The Sri Lankan military has established several checkpoints in the Mullaitivu area, strategically placed at key locations on roads leading towards the #Mullivaikkal memorial site, where Tamils commemorate the #TamilGenocide Remembrance Day on #May18. (1/5) 
The checkpoints are manned by heavily armed Sri Lankan soldiers and sometimes by the army and the police together. There are several military bases and cantonments in the area. The barriers and signs are mostly in Sinhala and English only. (2/5)
Tamils driving through the checkpoints are frequently stopped and asked questions, sometimes asked to register with the security officials at the stop and sometimes asked to open their boot and have their belongings searched. Sometimes they are waved through. (3/5)
In addition to checkpoints highlighted on the map, soldiers are stationed at different points around the Mullaitivu area, for example in sentries across civilian areas. Mullaitivu is already the most militarized region on the island: pearlaction.org/wp-content/upl… (4/5)
Tamils right to memorialization is continuously suppressed by the Sri Lankan state, with arbitrary court orders and especially surveillance, intimidation and harassment by security forces. Unimpeded memorialization has been one of the fundamental demands of the Tamils. (5/5)
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