London Tamil musical fest: White Pigeon warned of Tiger links

London's Metropolitan Police have cautioned the White Pigeon organisation, reportedly under investigation by the UK Charity Commissioner for possible breaches of the law, that it should not display any symbols, flags of the banned LTTE or promote it in any way when the organisation holds a music festival next Saturday in London.

The Met Police are said to have had White Pigeon president Sathya Moorthy enter into a memorandum of understanding that Saturday's event for which artistes from Chennai have been invited, would not be used as an occasion to espouse the cause of the LTTE banned here for the last seven years or promote it by symbol or by deed.

The Met Police insisting on an MoU from the organisers follows the reported breach of an earlier MoU with the British Tamil Forum which staged National Heroes Day last November at the London Docklands and telecast live the speech of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in apparent violation of the agreement.

That matter is now under consideration by the Crown Prosecution Service to which the Police have handed over whatever evidence it had obtained of the November event. The CPS is said to be weighing the evidence to ascertain whether legal action could be filed against the organisers for a breach of the law.

Next Saturday's event at Alexandra Palace where a memorial service for Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's political adviser was held last year, for which tickets are available from £25 to £100 for VIP tickets, is expected to bring some well- known South Indian artistes according to pamphlets distributed by the organisers.

However, there is speculation here that some of the named artistes may not turn up as advertised because they appear to be concerned about the possible political implications of the event.

While some Tamil groups claim that the White Pigeon is an LTTE front organisation there appears to be no concrete evidence that has been presented to draw this connection except that Dr Sathya Moorthy had been previously connected with the TRO that was delisted by the Charity Commissioner over some monetary transactions that the Charity Commissioner's investigations caused concern.