HUNGER striker Parameswaran Subramaniyan, is continuing his hunger strike for the 23rd day outside Parliament, surrounded by more than a thousand Tamil workers and youth, vociferously demanding that Gordon Brown and the British Parliament broker a permanent ceasefire in Sri Lanka.
Doctors looking after Subramaniyan say that his body is stable, but he has not taken any water for two days, although in the last hour he had 100 mls because many mothers came down crying and asked him to please take water and he didn’t want to upset them.
Student leader Raji Ratnakumar, spoke to News Line on Subramaniyan’s behalf. She said: ‘We don’t want our comrade to die. We want to stop the genocide and war in Sri Lanka.
‘But it doesn’t seem like the Sri Lankan government is willing to do that and all the other world governments are not putting any pressure on them to do so.’
Suresh Kumaran a post graduate student said: ‘The Rajpakse government has declared the northern part of Sri Lanka a high security zone; but actually it is just agricultural land in cultivation.
‘We want to go to work or catch fish but we can’t.
‘We are fighting this Sri Lankan government.
‘We don’t want to kill Sinhalese. Lots of them are innocent and most of the Muslim people are innocent too.
‘It is the CID, the Sri Lankan secret service like the CIA, who are the main problem creators. They speak both languages Tamil and Sinhalese in order to cause trouble.
Yesterday afternoon Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) attack craft fitted with 100mm cannon began firing artillery pieces along the shore of Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal around 4.00 pm.
Meanwhile, the makeshift hospital in Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal was hit by artillery shells. Nine patients were killed and 15 sustained injuries as many of the remaining patients had to seek shelter elsewhere, according to initial details.
The attack came after the International Committee of the Red Cross visited the hospital yesterday morning. UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner were meeting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse in Colombo yesterday. Both the ministers had urged an immediate ceasefire.
