The Sri Lankan military is killing hundreds of Tamil civilians each day. Last Sunday alone, a thousand people were killed by cluster bombs, artillery and machine gun fire. On Monday, hundreds died when Sri Lankan forces used them as human mine-sweepers and human shields to advance against the Tamil Tigers.

This "slaughter" of civilians, as Human Rights Watch has condemned it, has intensified since January. Over 5,000 Tamils have been massacred in the past three months alone.

Crucially, this genocide by the Sri Lankan state has been enabled by the international community, including Britain. This is why tens of thousands of British Tamils have been protesting outside Parliament here for several weeks.

We are British citizens, but our government is ignoring us and turning a blind eye to the ongoing massacres of our relatives and community in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka as a country was evicted from the UN human rights council last year for its gross violations of the human rights of its people. Sri Lanka does not let independent journalists report freely. The current government has been accused of being complicit in many abductions and killings of journalists and others.

The UK and other western states have suggested that by destroying the Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka can be made peaceful. This is a profound misunderstanding of the state-racism and ethnic supremacy at the heart of the Sri Lankan crisis – a crisis that has now become genocide.

Britain is deeply implicated in this crisis.

When in 1948 Britain, the colonial power, granted independence to Sri Lanka, the Westminster-style democracy London set up allowed a pernicious Sinhala chauvinism to capture the state and begin the 60 years of violence and oppression the Tamils have now endured.

In 1977, after three decades of discrimination and state-backed mob violence, the entire Tamil political leadership united behind a demand for an independent state comprising the Tamil homeland as the only way to escape oppression.

The Sinhala-dominated state responded with violence, and a few years later, in 1983, a Tamil armed struggle emerged in response. This resistance to the Sinhala state is led by the Tamil Tigers or LTTE – Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Until 1983 Tamils have tried through many of their democratically elected leaders and parties to resolve this injustice by negotiations and peaceful means. Even during the armed struggle, LTTE has many times attempted to negotiate with successive Sri Lankan governments. As recently as 2002, a ceasefire agreement was negotiated between the government and the LTTE by the international community. Just as before, the Sri Lankan state abrogated from this agreement unilaterally in January 2008.

Since 1983, the problem in Sri Lanka has been characterised by western states as conflict, rather than state chauvinism. They have sought to support the Sinhala-dominated state and pressure the LTTE to "make peace".

The Tamils in Sinhala-dominated Sri Lanka face the same crisis as the people of Kosovo under Serbian rule. The international community could not make the Serbian state led by Milosovic cease its attempts to wipe out the people of Kosovo, and ultimately Kosovo was granted independence to assure their safety.

Having abandoned the Tamils to majoritarian tyranny, Britain has consistently ignored the Sinhala chauvinism deeply embedded in the Sri Lankan state. The UK has cynically sold weapons to the Sinhala military and tried to pass off the agitation by Tamils as one of poverty, merely requiring "development".

We want Britain to compel the racist regime in Sri Lanka to cease its genocide. As a member of the UN Security Council, a close ally of the US and a member of the EU, Britain has the ability to do this. As the former colonial power that placed the Tamils at risk, and as a state that has sought explicitly to champion democracy and freedom, it has a moral obligation, too.

Remember, most British Tamils have direct relatives – mums, dads, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces – left back in the war zone. They are genuinely concerned for their safety and whereabouts.

That is why Britain's Tamils are protesting outside Parliament day and night.

Sri Lankan President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday, April 24, appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps' and 'villages' in the North.

Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri was the former chief of the SLA in Jaffna, under whose command Jaffna witnessed hundreds of forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations in the period from 2006 to 2008. Meanwhile, Colombo has started to seek funds to 'resettle' and 'rehabilitate' civilians who have been captured from the LTTE controlled area.

Three more Sinhalese Government Agents from Kandy, Pollonnaruwa and Anuradhapura districts would assist Maj. Gen. Chandrsiri as Coordinating Officers to handle the affairs of the Tamil IDPs.

The only Tamil official to assist Chandrasiri is Vavuniyaa GA Ms. P.M.S Charles. She would help the former commander to liaise with the displaced, according to reports that appeared in Colombo press Friday.

