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Appeal for London activists to come support Tamil protest, Parliament Squar

Mark | 26.05.2009 23:50 | Anti-racism | Repression | Social Struggles

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

This is an appeal for activists across London ( and the rest of the UK) to come and support the protest in Parliament Square for recognition by the international community of human rights abuse of Tamils in Sri Lanka and the continued detention of over 200,000 Tamils.

The Parliament Square protest is now going into it's 52nd day and now Tim Martin - former aid worker & director of the campaign 'Act-Now!' - is entering into the 10th day of his hunger strike. There is a desperate humanitarian crisis facing tens of thousands of people in the country at this time and evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the Sri Lankan Army in the recent conflict. International aid agencies say that Sri Lankan authorities prevented access to the conflict zone and hampered the entry of life-saving medical supplies and evacuations of wounded people.

There are allegations of atrocities having being carried out on both sides - the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tigers. However, evidence from satellite images of aeriel bombardment of the so-called 'no-fire zone' by the SLA has already been obtained by the UN. There were recent witness reports that SLA troops have been large digging holes with mechanical diggers, as claims of numbers who have fled the area remain unverified. On Sunday 17th, between 25,000 to 50,000 civilians were still stranded on the 7.7 sq km narrow strip of northern coastline where 200,000 civilians had been confined alongside Tamil Tigers fighters in the recent conflict. There are no reports to confirm what has happened to these people since Sunday.

Wearing black and waving black flags, Tamils continue to protest about the British Government's reluctance to take a stronger line on the international stage in regard to the human rights atrocites committed by the Sri Lankan government and the current detention without international monitoring (and access by international aid agencies) of more than 200,000 Tamil civilians. A meeting was held today to discuss the future plans of the protest, the outcome from this will be available in due time.
Ref:

http://tamilvoice.co.uk

Tim Martin is now very weak to even talk and is being kept a close eye on by the doctors. He has been having severe headaches and has been vomiting but he is refusing to give up the fight. Tim has spoken to his MP, who has advised that she has spoken to Obama to raise awareness and to take action. One of Tim's key demands published in a letter which was hand-delivered to officials at the American Embassy on Monday 18th May is his call upon President Obama of the US to intervene in Sri Lanka to ensure independent bodies, including UN monitors and media are allowed to enter the affected area immediately so that civilians are protected and the human scale of the disaster recorded.

The online petition will be launched tomorrow to ask Obama to take action in Sri Lanka. Please go to www.act-now.info

The protesters are urging all supporters to find as many media contacts as possible and to touch base with all family and friends to make them aware of why they are protesting. This is a crucial time and we must all stick together to make awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan government is guilty of war crimes. Your support is our strength, we didn’t come this far to give up. The fight goes on; please spend any spare time you have at Westminster. People in Vanni need you; your shout is their freedom. Shout for Freedom!

From Tamilnet.com:
"Noting that the slow genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka accelerated to more than 10,000 in the last few months, far exceeding the horrors of Srebrenica, Professor Boyle in conversation with Los Angeles KPFK radio host, Michael Slate, Tuesday, accused Sri Lanka Government of bulldozing and destroying evidence of massacres in the Safety Zone while preventing access to the Red Cross and UN agencies. Boyle added that the United States Government with spy satellites would be knowing exactly what Sri Lanka's actions are in the Safe Zone, and stand implicated along with UK, France, and India in allowing the genocide to happen."
[Ref:

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29415 ]

Foreign ministers from the 27-nation EU have already said allegations that international humanitarian and human rights laws were violated and had to be investigated. On Wednesday 13th May, US President Obama denounced the "indiscriminate shelling of civilians trapped with the remnants of the country's Tamil Tiger rebels" in a speech he made about Sri Lanka.

