HomeMASSIVE RALLY IN LONDON CALLS ON BRITAIN TO BAN THE LTTE IN THE UK
Sri Lankans domiciled in the United Kingdom marched through the streets of Central London on Sunday calling on the British Government to ban the LTTE in Britain. Reports indicate that 6,000 Sri Lankans from various places, some as far as Scotland, Norfolk, Manchester and Birmingham assembled at Hyde Park corner with banners, placards, and Sri Lankan flags and marched to Trafalgar Square where the gathering was addressed by Hatfield MP Mr. Pollard. While some asked "Clinton banned Tamil terror why not Blair?", others stated - "Tamil Tigers are drug smugglers, "child killers", "Gandhi killers." Ms. Tina Edwards who addressed the gathering said that "in other parts of the globe the illegal activities of these terrorist supporters have been exposed. The western world now knows the true nature of the LTTE's terrorist activities. It is now our turn in the UK to expose the Tamil Tiger terrorists for who they truly are." She said that "from the UK Headquarters they publish anti-Sri Lankan propaganda with a vengeance. 211 Katherine Street and Eelam House, 202 Long Lane, are the addresses they use to conduct this vicious campaign, feeding the global community with a diatribe of false facts and distorted tales." She empahsised that "these Tamil Tiger terrorists have arrived in the United Kingdom in their thousands. Some forged British visas to enter the country while others paid money to human traffickers and entered this country illegally, often hidden in container lorries as they made their way to England." She indicated that the Home Office has estimated that every year over 350 million Sterling Pounds are spent on these bogus asylum seekers adding that "If not for these illegal migrants, Britain's police force could buy 35 thousand more emergency vehicles to serve the country while a similar number of hip replacements could be performed on old-aged pensioners." While observing that the epicenter of the LTTEs international network is London from where the LTTE conduct their campaigns of extortion, Ms. Edwards emphasised that "they forcibly get people to give money to their cause often intimidating and threatening them. With the money they collect they buy arms and sophisticated weapons to maim and kill people. The Tamil Tiger terrorists have massacred entire villages of Sinhala and Muslim people ethnically cleaning these areas. This is the behaviour of Fascist thugs." She said that the LTTE office in London with money raised in the UK is financing terrorism in Sri Lanka and observed that the LTTE either shot, burnt or hacked to death men, women, children and babies of the Sinhalese and Muslims in Kokilai, Arantalawa, Dollar Farm and Kent Farm to rid those areas from these communities. She said "they did not even spare sacred places of worship. In 1984, 250 pilgrims engaged in prayer at Anuradhapura one of the most venerated sites for Buddhists all over the world, were killed." Ms. Edwards observed that "What saddens all Sri Lankans living in this country, is that the United Kingdom, the bastion of democracy and an advocate of world peace, has and still continues to turn a Nelsonian eye, to the heinous crimes committed by Tamil terrorists in the UK and overseas."