Sri Lankan police use PTA to petition Maaveerar Naal ban in Jaffna

by Reshiga
Nov 19, 2021

File Photo: Military bus parked opposite Koppay Thuyilum Illam. Sri Lankan military photograph Tamils decorating Thuyilum Illam in 2017

The Jaffna Magistrate's accepted an application filed by Sri Lankan police seeking a ban on Maaveerar Naal events in Jaffna.

The Sri Lankan Police submitted that under the Criminal Code and the widely condemned, Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) it is a crime to commemorate fallen LTTE fighters.

The petition also alleged that Maaveerar Naal events were in progress at the former site of LTTE cemetery (Thuyilam Illam) in Koppay now the Army's 512 Brigade Headquarters, Jaffna University and other locations within Jaffna Police jurisdiction. 

The court issued an event ban from 21st to the 28th to disrupt commemorations ahead of 'Maaveerar Vaaram', the week of remembrance preceding Maaveerar Naal on the 27th.

Last September, then UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff highlighted that crackdowns on memorialisation events including those that memoralised the fallen Tamil Tigers had a damaging psychological impact which was “retraumatizing and alienating”.
 

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