See also:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/05/431104.html

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/05/431083.html

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/05/430187.html
&

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/05/430894.htmlolrd

Links:
www.act-now.info
Appeal to World Leaders for release of Dr. Shanmugarajah, Dr. Varatharajah and Dr Sathiyamoorthy
Ref:

http://voiceagainstgenocide.org/vag/node/106
Ref:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/humanitarian-crisis-continues-sri-lanka-20090518

http://www.opendemocracy.net/www.srilankademocracy.org

http://experts.foreignpolicy.com/blog/7184
www.tamilnet.com

Mark
Homepage: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LegacyofColonialism/

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

Hmm

27.05.2009 10:57

I'm reluctant to join the demos because they seem to be pro Tamil Tigers. Am I wrong? Now that the fighting seems to have stopped there what is the demo about? Why target the uk parliament? Why not the Sri Lankan embassy or the Chinese embassy. Didn't they arm the Sri Lankan govt?

Ruby

Why I support the Tamil cause, irrespective of there being support for the LTTE

27.05.2009 12:12

The protest continues there to call on the UK to take the lead and issue a resolution in the UN Security Council, as the UK is a permanent member (of course, China & Russia would likely veto it, but then, they would be publicly embarassed at doing so and so, the focus of the international campaign would move on to be directed straight at them). Britain still has to fulfil it's colonial responsibilities to the Tamil nation. In this, there is also a need to make sure Britain does all it can diplomatically to support they assertion by the Tamil nation for devolved power and autonomy from the Sri-Lankan state. If that is the will of the Tamil people in the diaspora, then Britain must support it.

Re: Tamil Tigers, yes there are some Tamil Tiger supporters there, because the Tamil Tigers are primarily an independence struggle. Right or wrong whatever the methods they have employed in the past, I have detected in comments such as Ruby's an egregious attempt to deliberately not comprehend the demands of the Tamil people and appreciation of the context in which their independence struggle was fought over the last 33 years (ie. extreme provocation from brutal state repression by the Singhalese Sri-Lanka government and massive discrimination and violence against Tamil minorities).

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. That said, the excesses of LTTE should not be counternanced and their cynical, discreditable use of civilians as human shields in the recent stand-off with the SLA should rightly be completely and utterly condemned.

However, none of that is stopping me going to Parliament Square and joining the protest for greater recognition of the plight of Tamils in Sri-Lanka. I just don't join the chants when the happen for the Tamil-Tigers, that's all.

Mark

Re Ruby

27.05.2009 12:19

Yes Ruby most of those present are pro Tamil tigers, regardless though, they are there because they are UK citizens and they are calling on their (our?) govenment to intervene. They are trying to pressure the government to take action, thats why they are not outside the Sri Lankan or Chinese embassy where their cries will fall on def ears (though wesminster doesnt seem to be listening either)

Further more Sri Lanka is a Part of the commonwealth of which it claims operates "within a framework of common values and goals, as outlined in the Singapore Declaration.These include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism, and world peace" Sri Lanka is in a grave violation of many of these values so should therefore be expelled. Seeing that the Queen is the head of the commonwealth maybe they should move the protest to buckingham palace. I bet the police will love that.

large crowds

27.05.2009 13:13

surely in every mass demo there are people in the crowd with such diverse views (especially on tactics) that if i were to boycott on that basis i would never ever protest in any group larger than about 10. i guess that number because that's how many people i think i could properly research the views of in time to begin the demo.
in every demo against israeli brutality there will be pacifists, non-violent direct activists, those who only ever march or sign petitions, and those who support a physical resistance which may include terrorism.
therefore i look at what the demo is calling for, which groups called it, and what the message is. this is not a tamil tiger demo. it is also not a swp demo. however both tamil tigers and swp will have supporters amongst the crowd.
also, don't forget that not all flags with a tiger on them are tamil tiger flags. the tamil flag has a tiger on it. always think about where you get your info from, before you judge that a demo is dominated by one group. i'm not saying you didn't ruby, but just that we all need to remember the lies we are spun.
finally, when you make judgements about other people in other countries and how they respond to brutal and violent state oppression over decades, try not to judge them out of context. there may be situations we have not encountered ourselves yet, which would make us behave as "terrorists" in defence of our rights. its all to easy to say everyone should be pacifist when we aren't faced with what others' are faced with.

thoughtful

Thanks..

27.05.2009 23:08

...for the insightful responses. I think I should go down.