TAMIL youth activists in Britain took their ‘Boycott Sri Lanka Cricket’ campaign to the Lords cricket grounds on Saturday, the third day of the second Sri Lanka v England test match this summer.
Several dozen Tamil activists and supporters handed out leaflets to arriving spectators and cricket officials and staged a noisy demonstration opposite the famous grounds in the latest in a series of events organised by the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) to raise awareness of the mass killings of Tamil civilians during the final months of Sri Lanka’s war in 2009, and call for a boycott of Sri Lankan cricket until Colombo agrees to an independent international investigation.
While most of the activists fanned out to the several gates into the Lords ground to hand out leaflets, a group set up a demonstration directly opposite the ornamental Grace Gate, named after the famous England cricketer W G Grace.
Protestors put up banners and Tamil Eelam and England flags and chanted slogans through megaphones from 10am to 4pm from behind barricades set up for them by the police.
During the day, activists handed out over three thousand leaflets to spectators, passers-by, members of the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club), and cricketing officials.
‘We chose the Grace Gate for the demonstration as that’s the one which most MCC members are said to use to enter the ground,’ TYO spokesperson Thusiyan Nandakumar told TamilNet. ‘It was to them that we wanted most to make our presence felt.
‘We had the police’s permission for our protest and are very grateful for their support during the day,’ he said.
‘As at our earlier Boycott Sri Lanka Cricket events, our leaflets were generally well received,’ he said. ‘A number of people in MCC blazers and ties took our leaflets, and, to our surprise, so did some Sri Lanka supporters, though, perhaps understandably, many were not impressed to see us there.
‘Some people were embarrassed and others were unhappy at having the uncomfortable truth of mass killings of civilians pointed out when they were planning to enjoy themselves.
‘But MCC members well understand our point about a sports boycott and human rights abuses,’ Nandakumar said.
The noisy protest, which ran until teatime was good natured, activists and police told reporters who visited the site.
One man who shouted abuse at the demonstrators and then seized a megaphone was swiftly arrested and is to be charged with assault, police said.
With the demonstration located in front of one of London’s synagogues, demonstrators ceased their chanting for 30 minutes in the middle of the day, so as to not disturb religious ceremonies, activists said.
• Meanwhile, LTTE has mounted a legal challenge, and says that the post-Mu’l’livaaykkaal EU ban is illegal
The Amsterdam-based Bohler Group’s attorney, Victor Koppe, brought an action on behalf of the European wing of the LTTE against the Council of the European Union at the European Court of Justice on Thursday for the annulment of the ban on Liberation Tigers, arguing that the LTTE no longer uses military means to achieve its goals, and in post-Mu’l’livaaykkaal context, uses political and non-violent methods to achieve the movement’s goals of obtaining Tamil justice and exercising the right to self-determination of the Tamil people.
Koppe argues that these rights are protected by the doctrine of fundamental freedoms of speech, association, assembly and movement.
With military activities ceased and the top layer of the LTTE military leadership killed in May 2009, the International political subdivision of the Liberation Tigers, and the European national branches have gained sufficient autonomy and can now legitimately represent the evolving non-violent branches of the movement, Koppe argues.
The Bohler group said in a media release on the legal challenge: ‘The LTTE wishes to emphasise the political character of this decision; the European Union and her member states should not lend themselves to Victor’s justice.
‘When armed forces, engaged in an armed conflict, violate international humanitarian law, they should be held accountable for those violations according to international humanitarian law. By subjecting one of the parties to anti-terrorism legislation, the course of justice is perverted.’
Koppe’s firm, Bohler Advocaten, had earlier persuasively argued for the Kurdish PKK in the same court for a successful removal of European ban.
For the filing of the annulment request with the court earlier this month, the court requested clarification of the power of attorney given to the lawyer by the Court of Justice of the European Union, seated in Luxembourg.
The clarifications were handed over on 30 May. It is up to the Court now to invite the Member States of the EU and the Council of the EU to give their opinion on the case, Mr Koppe told TamilNet Saturday.
‘At this point of time, I do not wish to say who has given me the power of attorney on behalf of the LTTE,’ when questioned on whether the attorney would publicly reveal the details of the officials of the European Division of the LTTE.
‘The proceedings can now start. As an attorney I am fully satisfied that the LTTE has fully given me the power-of-attorney to represent them in the court in Luxemburg,’ Mr Koppe said.
What was the view of the LTTE’s European Division on a possible interpretation by the opponents and critics of the movement who would describe the legal move as an attempt to revive the armed struggle waged by the Tigers, Mr Koppe said: ‘Even though the LTTE has been militarily defeated, there is still a strong movement within the LTTE in the European Division which is pursuing peaceful means of struggle and taking legal action to remove the ban is one of such actions.’
‘A positive outcome in the legal challenge would allow the Tamil diaspora to freely engage in peaceful democratic activities in their countries of domicile and expose the war-crimes planned and executed by Colombo.
‘Once the accountability is achieved, and the culpable individuals are brought to justice, then energies can then be focussed on seeking long-term political justice based on the fundamental right to self-determination.’
Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist organisation, said: ‘While geo-political conditions have worked in favour to protect Sri Lanka in the international fora, the emerging evidence of war-crimes and barbaric acts of unprecedented brutality as was made clear in Channel 4’s one-hour-long video, will make it difficult for nations including India, Russia and China to sustain their support for Sri Lanka.’
l Remarks earlier this week by the US Embassy’s Defense Attaché at a conference in Colombo reflected his personal opinions. They do not reflect the policy of the United States Government,’ said a spokesman for the US State Department on Friday.
The comment came in a statement officially distancing the USA from remarks made this week by its own defence attaché Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith in Colombo at the controversial three-day seminar organised by the Sri Lankan military to expound on its defeat of the LTTE.
The USA had earlier declined Sri Lanka’s invitation to attend the controversial seminar. The latest US controversy has raised questions whether US military officials were also playing a ‘personal counter-insurgency’ role in the Sri Lankan State’s war against Eezham Tamils.
The Sri Lankan defence ministry, in its final report on the seminar, had included the USA amongst those countries who attended. The US statement on Friday reiterated that Washington had declined the invitation.
The three-day seminar, denounced by Human Rights Watch, as an effort to ‘whitewash’ the mass killings of 40,000 or more Tamil civilians in the final few months of the war in 2009, was addressed by senior Sri Lankan political and military leaders.
According to Sri Lankan press reports, the US defence attaché in Colombo, Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith, had in remarks to the seminar on Wednesday cast doubt on the sincerity and authenticity of offers by senior LTTE officials to lay down arms to end the war, which was then killing and maiming hundreds of Tamil civilians every day.
Several senior LTTE officials, including political officials P Nadesan and S Pulidevan, were shot dead in cold blood after surrendering in a deal brokered by international figures with the top Sri Lankan leadership.
The Island newspaper reported on Thursday that Lt. Col. Smith had ‘spontaneously’ volunteered his opinion on LTTE official’s surrender – even though the question on the topic, by a retired Indian General, was in fact being directed to a Sri Lankan General who commanded troops in the final days of the war.
On Friday, the US swiftly distanced itself from Lt. Col. Smith’s remarks, saying they did not reflect US policy.