<p>Armed troops broke up Tamil memorials for Sri Lanka's civil war dead and beat up journalists covering one ceremony in a former battle zone, residents and media organisations said Monday.</p>.<p>Grieving relatives were forced out of cemeteries on the weekend as they attempted to light lamps at graves of loved ones who died in the island's decades-long conflict, which ended in 2009.</p>.<p>The Federation of Media Employees' Trade Unions said Tamil journalists covering a memorial in Mullaittivu, a northeastern fishing town where the war's final battle was fought, were assaulted by troops.</p>.<p>"Soldiers used a palm stick wrapped with barbed wire to assault a photojournalist covering the events," the media outfit said in a statement.</p>.<p>It added that reporters in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, where the island's minority Tamil community is concentrated, have been subject to "constant harassment" by security authorities.</p>.<p>Police said they were investigating a complaint of assault made by journalists in Mullaittivu.</p>.<p>Sri Lanka's 37-year civil war began in 1972 when the Tamil Tigers waged a bloody campaign against government troops for a separate ethnic homeland.</p>.<p>November 27 was from the late 1980s commemorated as "Heroes' Day" by the Tigers to honour members of the militant group who died in the conflict.</p>.<p>But President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's government has banned Tamil commemorations of the war dead since coming to power in 2019.</p>.<p>Rajapaksa was defence chief when the Tigers were finally defeated in 2009 while his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was president, winning them adoration from much of the majority Sinhalese population.</p>.<p>The separatist war cost the lives of more than 100,000 people, according to United Nations estimates.</p>.<p>The UN accused Sri Lankan forces of killing at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in its military campaign, an allegation denied by successive governments.</p>.<p><strong>Check out the latest videos from <i data-stringify-type="italic">DH</i>:</strong></p>
<p>Armed troops broke up Tamil memorials for Sri Lanka's civil war dead and beat up journalists covering one ceremony in a former battle zone, residents and media organisations said Monday.</p>.<p>Grieving relatives were forced out of cemeteries on the weekend as they attempted to light lamps at graves of loved ones who died in the island's decades-long conflict, which ended in 2009.</p>.<p>The Federation of Media Employees' Trade Unions said Tamil journalists covering a memorial in Mullaittivu, a northeastern fishing town where the war's final battle was fought, were assaulted by troops.</p>.<p>"Soldiers used a palm stick wrapped with barbed wire to assault a photojournalist covering the events," the media outfit said in a statement.</p>.<p>It added that reporters in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, where the island's minority Tamil community is concentrated, have been subject to "constant harassment" by security authorities.</p>.<p>Police said they were investigating a complaint of assault made by journalists in Mullaittivu.</p>.<p>Sri Lanka's 37-year civil war began in 1972 when the Tamil Tigers waged a bloody campaign against government troops for a separate ethnic homeland.</p>.<p>November 27 was from the late 1980s commemorated as "Heroes' Day" by the Tigers to honour members of the militant group who died in the conflict.</p>.<p>But President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's government has banned Tamil commemorations of the war dead since coming to power in 2019.</p>.<p>Rajapaksa was defence chief when the Tigers were finally defeated in 2009 while his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was president, winning them adoration from much of the majority Sinhalese population.</p>.<p>The separatist war cost the lives of more than 100,000 people, according to United Nations estimates.</p>.<p>The UN accused Sri Lankan forces of killing at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in its military campaign, an allegation denied by successive governments.</p>.<p><strong>Check out the latest videos from <i data-stringify-type="italic">DH</i>:</strong></p>