Kandy GA Gotabhaya Jayarathna was appointed to handle construction, shelter, and lodging, Pollonnaruwa GA Lal Wimal to coordinate food, health and sanitation and Anuradhapura GA to handle water supply, electricity and infrastructure, the reports said.

Chandrasiri’s service was extended for a year when he retired from service in 2008, on the recommendation of Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the SLA chief.

His military service was extended for a year when he retired from service in 2008, on the recommendation of Maj. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the SLA chief.

The mass of Tamil women and children struggling to walk out of Sri Lanka's war zone were so emaciated that an aid worker thought he was seeing a horror movie.

Some of them had become so thin that their bones could be seen under the thin layer of fleshless skin. They were in bloodstained, dirty and torn clothes that had not been washed for several weeks.

Many had untreated festering wounds. Some were so sick that they could not stand on their feet. At the first opportunity, they collapsed on bare earth.

Barring a few who were willing to speak, most were too weak to even utter a few words. When they did, they had only one wish: water.

And they were famished. Most of them had not had a proper meal for a long time. Their eyes begged for food.

Countless others never made it out of the shrunken territory the Tamil Tigers still hold in Sri Lanka's war-battered northern coast.

These were people who had retreated along with the Tigers as the military rapidly advanced from January this year, raining shells and mortars, at times tearing apart civilians fleeing with the rebels.

Those who have interacted with the civilians undergoing treatment in hospitals in Sri Lanka's north quote them as saying that innumerable people died like flies as they tried to escape the military's far superior firepower. These sources spoke to IANS on the strict condition of anonymity.

One survivor described horrific scenes she saw in the rebel land. 'People were blown up. People lost legs or hands. Families got separated. There was no one to care for the seriously injured and dying.'

Two small hospitals in Tiger territory inundated with the dying ran out of life saving medicines.

The injured included those shot by the Tigers as they tried to escape.

Food was in short supply. What little was available was prohibitive. A population cowed down by armed combatants lived in bunkers, praying they would live.

The wounded tore parts of their clothes to dress themselves up. If the bleeding did not stop, then they would throw a lump of sand and then do the bandaging. Wounds festered.

Some who barely made it out of the war zone died in buses while being transported.

The blood and gore have driven a handful insane. One Tamil woman has been tied to the hospital bed because she keeps running in the ward topless. 

The Sri Lankan Government which was able to fire thousands of shells per day into the so-called safety zone to capture the civilians, doesn't have the means to feed them when they are captured according to Sri Lankan foreign minister who appealed to the international community for assistance.

On Tuesday, April 22, the Sri Lanka Army, which is still keeping the civilians inside the militarized zone, north of Oamanthai, for its screening, has asked the Tamil people of Vavuniyaa through loudspeaker announcements, to donate cooked-food packets to supply the captured civilians.

"The SLA move asking for food packets from people is seen only as a prelude to Colombo asking for huge international assistance to go ahead with its long-term structural genocide of Tamils and to buttress its sagging economy in the guise of refugee-maintenance and 'rehabilitation'," commented the District Secretariat official in Vavuniyaa.

As predicted by the District secretariat official, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama met diplomats on the morning of 23 April, and appealed for more help for the surge of civilians arriving in government controlled areas, after the Sri Lankan Army entered the No Fire Zone following an offensive that resulted in over 1000 civilian casualties.

"With the unprecedented influx of large numbers of people in such a short period of time, obviously we do face an emergency humanitarian situation," he told the diplomatic corps at the ministry, and appealed for urgent supplies for shelter, safe drinking water, sanitation and medicine.

Bogollagama said at a press conference that the US government had pledged to provide a field hospital, and India was sending 40,000 emergency family kits. The European Union had pledged US$22 million worth of assistance and other aid was in the pipeline. The Foreign Ministry had set up a task force to liaise with foreign donors and coordinate assistance.

So far, no civil official is able to confirm the arrival of the new batch of civilians into the internment camps of Vavuniyaa town. The real situation of the civilians in the SLA occupied Vanni territory is not known to any civil sources.

