A 3,500-strong demonstration organised by the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) marked the 60th anniversary of the end of British colonial rule in Sri Lanka with protests against repressive state violence meted out by the Sri Lankan government against Tamil communities.
The Tamils accuse the Sri Lankan ruling class of practicing ‘ethnic cleansing’ and that the so-called ‘Independence’ that Britain granted in 1948 to Ceylon (now renamed Sri Lanka) did not include any safeguards for the Tamil minority.
Tamils residing in Britain travelled to the demonstration from all areas of the country.
Posters saying: ‘Sri Lankan Government Scraps Ceas-fire Agreement’; and large banners saying ‘Sri Lanka Celebrates 60 Years of Repression’; ‘Stop Ethnic Cleansing of Tamils in Sri Lanka’; and ‘Condemn the Human Rights Violations by the Sri Lankan Government Against Tamils’ were unfurled in front of the thousands of Tamil supporters.
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Raj Thiru told News Line: ‘The reason we are protesting after 60 years, is that Tamils have not had any independence.
‘The rights which the British gave to Ceylon in 1948 at Independence, were denied to the Tamil people.
‘More and more pro-Sinhalese (the ruling ethnic group) legislation restricted the ability of the Tamils to work and to get education, their rights in society were diminished and the Tamil language was repressed.
‘In 1949, a year after the British granted Independence, the Sri Lankan government passed a law to remove citizenship for 7,000,000 Tamils.
‘Many riots by Sinhalese mobs in 1958, 1977 and 1983, were encouraged by the Sri Lankan government, who did not defend the Tamils.
‘In 1977 and 1983 government-sponsored riots left an estimated 6,000 Tamils dead in Colombo’.
Mark Siva said: ‘This is just symbolic of the racism of the Sri Lankan government.
‘Pogroms, racism and discrimination against Tamils have been a permanent feature of the Sri Lankan government.
‘Since the Tamil people started asking for a separate nation, the British have never put any solutions forward.’
Nallathamby Karunansdhy from Luton added: ‘All we hear from Britain is words, but they do nothing to try and resolve the situation.
‘They are still at the head of the APRC set up to look for a solution, but after 18 months they still have no solution for Tamil aspirations. Every proposal would take Sri Lanka backward and not forward.
‘The JVP, JHU and the SLFP are nationalistic Sri Lankan parties who will not give power to the Tamil people.
‘They scrapped the 2002 cease-fire, continued with their warmongering and their drive to wipe out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in order to impose anything they want on Tamil People.
‘The Sri Lankan government keep trying to turn the International Community against the Tamils, jumping on the bandwagon of Bush’s War on Terrorism, despite the world saying we do have a legitimate claim.
‘The British government must make sure the Sri Lankan government recognises our right to self determination and take steps to achieve it.
‘They must step up the pressure on the Sri Lankan government who are launching military attacks not on military targets but on orphanages and schools.
‘They are trying to make us subservient and second class citizens’, Siva added.
University students, Banuja Muruga and Tharsika Kumar with their ‘He Who Loves War’, poster of current Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa, said: ‘We are here to put the Tamil case to the British government.
‘There is discrimination going on in Sri Lanka. We were students in Jaffna in the north of Sri Lanka and although we received top grades we were not admitted to university, just because we are Tamils.
‘Tamils are still suffering after 60 years.
‘The British government bears some responsibility to intervene in the Sri Lankan regime because they have broken the cease-fire and they are terrorising Tamils.
‘We are here to put the Tamil case’.
S Jegamathan said: ‘I am 30 years old and I have never seen peace in Sri Lanka. The images that are put on the telly are not the reality.
‘When I was living at home I had to run away from my home two times with only my clothes as the army burned my house.
‘The Sri Lankan army are threatening businesses asking for money.
‘The International Community are telling us Tamils we are fighting the wrong way and want the Tigers to give up the armed struggle. ‘
But what are we supposed to do.
‘We have to save our family members. They are struggling.
‘We are blaming the British ruling powers and the International Community, like India, the US and UK, because they are saying the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) should be banned because we are fighting against the government.
‘They call us terrorists, but when we were at peace talks, India and the US were supplying weapons to kill the Tamils.
‘70,000 civilians have died in violence organised by the state government since 1983.
‘There is racism in the government and the Buddhist clergy are part of it. All the politicians listen to the Buddhist clergy, who can whip up the Sinhalese against the Tamils.’
Punniah Pathmanathan said: ‘A UN declaration said that everyone is entitled to a nationality, but we Tamils are excluded. We want a boycott of Sri Lankan goods’.
D J Das from East Ham said: The world doesn’t know what is happening to the Tamil People.
‘We want to let them know.
‘By coming together the British government will know why we are here, even if they ignore us, we are not going to stop until we get freedom’.
Das added: ‘when I was twenty years old, the the Sri Lankan army came to our school. They said they would rape our teacher. So we tried to stop them, we had to protect them, but they cut our hands. They they punched me in the mouth and broke my teeth.
‘The western world is ignoring what is happening to the Tamil people.
‘The UN has taken no action. The UN just use words.
‘Even when we suffered from the Tsunami, the Tamils were given no help.
‘TYO will will be having further demonstrations until the Tamils win their rights.’