Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

tamils leave parliament square ahead of mass march

peacestrike | 17.06.2009 22:00 | Repression

tamil protesters are leaving parliament square tonight and are calling for support on their march on saturday. a call-out has been put together by members of various supporting organisations, reproduced in article.

simon hughes mp listens to tamils in the square this evening
simon hughes mp listens to tamils in the square this evening

a last gathering after an 11 week protest
a last gathering after an 11 week protest


MASS PROTEST MARCH
Let's March To Save our People!
on
Saturday, 20 June 2009
in Central London
Starts at 1pm from Hyde Park Corner - Park Lane
(Nearest Stations: Hyde Park Corner / Marble Arch)
Ends at Temple - Embankment

We feel very strongly about the on-going Tamil protest, now entering its 11th week of occupation at Parliament Square.

It is the most extraordinary campaign we have ever witnessed, and the protesters have behaved in a truly exemplary manner. Against all the odds, they have become a powerful movement. Of all the groups to enter the square and challenge the Government directly, these people would have been very easy to dismiss as too quiet, too nice and therefore ineffective. How wrong that would have been! All who have been involved in their campaign can only marvel at these truly amazing people.

They originally came last summer as a small unnoticeable group, who wanted to highlight the impending genocide. They wanted support from our Government and to raise awareness. They got very little if no attention.

Just before the Genocide they exploded into this huge movement of 200,000 plus! On the 11th of April 2009, they marched through central London in a peaceful manner with no arrests. There was very little mainstream media coverage. They flew their national flag without incident.

On the 6th April they filled up the whole of Parliament Square to bursting point, over-spilled, and blocked the road overnight, sealing off Westminster Bridge. This was the start of their remarkable 24hr on-going occupation of Parliament Square that was to break the mould in modern day protesting.

They chanted
"We want ceasefire!
We want ceasefire!
When do we want it...NOW!”
The volume was deafening to the ear, they were so passionate and distressed.

The weather was very cold! Parliament was away on Easter Holiday. No Ministers were available to hear their pleas. Civil servants did hear, but could do nothing.

They had to wait patiently for two weeks for Parliament to return. Emails were sent out to all concerned so that urgent meetings could be set up.

Two Tamil Students were on 'Hunger Strike Till Death'. A political crisis was building up, but no Ministers came.

On Monday April 20th the Government returned. By now events in Sri Lanka were unfolding into a humanitarian crisis. The Tamils in desperation, over-spilled the square and blocked the road outside Parliament, and then closed Westminster Bridge from 08.45 till midnight!

The grass area of the square was then fenced off in a desperate bid to get rid of the Tamils, however it backfired because of the sheer volume of protesters who had no where to go. We contacted the Genocide All Party Group in the Houses of Parliament in order to get help and setup an urgent meeting...we were told on the phone that they "weren't interested"

The war has now come to an end and the Sri Lankan Government has declared victory over the Tamil Tigers Of Tamil Eelam. Surprisingly, the Sri Lankan Government only officially classified the Tamil Tigers as 'Terrorists' last June 2008, just before their planned genocide.

The Tamil Protesters were now expected to leave the Square and return to their normal lives, this is what was hoped..... However, they are refusing to leave the square until the Government, the United Nations and the International Relief Agencies give firm reassurances that food and medicine is going into war torn Sri Lanka to help the Tamil victims of genocide.

Nearly all the Tamil protesters have lost family in the conflict. Many have lost over 20 relatives and more.

The number of Tamils slaughtered in the Genocide could eventually be near 100,000. The problem now is that the Genocide continues......up to 300,000 civilians, young and old, are languishing right now in what’s been described as Nazi-style 'Concentration Camps'. They have become prisoners and are not seen as victims of war. At least 30,000 have lost limbs. There are no painkillers or anaesthetics to easy the pain of the dying and wounded. No bandages, medical equipment or medicines are available. Children, girls and boys are raped and disappeared every night. There are deliberately no administrative records kept on the people in the camps.

It has been reported that there is a daily 3 hour queue for water, and a 5 hour queue for very poor food. One camp has 1 toilet for 800 people with sanitation overflowing. No water to bathe, filthy clothes to live in. Extreme heat is fast spreading disease such as chicken pox and hepatitis. Life on the camps is a living hell.

Against international law, soldiers are free to roam unhindered inside the camps with the civilians. The 'prisoners' are guarded every 10 yards by a soldier with a machine gun. There are military bunkers 'inside' the camps. Truly shocking.

The International Community is 'unable to help'.

A 'mercy mission' emergency medical supply ship, which was due to dock in a Sri Lanka harbour, has been turned away. The United Nations Security Council seems unable to act in its 'responsibility to protect' – this is due to political pressure and the ability by permanent members to block votes by using their 'veto'. Hence we have a repeat of Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur.

Political intervention by political will only works if they want it to.

Due to relocation of our textile industries to Asia and the Far East, we now have the same old story of power and money being, yet again, more important than people.

Sadly, the victims on these camps are waiting everyday for help to arrive...waiting, hoping, praying, crying. Little do they know that help is not on the way. Potentially, all the people on the camps are at risk of death unless help is sent soon as a matter of urgency. What is going on is simply unacceptable to any ordinary right-minded human being.

Genocide is Genocide, no matter to whom, where or when.

We therefore urge you to come together as concerned people to support the Tamils in their on-going struggle at Parliament Square. It is essential that they maintain their presence. They are effective, which the peace movement must be if it is to make a difference. There were missed opportunities over Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza, because people were not encouraged to keep the pressure up and instead were encouraged to 'go home'.

We will never prevent genocide from happening unless we join together. If we work as separate groups and deal with genocides as separate issues then we will always have the same age old re-occurring problems......

Let’s not waste our time and energy.......
We say we don't want to make history, we want to CHANGE history

What else can you do to be heard?

Write to your MP. Keep a record or copy of your letter to follow up with later on, on further issues.

Boycott one of the retail giants 'Marks and Spencer' who shamefully operate in Sri Lanka to exploit cheap material and slave labour, for vast profit.

Join the march this Saturday June 20th in London, Hyde Park, nearest Marble Arch 1pm.

Sincerely.

members of:
Peace Strike (www.peacestrike.org)
Make Wars History (www.makewarshistory.org.uk)
International Committee Against Disappearances (www.icad-committee.com)

 http://tamilvoice.co.uk/results-of-the-meeting/#respond
 http://tamilvoice.co.uk/concerns-grow-for-mercy-mission/
www.srilankacrisiscamps.org/petition
www.victimsofsrilankanwar.com
www.srilankacrisiscamps.org/FAQs

peacestrike
- Homepage: http://www.peacestrike.org

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech