalee town LTTE political office. A mother of a LTTE martyr lit the flame of sacrifice. Thereafter, the Trincomalee district political head of the LTTE, Mr.S.Thilak, hoisted the Thamil Eelam national flag. A brother of Lt.Seelan lit the flame in front of Lt.Seelan’s photograph and garlanded it.

Lt Seelan was a close confidante of LTTE leader, Mr.V.Pirapaharan, who in 1990 formed a new brigade called Charles Antony Special Brigade. Mr.Pirapaharan also named his eldest son Charles Antony, sources said

The flame of sacrifice was also lit in front of the photographs of twelve LTTE cadres killed in an incident last month when the Sri Lanka navy sank an LTTE oil tanker in international waters off Mullaitivu coast. The photographs also were garlanded, sources said.




The head of the Maveerar Office in Trincomalee, Mr.Thennavan, presiding over the event, said that Lt Seelan, who was born in Trincomalee, showed interest in safeguarding Tamils' rights when he was a student. “In his school days he was guiding his fellow students towards launching a freedom struggle. Lt Seelan studied at the Trincomalee Hindu College and St. Joseph's Tamil School,” he said.

About 1700 LTTE cadres laid their lives to the Tamil freedom struggle in Trincomalee and Lt Seelan was the first, Mr.Thennavan said.

Trincomalee district parliamentarian, Mr.R.Sampanthan, recalled the contribution made by the father of Lt Seelan towards the Tamil freedom struggle. The late Mr.G.Lucas, the father of Lt. Seelan, participated in several non-violent struggles launched in the 1960s by the Thamil Arasu Katchchi under the leadership of Thanthai Chelva (S.J.V. Chelvanayakam). When the governments in power in those days did not give any importance to Tamils' aspirations, and crushed their non-violent struggle with the use of force, Tamil youths launched an armed freedom struggle to regain the lost rights, Mr.Sampanthan said.




He further said the present government has entered into negotiations with the LTTE because of the military might of the latter. “The international community also knows this. An interim administrative structure that could pave the way to a lasting political solution to the conflict is now urgently needed,” Mr.Sampanthan said. Trincomalee District Refugees Welfare Association Secretary, Mr.S.Jesuthasan, and Mr.V. Vigneswaran also spoke.

In the Jaffna district, a commemoration meeting was held at the reconstructed memorial at Meesalai- Allarai area in the Thenamaradchchi division where Lieutenant Seelan died in a direct confrontation with the Sri Lankan Army twenty years ago, sources said.

The Tamil National Alliance's Jaffna district parliamentarian, Mr.Mavai Senathirajah, Tuesday evening around seven p.m. unveiled the reconstructed memorial for Lt Seelan and another LTTE cadre, Ananth, at Allarai, sources said.




The Sri Lanka Army had completely destroyed the Lt. Seelan memorial and a children's park after his name at Meesalai-Allarai when it captured the Jaffna district in 1995. Now the memorial has been reconstructed.

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