A memorial event was held in Jaffna on Saturday to mark the 42nd anniversary of the massacre of key members of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) inside Welikada Prison in 1983 - a massacre widely remembered as one of the darkest chapters in Sri Lanka’s treatment of Tamil political prisoners.
The commemoration took place at Chelvanayakam Hall and honoured the memory of four TELO leaders brutally murdered during the anti-Tamil pogrom of Black July while in the custody of the Sri Lankan state.
The ceremony began with the lighting of the Common Flame of Remembrance. Floral garlands were then laid before portraits of Nadarajah Thangavel (Thangathurai), Selvarajah Yogachandran (Kuttimani), Ganesanathan Jeganathan (Jegan), and Sellathurai Sivasubramaniam (Devan). Attendees also lit memorial lamps and observed a moment of silence in tribute.
Among those present were prominent Tamil political and civil society figures, including Selvam Adaikalanathan, Leader of the TELO; C.V.K. Sivagnanam, Acting Leader of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK); Suresh Premachandran, Leader of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF); and S. Vendan, Leader of the Democratic Fighters Party.
Also in attendance were Murugesu Chandrakumar, General Secretary of the Samathuva Party; Balachandran Gajatheeban, former member of the Northern Provincial Council; Mathivathani Vivekanandarajah, Mayor of the Jaffna Municipal Council; and Thyagarajah Nirosh, Chairman of the Valikamam East Pradeshiya Sabha. Several members of local government bodies and a large number of community members also took part in the event.
The gathering served as a collective homage to those who laid down their lives in the struggle for Tamil liberation and justice, and as a reminder of the violence inflicted on Tamil political prisoners with impunity.
The massacre inside Colombo’s Welikada Prison in July 1983 occurred in two waves, first on 25 July and again on 27 July, when Sinhalese inmates, aided by prison guards, attacked and murdered Tamil political prisoners in their cells.
Despite widespread outrage and international condemnation, no one has ever been held accountable for the killings.
