It is only appropriate that the demonstration included children! In Sri Lanka the Tamil Tigers are happy to also include children in their cause, conscripting them to fight as the Tigers move beyond their forced recruitment policy of one-person-per-family.

Polly Peck should appreciate the historical reasons for the birth of the LTTE.

The Sri Lanka Singalese government forces happily bomb Tamil children, schools, hospitals, deny the transportation of essential medicines, food aid and water supplies ...etc .... the culmination of this marks the escalation of the Singalese's war on the Tamil people which has been marked by various atrocities over the years, which began with the Sinhalese chauvinistic upsurgence in 1956 and the Sinhala Only Act, which Tamils belonging to the Federal Party including Parliamentarians, party members and sympathisers protested against in their hundreds by performing stayagraha on the Galle Face green just opposite the Parliament building in Colombo, only to be mobbed by thousands of Sinhala hooligans who stoned and assaulted the peaceful picketers and went on to murder, rape and loot Tamil property in the capital.
Ethnic friction gradually became intense and exploded into violent racial riots in 1958. This communal fury that ravaged throughout the island stained the pages of Sri Lanka's history
with blood. The horror and savagery perpetrated against innocent Tamils are indescribable. Several hundreds were buthered, pregnant women were raped and murdered; children were hacked to death. In Panandura a Hindu priest was burnt alive. Several mutilated bodies
were found in a well at Maha Oya. In Kalutara a Tamil family, while attempting to hide in a well, had petrol poured over them and when they begged for mercy they were set on fire. As the cries of agony arose when they were being roasted alive in a huge fireball, the racist spectators laughed and danced, enthralled by sadistic ecstasy. Hundreds of thousands lost their homes and several billions worth of Tamil property were either looted or burnt to ashes. While the flames of racial horror were consuming the whole island, Mr Bandaranayake watched this tragic holocaust with amusement and refused to declare a State of Emergency until the Tamils, as he was reported to have said, "get a taste of it". After twenty-four hours of calculated delay, a State of Emergency was declared. When the situation was brought under control, ten thousand Tamils were refugees, most of them civil servants, professionals and businessmen from Colombo who had to be shipped to the northern and eastern provinces for safety.

Critical events of far-reaching political significance dominate the pages of Sri Lankan political history during the period from 1970 to 1977. This period was characterised by insurrectionary youth rebellion in the south and heightened political violence in the north, denoting the mounting frustation and anger of the younger generations against the repressive state. It was during this period that ethnic contradiction between Tamils and the Sinhalese became acute with the introduction of a new republican constitution that gave institutional legitimacy to Sinhala-Buddhist hegemony in the island. This eventful period gave birth to the Tamil Tiger guerrilla movement and the growth of the armed resistance campaign of the Tamils. It was during this period that the Tamil national movement opted to invoke the Tamil's right to self-determination and resolved to pursue the path of succession and political independence.

Source: "War & Peace: Armed Struggle & Peace efforts of Liberation
Tigers", by Anton Balasingham
(1st edition 2004)
Fairmax Publishing Ltd

Anton Balasingham was political advisor, theoretician & chief negotiator for the LTTE.

Yes Mathilda - but the Tamil Tigers forcibly conscript children and compel them to fight. Regardless what the official Sri Lankan forces do this is a war crime and their leaders should be arrested, tried and then (hopefully) jailed. Just accept the realty of what these people are like.

...and the fascistic racist misogynistic Tigers seem to have supporters over here though this is swept under the carpet in some simplistic black and white propaganda. Many people have been well aware of their child exploitation but it seems to be kept quiet now. Though their are similarities this situation is not thew same as Gaza.