Sri Lankan police have removed a memorial statue of Rasaiah Parthipan, widely known as Thileepan, from the Thileepan Memorial Square in Nallur, Jaffna, reigniting a deeply sensitive and long-running debate about the rights of Tamil communities to commemorate their dead. The statue was taken down in the early hours of Sunday, 27 September, just one day after ceremonies marking the 39th anniversary of Thileepan's death had concluded. CCTV footage reportedly captured the removal, which was carried out without prior public notice, drawing immediate condemnation from Tamil political leaders, civil society groups, and human rights advocates both within Sri Lanka and internationally.
Who Was Thileepan?
Thileepan was a senior commander within the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the militant organisation that fought for a separate Tamil homeland in northern Sri Lanka. He died on 26 September 1987 after undertaking a fast unto death to protest the terms of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord signed earlier that year. His hunger strike lasted 12 days, during which he made five demands on behalf of the Tamil people, including the disarmament of Tamil militant groups under Indian supervision and the release of Tamil political prisoners. To many in the Tamil community, Thileepan is not merely a former LTTE figure — he is a martyr who sacrificed his life peacefully and deliberately for a political cause, making his commemoration a matter of cultural and historical identity rather than a glorification of violence.
The Removal and Immediate Reactions
The timing of the statue's removal — conducted under cover of darkness, hours after the anniversary commemorations had ended — has drawn particular criticism. Witnesses and local residents described the act as deliberate and calculated, designed to avoid public confrontation while still sending a clear political message. CCTV footage circulated on social media appeared to show police personnel dismantling and transporting the statue in the pre-dawn hours.
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politicians and members of other northern political parties swiftly condemned the removal, calling it an assault on the cultural memory and democratic rights of Tamil people. Protests erupted in Jaffna and other parts of the Northern Province, with demonstrators demanding the statue's return and an official explanation from the government. Human rights organisations noted that the removal appeared to violate principles of transitional justice and reconciliation that Sri Lanka has repeatedly pledged to uphold in international forums, including before the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The Legal and Political Landscape
Sri Lanka has a complicated legal framework surrounding the commemoration of LTTE figures. Following the end of the civil war in May 2009, successive governments have maintained that public memorialisation of LTTE members constitutes a security threat and may amount to glorification of terrorism under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). However, critics argue that this interpretation is selectively applied and is used as a political tool to suppress Tamil identity and silence legitimate grievances.
The removal of the Thileepan statue is not an isolated incident. Over the years, Tamil memorials, monuments, and even cemeteries — known as Mavirar Thuyilum Illam or Heroes' Resting Places — have been destroyed, repurposed, or restricted by the military and police in the north and east of the country. Each such incident deepens mistrust between the Tamil community and the central government in Colombo, complicating already fragile reconciliation efforts.
The Right to Remembrance: Where Is the Line?
The Thileepan statue removal raises a question that democracies around the world have grappled with: where does the legitimate right to remember end and the glorification of violence begin? For Tamil communities, Thileepan represents sacrifice, political conviction, and a non-violent final act of protest. For the Sri Lankan state, his identity as an LTTE commander places him within the bounds of a proscribed terrorist organisation.
Legal scholars and transitional justice experts argue that the right to remembrance is a recognised component of post-conflict healing. United Nations guidelines on truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-recurrence explicitly include the right of victims and affected communities to preserve memory. Denying that right, experts warn, does not erase history — it embitters those who lived it.
What Happens Next?
Tamil political leaders have vowed to pursue the matter through legal channels and to raise it at the parliamentary level. There are also calls for international human rights bodies to take note of the incident as part of a broader pattern of suppressing Tamil cultural expression in post-war Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan government has yet to issue a formal, detailed statement justifying the removal. That silence, many observers note, may itself be the most telling response of all. Until Colombo engages honestly with the question of what Tamil communities are permitted to remember — and why — incidents like the removal of the Thileepan statue will continue to reopen wounds that decades of conflict have left far from healed.