No War Commemoration Allowed in Lanka North

Sri Lanka will not allow the commemoration of those killed in the final battle of the country's brutal civil war in 2009 between the LTTE and the military in the Tamil-dominated north.

Special security arrangements to monitor whether any public commemoration are being organised to mark the fifth anniversary which falls on May 18 is underway, the military spokesman Ruwan Wanigasooriya said.

"But there would be no restrictions on family members to remember the dead within their own house premises," he said.

Any attempt to put up posters, hoist black flags or distribute leaflets would be treated as acts to support terrorism, police in Jaffna said.

Tamil groups said the authorities have closed down the Jaffna University to prevent commemoration events in the university.

The three decades of the LTTE's military campaign ended on May 18, 2009 with the death of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The government's Victory Day celebrations marking the fifth anniversary of ending the LTTE's armed campaign is to be held in the southern coastal town of Matara.

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