In a historic show of solidarity, more than 200,000 British Tamils, nearly two thirds of Tamils resident in Britain, marched through the streets of London Saturday 11 April demanding immediate ceasefire and recognition of Tamil Eelam.
Sparked off by the initiative of second generation Diaspora Tamil youth and students four days earlier, Saturday's march became an unprecedented rallying point for the entire community, attracting the old students associations of the educational institutions of Eelam Tamils, functioning in London.
The spirited participation of teens and mothers with babies in pushchairs significantly marked the level of community involvement in the agitation.
Student groups and networks such as Students Against Genocide of Tamils (SAGT) and the representative Tamil associations of various British universities were at the forefront in organising the agitation.
Several thousands of banners and placards carried by them read: "Stop the war", "Tamil Eelam must be free", "Stop genocide in Sri Lanka", "Tamil Tigers are freedom fighters", "Our Leader Pirapaharan" and "We want Tamil Eelam".
Many participants had made their own posters, banners and cutouts.
Marchers carried several thousands of the Tamil Eelam flag. Some of them were seen carrying British flags also. There were also balloons floating in the sky, displaying Tamil Eelam flags.
The marchers began gathering at Temple and marched from there to Hyde Park.
They went along River Thames and turned onto the Piccadilly and from there onto Park Lane near Hyde Park.
The British Police blocked off all these routes to make room for the marchers. A large number of British Police personnel mingled with the crowd.
It took nearly 2 hours for the procession to pass a point.
Abirami Pararajasingam, 21, a neuroscience student on the London rally, said her parents did not know whether close relatives were still alive as the Sri Lankan army seeks to crush the remaining Tamil Tigers. "People in the West do not realise how bad the situation is," she said.
Suren Surendiran, of the British Tamils Forum, which organised the London march, described the situation as a "genocide."
"This is about doing something today. The people here have lost direct family members. They are here for a reason. They are worried about their next of kin."
He said that Britain, the former colonial power in Sri Lanka and one of the five United Nations Security Council permanent members, had a "moral obligation" to intervene.
Tim Martin of Act Now, a UK based charity that sponsored the launching of the "Vanangkaa mann" humanitarian mercy mission ship, the Chairman of All Party Parliamentary Group of Tamils Vireindra Sharma (Labour, Ealing and Southall) and a number of parliamentarians including Andrew Pelling (Independent, Croydon Central) and Simon Hughes (Liberal Party) were present and addressed the gathering.
The wide spectrum of Tamil activists who participated in the march, included 21-year-old Sivatharsan Sivakumaravel, who had been on a hunger-strike demanding ceasefire, Kieran Arasaratnam, a young British-Tamil investment banker who recently announced an expedition to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa to raise awareness and funds to the mercy mission and British Tamils Forum representatives Suren Surendiran and Sabapathy Pathmanathan.
