Several hundred Tamils packed the pen in Whitehall, London - opposite Downing Street - for a demonstration on Saturday afternoon, 17 Jan 2009 against the genocide of the Tamil people being carried out by the Sri Lankan government. Many carried 'Tamils 4 Eelam' placards. Pictures Copyright (C) 2009 Peter Marshall, all rights reserved.
Tamil demonstrators in Downing Street pen
The Tamils were there to draw attention to the continuing attacks on Tamil civilians, schools, hospitals and churches by the Sri Lankan Army and Air Force and to call for an independent Tamil state, Tamil Eelam, in Sri Lanka. They accuse the Sri Lankan government of genocide, and claim that in the past month alone over 300,000 Tamils have been forced to move out of their homes by the bombardment.
The killing of Tamils has been mentioned on 'My London Diary' on previous occasions, with a five-day fast in Parliament Square by Thaya Idaikkadar in June 2006 -
http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2006/06/jun.htm - and the leafleting by Tamils in Central London last October- http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2008/10/oct.htm#parliament - but little it has appeared in the mainstream media.
Last October I wrote "International media are banned from the Tamil areas of the country and NGOs have been ordered out of some areas, so there are few reports of the war. The Tamils allege that over 100,000 Tamils have been killed, over a million have fled the country and another half million have fled their homes inside Sri Lanka - half of these in the last three months."
The killing of Tamils has been mentioned on 'My London Diary' on previous occasions, with a five-day fast in Parliament Square by Thaya Idaikkadar in June 2006 -
http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2006/06/jun.htm - and the leafleting by Tamils in Central London last October- http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2008/10/oct.htm#parliament - but little it has appeared in the mainstream media. Last October I wrote "International media are banned from the Tamil areas of the country and NGOs have been ordered out of some areas, so there are few reports of the war. The Tamils allege that over 100,000 Tamils have been killed, over a million have fled the country and another half million have fled their homes inside Sri Lanka - half of these in the last three months."
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