Death anniversary of 22 LTTE cadres commemorated

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 February 2003, 22:40 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Thursday commemorated the thirteenth death anniversary of their twenty-two cadres at an event held at the Trincomalee town political office, sources said.

Sole survivor in the sea mishap Mr.Thooyavan who is the LTTE political head in Nilaveli area is seen lighting the flame of sacrifice.

Mr. S.Tilak, Trincomalee district political head of the LTTE, lit the flame of sacrifice in front of the photographs of the twenty-two cadres who died in a boat mishap in the Trincomalee Sea in 1990 when they were returning to their base after a successful attack on a camp of the Eelam National Democratic Front (ENDLF), a group then backed by the Indian Peace Keeping Force against the LTTE, at Jamaliya, a suburb in the east port town, sources said.

The sole survivor of the incident, Mr.Thooyavan, who now holds the post of the LTTE political head in Nilaveli area in Trincomalee, also lit the flame of sacrifice. Mr.Thirumalai, political head of the LTTE in the Tampalakamam area hoisted the Thamileelam national flag.

A memorial for these dead cadres was erected at the Gopalapuram junction during the latter part of 1990. Later it was destroyed during military operations. Two months ago, the people of Gopalapuram commenced repairs to the damaged memorial. The re-opening of the war memorial was scheduled on Thursday. However it could not take place as scheduled as the Sri Lanka Navy prevented the Gopalapuram people from re-opening the memorial.