A separate Tamil Eelam is the only solution that will permanently put an end to the problems of the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka, said Tamil Nadu former Chief Minister and principal Leader of the Opposition, Jayalalitha Jayaram at an election rally in Salem city.

In a powerful, moving speech, on Saturday April 25, she resolved to fight to attain independent Eelam.

"I met Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar who has just returned from the war-zone in the Vanni. He gave me CDs and photographs of the atrocities. My heart boils when I looked at it," the AIADMK leader said. If this pathetic situation of the Tamil people has to be removed, if the problems of the Lankan Tamils has to come to an end, an independent Eelam is the only solution, she added.

"We will fight to attain that independent, separate Eelam. Till today, I have never said that separate Eelam is the only solution. I have spoken about political solution, this and that. But, now I emphatically say, a separate Eelam is the only permanent solution to the Lankan conflict, “she said.

Earlier, Jayalalitha had announced at an election rally in Thirunelveali (Tirunelveli) on April 18 that if elected in all the 40 seats, the AIADMK-led alliance would have a say in the next Union Government and would strive to get Eelam if a fair political solution was not found for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

Jayalalitha, had in the past espoused that a solution to the Tamil problem had to be found within the constitution of Sri Lanka.

Few days earlier, in an interview to a popular Tamil weekly, LTTE political wing head, B Nadesan described the AIADMK led alliance in Tamil Nadu as ‘an alliance of friends of Tamil Eelam’ which was widely interpreted as LTTE’s endorsement of AIADMK alliance in the upcoming Lok Sanha elections in  the southern state.

Protests, hunger strikes and shut downs in support of Eelam Tamils continued and political parties upped their pro-Eelam rhetoric in the southern state of Tamil Nadu amidst election campaigning for the May 13 Lok Sabha polls gained momentum.

As the Sri Lankan Army entered the northern part of the No Fire Zone in Mullaitheevu on Tuesday, April 20, causing large number of civilian casualties, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Muthuvel Karunanidhi called for a general state wide shut down and urged central government to give an ultimatum to Colombo to declare an "immediate and permanent ceasefire" in Sri Lanka.

Issuing a "final appeal", Karunanidhi asked all Tamils irrespective of their political affiliations to join the 12-hour strike.

"I insist that the Prime Minister, UPA chairperson (Sonia Gandi) and external affairs minister give an ultimatum to Sri Lankan government for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and save lakhs of Tamils," he said in the telegrams.

"What we want now is to stop the killings of Tamils there. There should be a permanent ceasefire," he said in the statement.

"We cannot do any thing except crying for the Tamils. It is for the Centre to act now," Karunanidhi, who has come under fire from opposition parties for not doing enough on the Lankan Tamils issue, said.

On the day of the strike, shops and business remained closed in Tamil Nadu and traffic stayed off the road.

Most of the shops, including petty stalls, in the city remained shut till 6 pm. Schools and colleges across the state were closed and exams postponed.

The Tamil cinema industry also came to a standstill with all its activities suspended, including screening of films in theatres.

However, the strike call by the DMK is widely seen as an attempt to garner votes by being sympathetic to the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka.

"The strike call is a feeble attempt by Karunanidhi to show the people that he is concerned about the happenings in Sri Lanka," said Cho S. Ramaswamy, a political commentator.

The Sri Lankan war has caught India's ruling Congress party in a bind. It needs to please ally DMK and win voters, without being seen as going soft on the Tamil Tigers who are blamed for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu including the AIADMK and its allies, PMK, MDMK and CPM, questioned purpose of the strike, considering the DMK is part of the ruling coalition in Delhi which backs the war.

AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa said in a statement that the shut-down call was bogus, and that a general strike would only worsen the problems of the people. "The AIADMK will go ahead with its election campaign plans on Thursday," she said.

She faulted Karunanidhi for failing to send out a potent warning to the centre to bring about a ceasefire. "If Karunanidhi can't apply adequate pressure on the Union government now, when will there be a ceasefire?" she asked. "And if India, a big power in the region, did not intervene and take strong measures, which other country would do so," she said.

