London Indymedia

Tamil Protest still going strong

JimDog* | 07.04.2009 09:49 | Repression | Social Struggles | London | World

Protestors against lack of British support for the Tamil people and the recent offensive by the Sri Lankan Government against them continue into a second day.


As reported on Indymedia yesterday, a large group of protestors had massed on Westminster Bridge, London, angry at the recent repression of the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan government and the lack of British support.

Eyewitnesses claim that their numbers have swelled to 3000 at one point, and that about 400-800 protestors had stayed during the night. Attempts were made by the police to confiscate the Tamil flags that they were waving which resulted in minor skirmishes breaking out. At least one protestor was seen to jump from the bridge but was picked up by the river police. The justification for this was that the police wrongly thought the flags were displaying the logo of the Tamil Tigers, which they consider to be a banned 'terrorist' organisation.

The protestors had originally gathered at Parliament square but were moved on by force as the police stated that they had not "saught permission" to demonstrate there, which is how they came to be on Westminster Bridge.

During the night however, the police moved the protesters back to Parliament square when it became clear that their numbers were too strong to contain and that they weren't going to be leaving in a hurry. A policeman was quoted by the mainstream media as saying;

"we're hoping that they'll get cold or hungry soon and go home"

The protestors however had different ideas;

"We intend to stay until the British Government puts pressure on the government of Sri Lanka to stop the offensive against our people"

The demonstration was originally organised by Students and members of the British Tamil Forum, but was soon joined by many with family links to Sri Lanka and others showing solidarity with the Tamils, including families and young children.

A call has been made for anyone in the area to go to Parliament Square to give support to the protestors and try to put an end to the mass slaughter of innocent civilians by the Sri Lankan government in the Tamil region.


Links: British Tamils Forum | Previous Indymedia Report

JimDog*

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

'Tamil flags'

07.04.2009 10:24

The 'Tamil flags' were also flags of the Tamil Tigers. They forcibly conscript children to fight and hopefully their leaders will be captured, tried and found guilty of human rights abuses.

Smiler


@smiler

07.04.2009 16:46

though admittedly similar, the flags were those of the tamil people, not the tamil tigers. This is exactly the same mistake that the police made when trying to confiscate them.

These are ordinary people demonstrating, not the tamil tigers. In much the same way would you consider any afghan citizen to be a member of the taliban? Or every person born in the uk to support the invasion of iraq? It's a dangerous assumption to make and unfortunately one that is all too often used to justify things such as the 'war on terror', as 150000 tamil citizens have discovered.

JimDog*


Stop GENOCIDE BY Sri Lankan (& Indian) Government(s)

08.04.2009 08:22

LTTE = Freedom Fighters
Sri Lanka = Barparic Blood Sucking Terrorist Nazi Country

The Sri Lankan Government has been proved to be doing all kind of Human Right Abuses, according to UN. Tamil civilians are being killed in a daily basis by the Sri Lankan and Indian forces. The international community including UK not stopping this.

Please do something to stop this GENOCIDE NOW.

Tamil Priyan


Interview with one of the Tamil protesters 7th April

08.04.2009 10:31

Cinema Libre


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