The chair of the British All Party Parliamentary Group For Tamils called on Sri Lanka to allow the Tamil community to publically mark Maaveerar Naal annually, without intimidation or harrassment from Sri Lankan security forces.

In a statement released to mark Tamil National Remembrance Day, parliamentarian James Berry said “remembrance is a vital tool in healing and reconciling communities traumatised by conflict”. “It is also an important element of transitional justice, because there can be no true reconciliation without proper accountability,” he added.

Sri Lanka’s president has written to US President-elect Donald Trump in the hope of pressuring the United States to stop pursuing accountability for war crimes committed by Sri Lankan troops.

“I will write to President (Donald) Trump to ask him to free us from these accusations,” the New Indian Express reported Maithripala Sirisena telling a  Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) membership drive in Galle.

Thousands of Tamils marked Maaveerar Naal in the UK on Sunday, November 27th. 

Tamils in Amparai laid karthigaipoo, lamps and the Tamil Eelam national flag in their commemoration of Maaveerar Naal.

Over 200 students at Eastern University commemorated Maaveerar Naal at the Vantharumoolai campus in Batticaloa and the Swami Vipulananda Institute in Kalladi on Saturday.

Mirroring their counterparts at the University of Jaffna, students lit candles and lamps in memory of those who gave their lives to the Tamil struggle. 

Tamils across the North-East marked Maaveerar Naal by gathering at the site of destroyed LTTE cemeteries across the North-East, where they collected broken gravestones and held memorial events to remember cadres that lost their lives in the struggle for liberation.

A congregation in Mannar held a mass this morning, in remembrance of all Tamil liberation fighters who died in the war against oppression by Sri Lanka.

The service, led by Father Sebamalai, was held at Karisal St Mary's Church.

NPC Councillors S Shivajilingam and S Sajeevan led Maaveerar Naal commemorations outside the headquarters of the military's 51 Division - formerly the site of an LTTE cemetery.

The cemetery was destroyed in 1995 and rebuilt by the LTTE during the ceasefire, before the Sri Lankan state again bulldozed the graves in 2010, to build the army camp on its remains.

In addition to public events this year, Maaveerar Naal continued to be marked privately in people's homes, as many remained fearful of military intelligence officers and reprisal. 

Many built replica tombstones on their land echoing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's tombstones that have since been destroyed by the Sri Lankan military.

Many front pages in the North-East Tamil press marked today's Maaveerar Naal, the Tamil remembrance day.

The Uthayan, the Valampuri and Kalai Kathir were amongst the papers dedicating entire pages to the commemorations.