PMK founder S Ramadoss criticised the DMK chief for calling for a strike only to counter a protest announced by the Sri Lankan Tamils' Protection Forum, comprising pro-LTTE parties. The chief minister should take concrete steps instead of engaging in competitive politics on this issue, he said.

Meanwhile, an AIADMK activist on Thursday, April 23, set himself ablaze in protest against alleged failure of both the Centre and Tamil Nadu governments to find a solution to the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.

Mani (43), a worker in a dyeing factory in Tirupur, doused himself with kerosene on the Kulathupalayam Main road and set himself ablaze, police said.

He was immediately rushed by the public to the Tirupur government hospital, where he is being treated for 90 per cent burns, succumbed to his injuries later.

A note reportedly recovered from Mani and addressed to AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa stated that both the Centre and state governments have failed to solve the Sri Lankan Tamils problem.

Mani is the 12^th person, to self immolate in the past few months, calling for action on the Eelam Tamils issue.

Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK president Muthuvel Karunanidhi said he believed Sri Lankan president Rajapakse would keep his word and not resume combat operations against Tamil Tigers, despite the Sri Lankan military declaring there is no ceasefire in place.

Karunanidhi had gone on a six-hour fast on Monday, April 27 to demand a truce.

He ended the fast after India said that Colombo had announced a halt in strikes against the LTTE – a claim which the Sri Lanka government completely denied.

"I'm totally satisfied with the Sri Lankan government's response to the fast I undertook on Monday. After a heavy shower there will be a drizzle that cannot be avoided and the present Lankan move of continuing the war is akin to it," Karunanidhi told reporters at a news conference at the party headquarters at Anna Arivalayam.

"I believe that Rajapaksa will keep his word. But I insist and urge that he must do as promised on Monday. In fact, I had offered to go on a fast nearly two months ago. VCK's Thol Thirumavalavan, DK's Veeramani and PMK's Ramadoss were present when I made that offer. But they prevented me from doing so," Karunanidhi told reporters.

Asked whether the peace talks could be held in Lanka without the involvement of the Tigers, as they were on the verge of a collapse, Karunanidhi indicated that a solution to the ethnic crisis was not possible without the LTTE.

“Even if you remove the vegetation from a land, it will blossom again by virtue of the fertility of the soil. This is evident from many freedom struggles.”

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam (AIADMK) general secretary J Jayalalithaa pooh-­poohed the fast observed by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Sri Lankan Tamils issue as a mere drama which was enacted to divert the attention of the people.

“It is obvious India is providing the support to Lankan army in the ongoing war. Then whose attention Karunanidhi wants to grab by observing the fast?,” she questioned.

She charged that the Lankan army had exposed the help rendered by India to them in the war.

“The geographical sketch of the Tamil people living there has been provided by the Indian army to their Sri Lankan counterpart. That is why their army has succeeded this far in the war,” she said.

“Therefore, in such a scenario, it is evident that the fast observed by the DMK is just a diversionary tactic to fool the electorate,” she said and added that “it was staged by Karunanidhi to escape the people’s wrath.”

Continuing its policy of building relationships with non-western states that are willing to provide aid despite its horrific human rights violations, Sri Lanka has formed full diplomatic ties with Libya and borrowed $500 million.

Following a visit by President Rajapakse in early April to the North African country, the two countries agreed to have full diplomatic relations. According to latest media reports, the Sri Lankan Government has selected the Chief of Protocol at the Foreign Ministry Sudantha Ganegama Arachchi as Sri Lanka’s first Ambassador to Libya.

Meanwhile, the Government Information Department in a statement released on Friday April 24, announced that during a special telephone conversation held with President Rajapaksa, the Libyan leader had promised to grant a loan of $500 million immediately. The loan was promised to Sri Lanka during a recent visit by President Mahinda Rajapakse to Libya.

Further to the statement, the Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi believes that the efforts of the President to bring about peace in the country would be fruitful and he praised the steps taken by the Sri Lankan government to defeat terrorism in the country completely.

In recent months Libya has opened its employment market to Sri Lanka offering as much as 100,000 jobs there to Sri Lankans.

