The monotony of weekend shopping was broken, on Saturday(25th April), when onlookers stopped to watch as over 150 people marched through Newcastle City centre, as part of a series demonstration called by Tamils in Britain.

The Tamil protests followed the killing of over 2,800 Tamil men,women and children in the first two months of 2009 alone, this as part of the Sri Lankan governments 'final' offensive to crush the resistance of the Tamil people. After peaceful and democratic means to redress oppression in civil liberties, language, culture, education, jobs and occupation of Tamil territory where met with brutal military suppression spanning a 30year period, in 1976 Tamils finally took up arms in the fight for survival and self-determination. Since the beginning of 2008, following the Sri Lankan governments unilateral withdrawal from the ceasefire agreement, signed in 2002 between the government and the Tamil Tigers, military aggression against the resistance and the Tamil people was ramped up.

The March finished at the moment with a rally , with speeches and chants. Chants were tirelessly throughout the rally by Tamil women with a wide range of slogans including “Tamil Tigers – Freedom fighter.” Over the four hours chant's were interspersed with speeches including FRFI, who after offering messages of solidarity to Tamils involved in protest that took place the week prior went to make the links between British Imperialism and the oppression of the Tamil people when she said “But Britain and the British Labour party still has blood on its hands even now; it is responsible for licensing £7 million worth of weapons and military equipment for export to Sri Lanka this year alone. Britain is profiting from selling arms to Sri Lanka which are directly being used to kill Tamils right now!” show the Britain's role in Sri Lanka is not confined to its colonial past, but is an ever present reality British Imperialism.

Few, if any, passers by were left in doubt why the Tamils and supporters where there. With two enormous helium balloons carrying slogans and Tamil flags or the banners, placards and chants on three or so megaphones made sure the demonstration was lively, militant and energetic.

The article confuses civilians with tigers.

If it is the flag that confuses the author please note that the differences in the flag.

Infobas,

I'm unsure about the point you're trying to make here. What is your reason for wanting to make a seperation between Tamil civilians and the LTTE? As was made quite clear at the protest on Saturday, the Tamil Tigers are not simply an armed force, it is a resistance rooted in the whole people, and organised through the LTTE. The Sri Lankan state, backed by the imperialist powers, is making war on the whole Tamil people in Sri Lanka in order to attempt to break this resistance. The Tamil people are rallying in their thousands around the world behind their resistance - as the giant balloons hung over Saturday's rally affirmed: 'LTTE - Our Freedom Fighters'. As I understand it the letters LTTE have been required to be removed from the flags by the British police, as the result of the British state's designation of the Tigers as a banned terrorist organisation. The absence of LTTE from the flags is therfore a result of the hostility of the British state towards any act of resistance to imperialism - not an indication that the protests are not part of the same liberation struggle being waged by the LTTE, or that the situation and interests of Tamil civilians can be considered apart from the LTTE.

Not all Tamils support the Tamil Tigers so you can't just lump them all together. The Tigers, being a ruthless totalitarian organisation, have murdered many Tamils they disagreed with.

In any case events on the ground are rapidly rendering the question moot as there is only a tiny pocket of LTTE territory left for the SLAF to mop up.

I think the era of this type of nationalist or leftist rebel group is coming to an end as they cannot withstand modern armies backed by satelite inteligence, communication intercepts, precision air power, pilotless drones etc.

"I think the era of this type of nationalist or leftist rebel group is coming to an end as they cannot withstand modern armies backed by satelite inteligence, communication intercepts, precision air power, pilotless drones etc."

I think the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan proves your assessment a little premature..

Afghanistan maybe (for now) but not Iraq, where the insurgency isn't anything like what it was a few years ago. Sure, it's still going, but far less effective and far less influential than before. Zarqarwi killed by aerial bombardment, insurgents routed from Falluja, most areas they used to control now taken from them.

However at the end of the day I believe these campaigns are eventually either routed (like the LTTE) or they realise they simply can't win and decide to lay down their arms (like the IRA). It takes a long time, decades even, but the day eventually comes. Even those veterans of guerrilla warfare in Colombia aren't looking too good these days...

I'm speaking as someone who supported these organisations and imagined that they were going to undermine and eventually bring down the whole worldwide capitalist system in some fantastical revolution in the 1980s. Instead most of them were defeated or laid down their arms.