World · Sri Lanka Bureau
France permits LTTE memorial ceremony despite European Union ban
French authorities allowed a commemoration event honouring slain LTTE spokesman S.P. Thamilselvan to proceed in a Paris suburb, despite the organization's proscribed status across the European Union. The ceremony drew members of the Tamil diaspora community.
LSN Sri Lanka ·
A memorial gathering for S.P. Thamilselvan took place Sunday in La Courneuve, a municipality in the northern suburbs of Paris, where Tamil community members paid respects at a bust of the former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam spokesperson. The event proceeded despite the EU's designation of the LTTE as a proscribed organization.
Thamilselvan, who served as the LTTE's principal spokesman during the organization's final years, was killed in an airstrike by the Sri Lankan Air Force on November 2, 2007. His death occurred during the closing phases of Sri Lanka's decades-long conflict with the armed group.
Attendees at the La Courneuve ceremony laid garlands at the memorial bust positioned beside a public street, in what observers noted was a rare instance of such commemorative activities proceeding in a Western European nation. The LTTE's designation as a terrorist organization by the EU, United States, and other countries has typically restricted public memorialization activities in those jurisdictions.
The commemoration reflects the substantial Tamil diaspora presence in France, particularly in the Paris metropolitan area, where significant communities maintain cultural and historical connections to Sri Lanka's Tamil regions.