SLA soldiers force Tamils to hoist Sri Lankan flag in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 May 2010, 05:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna celebrating its victory in the war on the Tamils in Vanni forced residents in Jaffna peninsula to hoist the Sri Lankan flag in their houses and vehicles Tuesday, sources in Jaffna said. SLA had issued strict instructions to all private and government institutions to hoist the Lion flag Tuesday as a mark of celebrating the SLA victory. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan soldiers had blocked all events that were arranged to commemorate the Tamils killed by SLA in the war on Vanni.

SLA high command in Palaali had already instructed all private commercial institutions, government departments, schools, cooperative societies and markets to hoist the Lion flag Tuesday.

Large number of SLA soldiers deployed at the main junctions stopped the vehicles, pedestrians and subjected them to severe checks and great inconvenience.

SLA soldiers went house to house ordering the inmates to fly the national flag in their houses.

Though many organizations including religious organizations had arranged to hold events in remembrance of the Tamils killed in the war SLA had stopped all of them taking place.