Jaffna Mayor V Mathivathani has said she simply set aside a Sri Lankan police order demanding the demolition of structures at Lt Col Thileepan’s memorial in Nallur, telling the municipal council the letter did not merit her attention.
She made the remarks at a stormy monthly session of the council on Thursday (5 November), as members discussed arrangements for this year’s Maaveerar Naal, or Great Heroes Day, when Tamils remember the fighters who died in the Tamil liberation struggle. The commemorations will be held from 21 to 27 November. The session was halted after Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) councillors walked out and members of the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) and the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) clashed.
The order, from Jaffna’s Sri Lankan Deputy Inspector General of Police, was written only in Sinhala and claimed the memorial was an unauthorised construction that could undermine “reconciliation”.
Sri Lankan police removed a statue of Thileepan from the memorial in September, and police investigators have since recorded statements from several people, including Mathivathani. Sri Lankan police questioned 14 people over the statue last month, and TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam condemned the demolition order last week.
Councillor Tharsananthan questioned the police’s authority to demand the memorial’s removal as an unauthorised construction, pointing out that several public buildings, including the Jaffna court complex and the Sri Lankan police’s own Jaffna Central station, had been built without the council’s approval.
He asked why the police had singled out Thileepan’s memorial, and said that if the law was to be applied equally, the council should examine those buildings too. He accused the police and the Sri Lankan authorities of trying to restrict Tamils’ right to remembrance.
The Jaffna Municipal Council chamber. File photograph
The row centred on a proposal to lease land on the western side of the Nallur Kandaswamy temple to a private party for Maaveerar Naal preparations. EPDP councillors left the chamber during the debate.
National People’s Power (NPP) councillor S. Kabilan said the council should obtain legal advice before acting on the lease, and that his party supported the democratic right to commemorate, whichever group was holding the event.
ITAK and TNPF members then clashed over the commemoration arrangements and the lease, with shouting that disrupted the session. The council agreed to lease the land only under strict conditions, citing past disputes.
Mathivathani said no one should try to obstruct or disrupt the commemorations for political purposes, and called for full cooperation. After the dispute over permission for the Thileepan statue, the council would handle this year’s preparations with particular caution and under stricter procedures, she said.
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