Commemorative events were held in Jaffna and Mannar on Saturday marking 39 years since the death of Maalathy, the first woman fighter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to be killed in combat, Tamil Guardian reported.
The Ex-Combatants’ Welfare Association held a ceremony at about 9 a.m. on the Kopay–Kaithady Road in Jaffna, at the spot where she was killed. The mother of a dead Tamil fighter lit a commemorative flame, and those attending laid garlands.
In the afternoon, her parents and relatives gathered at the family home in Adkaativeli, Mannar, to light an oil lamp and lay garlands and flower petals before her portrait. Tamil Guardian reports the family has continued to hold annual commemorations despite restrictions on public remembrance.
Who she was
Maalathy, born Sahayaseeli Pedhuruppillai in Mannar in 1967, was killed aged 20 on 10 October 1987 while fighting troops of the Indian Peace Keeping Force advancing on Kopay. An account of her death by a fellow fighter who was present appears in Adele Ann Balasingham’s 1993 book Women Fighters of Liberation Tigers; it describes her being shot in both legs and taking cyanide rather than be captured as her unit withdrew under heavy fire.
The LTTE later named one of its principal women’s formations the Malathy Brigade after her, and under its de facto administration in the North-East the anniversary was observed as Women’s Uprising Day. 10 October is now marked by Tamils in the North-East and in the diaspora as Tamil Women’s Day. Tamil Guardian reports that memorials to her and her tomb in Kopay and Kilinochchi were destroyed by the Sri Lankan military, but that annual commemorations have continued.
The enforcement contrast
That these events went ahead openly is the point of note. Police are currently running an investigation under the Prevention of Terrorism Act into the installation of a statue of Thileepan at the Nallur memorial — a statue officers removed in the early hours of 27 September — and have summoned four Tamil figures for questioning. The Jaffna Magistrate’s Court took custody of that statue on 5 October and adjourned the case to January.
The government’s position, set out by cabinet spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa, is that Sri Lankan law does not permit the promotion of a banned organisation, including its flags and emblems, and that legal action will be taken over such activity. The LTTE has been proscribed since January 2009.
Days before these commemorations, ITAK parliamentarian Sivagnanam Shritharan used a sitting of Parliament to call for the proscription to be lifted and for Tamils to be permitted to remember their dead — a speech another Jaffna MP asked to have struck from Hansard. Taken together, the two accounts describe private and association-organised remembrance proceeding while a permanent public memorial draws a terrorism investigation.
Not reported
Tamil Guardian does not say whether police attended, monitored or sought to prevent either event, how many people were present at Kopay, or whether any organiser has been summoned or questioned. It does not report any comment from police, the government or the Northern Province administration, and does not say whether the Ex-Combatants’ Welfare Association sought or required permission.
On sourcing: this desk found no other verified newsroom carrying the commemorations. The account above is drawn from a single outlet whose coverage of this subject is sympathetic to the organisers, and the descriptions of Maalathy’s role and legacy are reported as that outlet presents them rather than independently verified.
Sources: Tamil Guardian.