"Barack Obama's administration has said it is committed to the principals of international law and humanitarian protection. Sri Lanka is the perfect opportunity for the new U.S. president to show that this is not empty rhetoric," according to an influential think tank which played a key role in the formation of Kosovo.

Robert Templer of the International Crisis Group (ICG) in article said: "Urgent, determined, and united international action is necessary to ensure the safety of the innocent -- by the United Nations Security Council, other multilateral organizations, and individual countries that have relations with Sri Lanka, including India and Japan.

Only international supervision, unhindered by the government, can provide the necessary level of protection," Templer added, reflecting the changing and opportunistic perspectives of the IC, whilst being elusive on the crux of the crisis – the Tamil national aspirations.

The International Crisis Group, which was highly critical of the Eelam Tamil liberation struggle sometimes back, theoretically contributed to Bush’s war on terror and the weakening of the Tamil defences leading to their genocide today, seems to have changed its perspectives, said a political analyst in Colombo.

Striking a big blow to the perspectives of Colombo and its Tamil paramilitary groups, the ICG report openly admitted the failure of the ‘post-conflict development’ in the East of Sri Lanka.

The report was critical at the thought of extending the failed model to ‘post-conflict’ north.

“The ICG’s perspective, reflecting the anxieties of donor countries is understandable. But its failure is not recognizing the fact that emotional involvement of the people and sense of belongingness are vital for any development,” the political analyst told TamilNet.

“In the context of the island of Sri Lanka, they can come to the minds of Tamils only when their national aspirations are satisfied,” he said.

“Anyone who aspires for peace and development has to first address this question, without the deceiving and patchwork solutions, such as the ones advocated by the ICG in its report. Any international involvement or development that doesn’t consider the perspectives of the concerned people, are not going to bring in any returns”, the Colombo political analyst said.

"Meanwhile, the ICG Asia programme director’s article reflected another newly emerging concern of the international community, the uprising of the diaspora Tamil youth,” he noted.

“An already humiliated Tamil diaspora is growing more volatile, angry, and mobilized – a potentially explosive combination,” Templer wrote.

“There are disturbing signs that a new generation of young Tamils in the United States, Canada, Britain, Europe, and India are being radicalized. That process has the potential to produce new forms of terrorism and violence. While the Tigers' targets have so far been contained to Sri Lanka, they might soon find new venues.”

“The dream of an independent Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka resonates powerfully across the diaspora and will certainly live on even after the defeat of the LTTE as a conventional military force”, said Templer.

“The knee-jerking comes from guilt”, was the response of the political analyst in Colombo.

On engaging the diaspora positively, Templer wrote: “All means of influencing the Tamil Tigers must be explored. The Tamil diaspora has an important role in persuading the LTTE to allow the trapped civilians to leave the target area and ultimately, agree to lay down their arms”.

Templer wants the diaspora to ask their fighters to lay down arms without achieving the political aspirations, without any assurances from the international community and even without at least recognition from the international community for their nationhood, the political analyst commented to TamilNet.

“He wants the diaspora to serve Colombo and the international community,” the analyst was quoted as saying.

“Templer says how the war ends will be critical to Sri Lanka’s future, but Tamils will not appreciate anyone approaching them from the perspective of saving the state of Sri Lanka,” he warned.

“The ICG has to think of a model of deconstructed Sri Lanka”, the political analyst said.

Millions of pounds of British aid are being channelled by the Sri Lankan Government into controversial internment camps where it plans to hold and screen up to 200,000 civilians fleeing the conflict with the Tamil Tigers, reported The Times newspaper in London on Tuesday.

Britain has donated 5,000 tents – worth £500,000 – and more emergency aid worth millions of pounds could follow soon, according to Mike Foster, Minister for International Development, who visited Sri Lanka, the paper said.

Mr Foster visited two camps and met Sri Lankan officials to urge them to call a ceasefire and allow aid agencies to help tens of thousands of civilians still stuck on the front line or on their way to the camps.

The government officials told him that aid agencies could help the civilians once they were inside the barbed wire enclosures – which some Tamil activists and Indian and Sri Lankan Tamil MPs have likened to concentration camps.

“It’s not an ideal situation but it’s important that we do this to help people who’ve been living in awful circumstances,” Mr Foster told The Times.

