THE Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) mobilised over 3,500 supporters of the struggle of the Tamils in a lively and colourful demonstration outside Downing Street yesterday, against brutal repression by the racist Sri Lankan state.
On the 60th Anniversary of the Independence of Ceylon from British colonial rule in 1948, the Tamils are calling on the British government to pressure the Sri Lankan government to restore the cease fire, and end the massacres, killings and rapes carried out by the Sri Lankan army and state-hired thugs in Tamil areas.
Placards and banners reading ‘International community rewards Sri Lankan State Terror against Tamil Civilians and Children’, and ‘Stop Ethnic Cleansing against the Tamils’, lined the pavement across from No.10 Downing Street.
Raj Thiru, leading speaker for TYO, said: ‘While the Sinhalese government is celebrating the day the British government withdrew from Sri Lanka, at the same time, in the east and north of the country, a lot of Tamil families are suffering.
‘Mass killing is going in the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka. The Sinhalese majority regime lead by President Rajapaksha is aiming for nothing less than the ethnic cleansing of the Tamils from Sri Lanka.
‘We see this on the news daily,’ Thiru said.
‘Britain has responsibility for some of this and Britain has to intervene.’
He added: ‘The trouble began with the granting of independence in 1948 when Britain left the Tamil minority without proper constitutional safeguards.’
Mark Siva, from East Ham in London, said: ‘The Sinhalese government and the international press are saying the Tamils are terrorists and telling the Tamils to lay down their arms and talks will start, but we can’t stand by and let the killings and the massacres continue.
‘We have to defend ourselves.’
University students, Banuja Muruga and Tharsika Kumar, with their ‘He who loves War’ poster of of President Rajapaksa said: ‘There is discrimination and racism operating in Sri Lanka.
‘Although Tamil students have top grades, consistently scoring 85 to 95 per cent on tests for university entrance, they are not admitted to university just because they are Tamils.
‘We are here to put the Tamil case to the British government.’
