A few Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) yesterday announced that the period May 13 to 19 would be marked as Tamil Genocide Week and began commemorating the dead with a function in Mullavaikkal in Mullaitivu District where the final battle was fought in 2009, a party member said.

The military defeated the LTTE on May 19 -- which is marked and celebrated as Victory Day in the south. TNA NPC member M.K. Sivajilingam told Daily Mirror that he regarded this period as the genocide week.

“We lit lamps and offered floral tributes at a small function in Mullavaikkal in Mullaitivu District. This week we will have commemorations throughout the north. We requested the party hierarchy to hold the main function on May 19,” he said.

He said he was backed by a few other members of the TNA in this exercise.

It is learnt that the TNA, as a party, has not organised any such commemoration. Yet its members will hold separate events to commemorate those in the north who died during the war that ended on May 19, 2009. (Kelum Bandara)