He said that the British tents, able to shelter 20,000 to 30,000 people, had been given to the United Nations refugee agency to distribute in the camps, which are already holding an estimated 113,000 refugees.

 “We made the case for a humanitarian ceasefire,” he said. “It was noted.”

The UN says that there are 50,000 inside, and tens of thousands making their way to the camps, which are already severely overcrowded.

Mr Foster said that he had visited two transit camps where 6,400 civilians were being held before being moved into internment camps, where they are to be screened to make sure they are not Tigers.

He was not taken to the three main camps in Vavuniya – called Zone 1, Zone 2 and Zone 3 – where an estimated 80,000 civilians are being held, according to aid workers there.

Conditions in those facilities are far worse, with drinking water in short supply, according to Lisabeth List, the medical co-ordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières, the medical aid agency.

“They’re desperate for water – it’s extremely hot so more and more people are severely dehydrated,” she said.

“Because there are so many elderly and children, at any moment somebody could die because of this lack of water.” She also said that there was insufficient food in Zone 2 and Zone 3.

“People are getting so desperate they’re having to throw food off the back of a truck and people are getting trampled,” she said. “We’re in full blown emergency mode now. We still expect a lot more people to come.”

Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, had made a personal appeal for a humanitarian team to enter the no-fire zone but the Government has said repeatedly that it would be too dangerous.

Meanwhile, children are being separated from their families, reported The Independent newspaper in Britain.

An eight-year-old girl, who had witnessed her father and sister die from shelling in Vanni, and then seen her mother shot, was separated from her brother – her only remaining relative – at the camps the Sri Lankan government is using to screen and inter civilians, the paper reported an aid worker as saying.

“A fifth of children in the camps where we're providing aid are either missing or separated from one of their parents,” a Save the Children worker was quoted as saying.

“Those who have reached safety speak vividly of the terror of separation from their families, while others describe the horror of fleeing from the "no-fire" zone. Many youngsters are trying to cope with the trauma of what they have experienced entirely on their own.” 

Exercising their right of free expression, 67 registered social welfare organisations of diaspora Tamils in France, took a pioneering democratic step of secret ballot on Saturday, 18 April, and unanimously declared support to the independence war of Eelam Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, said Ki Pi Aravinthan in Paris to TamilNet.

The Paris declaration read that in supporting the cause of Eelam Tamils, it has infallibly adopted the will and spirit of the Vaddukkoaddai Declaration of 1976 that was overwhelmingly mandated by Tamil voters in 1977, and was in line with the ideology behind the declaration of American independence, the Republic of France in 1789 and the UN human rights declaration of 1948.

Two representatives from each of the organisations participated in the deliberations. Each organisation had a single vote.

The secret voting was presided over, counted and declared by three local government dignitaries, Mr. Serge Setterahmane, Adjoint au Maire (Deputy Mayor), Clichy la Garenne, Mme. Mireille Gitton, Adjoint au Maire (Deputy Mayor), Clichy la Garenne and Mr. David Fabre, Conseiller, Savigny sur Orge.

Mr David Joseph of British Tamil Forum and Edward Sebastiampillai, a former Member of Parliament of Sri Lanka were special observers for the occasion.

The results of the deliberations and the declaration will be sent to the President of France and to the ministries of foreign affairs and home affairs, the organizers said.

Talking on the significance of the mandate and the declaration, Mr. Aravinthan said that it democratically marks the phase of a new synthesis of components of the independence war: the will of the concerned people, the will of their diaspora and the armed struggle ensuing as a consequence of failure of all other means.

The Eelam Tamil diaspora rightfully has a say in this matter, as they are largely people who were forced to leave due to events followed the Tamil-rejected constitution of 1972 and the Tamil mandate for self-determination in 1977, Aravinthan said.

No democratic space was provided to Tamils by any government after 1977 for the free expression of their will on the national question. All subsequent elections took place under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) of 1979 and after the Sixth Amendment to the constitution in 1983, both banning secession, he observed.

As one cannot foresee any free elections taking place for Tamils to express their will for nationhood in the current scenario of the island, the stakeholders outside have a duty in upholding space for free mandate, through transparent democratic means, verifiable by the international community, Aravinthan said.

