HOW COULD A BRITISH GOVERNMENT CABINET MINISTER ADDRESS MEETINGS ORGANISED BY LTTE FRONT ORGANISATIONS WHEN THE UK GOVERNMENT HAS BANNED THIS TERRORIST OUT FIT ? OVER TO YOU PRIME MINISTER RT.HON. GORDON BROWN:
A meeting organised by the British Tamil Forum held on 15th September 2008 at Zorastrian Centre, 440 Alexander Avenue, Harrow Middx, UK.
[ad#200×200]Although this was billed as a public meeting, almost all anti LTTE people were excluded but I, together with two other Sinhalese, managed to slip into the meeting. It was a stage- managed LTTE event.
After Lord Malloch Brown ended his speech criticising both GOSL and Tigers for the present situation in Sri Lanka, we saw Gareth Thomas reading out email questions to Malloch Brown. All questions were anti GOSL whereas our members and many others had submitted hundreds of questions against LTTE terror but none was raised by the MP!
All questions had been vetted by the organisers to exclude unfavourable ones. The questions from the audience were also only from LTTE supporters. When Lord Malloch Brown said that LTTE had never contested an election and, therefore, it was not possible to judge the support among Tamils, the audience including some of the organisers chanted ‘we are all LTTE’.
Some of the questions from the audience like ‘why don’t you hold a referendum among Tamils in UK bordered on sheer lunacy. They jeered him when he said anything critical of the LTTE.
Robert Evans MEP made a completely pro LTTE speech. Known LTTE thugs were seen walking around in a threatening manner. Half way through the meeting Keith Vaz MP made an appearance. He was conducted to the stage and they all clapped wildly as if Prabakaran had appeared on the stage!
Tamils opposed to LTTE were not allowed to raise any questions and one Tamil activist Jayadevan was assaulted by some goons. The meeting ended abruptly and even Keith Vaz was not called to speak.
The question is how could British Labour government minister address meetings organised by LTTE front organisations when the government had banned this terrorist outfit.
Douglas Wickramaratne
President Sinhala Association of Sri Lankans in UK
-Lankaweb-