Eviction of Tamils mars rally

Friday's protest against British MPs calling for the unbanning of the LTTE was marred by news from Colombo that Supreme Court intervention was needed to halt police from evicting Tamil civilians from the capital.

Some 250 persons of Sri Lankan origin held a two-hour demonstration opposite Parliament to castigate a group of Parliamentarians who had not only called on the UK Government to lift the ban on the LTTE but had also announced they would invite LTTE's political leader S Thamilselvan to address them in the House of Commons.

The Sri Lankans belonging to the UK-based ‘Action Group on Sri Lanka’ parading under the slogan ‘Sri Lankans United Against Terrorism’ carried placards condemning the British All Party Parliamentary Group on Tamils for its partisan support and its assistance to a terrorist organisation outlawed in the country since 2001.

The protestors urged the British MPs not to encourage LTTE terrorism and urged the public to save their ‘credit cards from LTTE terrorists’, an allusion to a large scale credit card scam at filling stations which some suspect, involved the LTTE.

While the protest itself attracted public attention, it was overshadowed by the news from Colombo the previous day and carried by international media of the police action in evicting some 370 Tamils from lodging houses in the city, apparently because they could not explain satisfactorily their presence in Colombo.

As a politically-uncommitted Tamil resident told The Sunday Times after hearing of the demonstration “the foolish action of the Government has only made the case of the British MPs stronger.”

He said that several Tamil UK residents who had earlier decided not to travel to Geneva to participate in the LTTE-sponsored mass demonstration planned for Monday opposite the UN office, have now decided to join in.

“Even though transport to Geneva is being provided we were not interested in going to join with the LTTE. But the Sri Lanka Government's action against innocent Tamils in Colombo have made us go there,” he said.

“How stupid can the Government be,” said one Sri Lankan protestor who spoke to this correspondent by phone. “Here we are trying our best to alert the British MPs and the public not to confuse the Tamil population with the LTTE who are terrorists. We have been lobbying saying more Tamils live in the south among the Sinhalese and Muslims than in the Wanni. Then some jokers in Colombo go and mess it up for all of us. But our leaders make speeches asking Sri Lankans abroad to help expose the Tigers. These stupid fellows give the LTTE and their supporters all the ammunition they want. Our politicians are our own enemy,” he added saying he was disgusted and would not join in any protests hereafter.