In his observation, the Paris meet of registered organisations in France for a secret ballot supervised by neutral observers was in a way an experiment in the line of electoral colleges.

The diaspora has to creatively adopt credible and democratic ways and means to mobilise the will and free expression of Eelam Tamils all over the world. It is something that we ought to pass to the next generation, said Aravithan, a former militant of 1970s and the only surviving associate of Sivakumaran, the pioneer of Tamil militancy.

A hunger strike by 6 Tamils in Australia, calling for the immediate halt of atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka that began on 11 April at 5:00 p.m. was concluded 17 April with an unprecedented rally in the capital city of Canberra where more than 8500 diaspora Tamils took part.

A long time peace activist, Lara Pullin, who came to see the hunger strikers said, “The rallies by the Tamils have gathered the same momentum that I saw during pre East Timor independence time and Anti-apartheid movement; one gets the feeling that Tamils have come to a stage where they are saying ‘Enough is Enough’ ” reports from Canberra said.

The youths on hunger strike had put forward four basic demands:

·         Immediate ceasefire

·         Allow food, medicine and aid into the conflict zone

·         Allow medical & other vital services into the conflict zone

·         Allow the Tamil people, both in the conflict zone and those indefinitely detained in concentration camps, to decide independently where they wish to reside.

The hunger strike and the continuous protest started in Parramatta, Sydney and then proceeded to Prime Minister’s residence where hundreds of protesters stayed the whole night outside Kiribilli House without relenting to police pressure.

After receiving unprecedented media coverage, the hunger strikers and protesters moved to Canberra where they were joined by hunger strikers from Melbourne.

During the rally in Canberra, the extremely weakened hunger strikers in wheel chairs and more than 8500 protesters coming from more than 5 different states marched to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Following a visit by Senator Bob Brown and assurances from the DFAT of the hunger strikers and protesters concluded the 6 day protest.

One of the hunger strikers collapsed during the rally and was taken away in an ambulance.

The hunger strikers and protesters vowed more action to come.

Parameswaran Subramaniyam continues his fast unto death undettered, placing five demands including an immediate stop of the inhuman killings of innocent Tamils in Vanni by Sri Lanka armed forces.

“I will be happy to lay down my life for the sake of Tamil people,” Parameswaran said.

Protestors also continue their stance in front of the UK parliament at Westminster, having been there over three weeks, since 6 April.

The protest demonstration against the relentless attacks on the Tamils in Vanni has drawn media coverage in Britain and several countries of the world.

‘The South Korean Times’ media persons met Parameswaran and stood bearing placards with slogans against the genocide of the Tamils, in Parliament Square.

Hundreds of foreign nationals participated in the protest demonstration launched Saturday by the London branch of the International Committee against the Disappearance of Tamils in Trafalgar Square to draw the attention of the International Community to the continuing disappearance of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Tamil diaspora protestors also staged a protest in front of a Mark and Spencer establishment last Saturday distributing handbills calling the boycott of Sri Lankan produces sold in the department store.

On Monday, 27 April, some protestors went to the Sri Lankan and Indian High Commissions, where clashes with the police ensued. Early in the morning, about 300 protestors gathered at each of the High Commissions, but numbers soon swelled to the thousands, with the Times of India reporting that there were 3,000 estimated to be in front of the Indian High Commission at one stage. By 9am, windows at the Indian High Commission were damaged and 6 people had been arrested, three at each embassy.

Meanwhile, Parameswaran continues his tiring and in many ways lonely vigil. In a faint voice barely audible, 28-year-old Parameswaran, on the 20th day of his hunger strike in London said last Sunday the world is waiting for right action from the US president.

“White house said stop shelling and warned Sri Lanka that a military end of the conflict will end a unified Sri Lanka. But Colombo is air attacking. We are waiting for right action. 10,000 civilians died in three months. Thousands and thousands are suffering in the hands of the Sri Lankan military and in the refugee camps - the barbed wire camps, without international monitoring. This is clearly, without any doubt genocide… I condemn all nations for not condemning. I strongly condemn the Indian government for supporting the war in Sri Lanka”, Parameswaran said.

"I am on hunger strike. I want an answer, otherwise no one can stop me," Parameswaran told TamilNet.

The demands put forward by Parameswaran are:

·         Immediate and permanent ceasefire

·         Food and medical aid should be allowed to reach the civilians immediately with international monitoring committees and allow “Mercy Mission to Vanni”

·         UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, arrange to meet our representatives.

·         Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are our sole representatives and UK government should lift the ban on LTTE.

·         UN should call for an immediate referendum to the Tamils regarding whether they want separate nation or to remain as Sri Lanka.

Students are actively promoting the campaign by attending protests as a student group, uniting to organize an awareness week aimed to draw and educate non-Tami students. Each university also held a 24 hour fast where a rota system was maintained to facilitate students to attend the ongoing protest outside Westminster.

"This shows the third generation of Tamils is also continuing aims our elders have laid out for us," Gayathirie Sooriyacumar, a dental student born in UK, told TamilNet.

"Other young members of the Tamil Diaspora, and I, used to feel that the suffering of Tamil people in Sri Lanka seemed so far away, and so distant," Gayathirie admits.

"However, after attending this protest and speaking to fellow protesters, I now believe, I too have a responsibility to my suffering brothers and sisters in the national liberation struggle."

"I see the struggle as one that has been suppressed for long and is ready to burst. As I learn more and more about the struggle my people face, I am frustrated of how the rest of the world ignores the genocide that is happening right now in the ‘beautiful country of white sandy beaches, lush greenery, where all communities live in harmony side by side,' which is the image the Sri Lankan Government tries to project to the world. However, these protests aim to raise awareness of the truth and encourages the use of free media into the war stricken areas," she says.

The chants and slogans continue throughout the day into the night, stopping only every 3 hours for 2 minutes in order to respect and remember those suffering on the ground in Mullaiththeevu.

"This minute helps us meditate on the many innocent lives of the citizens as well as those who have sacrificed their lives in this war. The 2 minutes pause is ended by all repeating, ‘ 'Thamizharin thaakam thamizh eezhath thaayakam', meaning Tamils’ yearning is for Tamil Eelam," Gayathirie said.

"Although Parames Anna knows the consequences, he believes that he is now the British government’s responsibility. He is determined to continue his campaign for a cause, however, I can't imagine how the expatriate Tamils will respond if he carries out his threat and loses his life if the British government fails to act to intervene in the Sri Lankan conflict," Gayathirie continues.

"I support and look up to his determination, but find it difficult to watch him slip away in front of the Houses of Parliament, in the eyes of the general public and surrounding supporters, with no interference or promises made to fulfil their main requests of immediate and permanent ceasefire, food and medical aid allowed to reach the civilians and lifting the ban on LTTE."

In the first official US statement on the Sri Lankan situation, the White House has cautioned that, "It would compound the current tragedy if the military end of the conflict only breeds further enmity and ends hopes for reconciliation and a unified Sri Lanka in the future."

In a statement released on Friday April 24, the Obama White House said it was "deeply concerned about the plight of innocent civilians caught up in the conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers and the mounting death toll" and called on both sides to adhere to international humanitarian law and to "stop fighting immediately and allow civilians to safely leave the combat zone".

The statement further stated that the White House is "very concerned about reports of violations, and take these allegations very seriously."

Full text of the White House statement on continuing conflict in Sri Lanka follows:

The United States is deeply concerned about the plight of innocent civilians caught up in the conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers, and the mounting death toll. We call on both sides to stop fighting immediately and allow civilians to safely leave the combat zone.

We call upon the Government of Sri Lanka to stop shelling the “safe zone” and blocking international aid groups and media from accessing those civilians who have managed to escape. International aid workers should have access to all sites where internally displaced persons are being registered and sheltered. The United States is working with international partners to attempt to care for those civilians who can be reached.

We call on both sides to strictly adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law. We are very concerned about reports of violations, and take these allegations very seriously.

It would compound the current tragedy if the military end of the conflict only breeds further enmity and ends hopes for reconciliation and a unified Sri Lanka in the future.