The speech given by Tina Edwards on 17 May, 1998 at Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom on the occasion of the March Against Tamil Tiger Terrorism.

Today is a momentous day for Sri Lankans in the UK, who are committed to seeing an end to this conflict that is ravaging our motherland.

We are gathered here today as a group of people, in unity, to show our solidarity against Tamil Tiger terrorism, that is destroying the very essence of Sri Lanka. The aim of this march, apart from requesting Britain to proscribe the Tamil Tiger terrorists in the UK, is also to highlight the criminal activities they engage in while living in this country. They are the most ruthless terrorist organisation in the world.

The separatist violence they have started in the North and the East of Sri Lanka is one that is totally unjustified. One power hungry fanatic pursuing his utopian dream of a separate state has created a climate of fear by his killing sprees and venomous attacks on civilians Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese.

Our brave fellow compatriots are fighting on the battlefield. We who live in the safe havens and the sanctity of the West should not remain silent. We must gather together and fight this common enemy. While the Tamil tiger terrorists are engaged in a battle in Sri Lanka some of their conniving comrades live in the West, in the United States, Canada, Australia and all over Europe. And it is these supporters of terrorism who extort money and swell the war coffers of the LTTE.

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 their terrorist activities. It is now our turn in the UK to expose the Tamil Tiger terrorists for who they truly are.

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. Once they set foot in the UK they know that the world is their oyster and they are confident that the UK will not deport them. They then fabricate stories and claim asylum in Britain. The land of opportunities as they see it.

Most of these illegal refugees are not fleeing persecution in Sri Lanka as they claim. Instead, most of them are economic migrants. If they are refugees in the true sense as they claim why must they travel thousands of miles to a country whose language and customs they are not familiar with, when instead, just 25 miles away from the Sri Lankan border, they can seek refuge in a Tamil state with 50 million fellow Tamils. Let me tell you, these bogus migrants come all the way to the UK because they know of the economic benefits and social benefits they gain at the expense of British tax payers. Why should the British public spend their hard earned money to nurture a terrorist organisation when these funds can be used to develop the British health service, police services and spend more on education?

Senior police officers from the special branch and new Scotland yard. some of whom may be amongst you today, have claimed that these Tamil Tiger terrorists are engaged in fraudulent business practices spanning from corner shop empires to petrol stations. They estimate that more than 70% of the petrol stations in the greater London area are operated directly or indirectly by the LTTE or its front organisations. Most of these sweatshops employs illicit migrants who also claim social security benefits, defrauding the British Tax payer millions of pounds. A portion of their wages is then sent to the LTTE war coffers. Last year alone, security agencies estimate that 2.5 million pounds was sent to the Tamil Tiger terrorist war budget from this country.

It is estimated by the Home office that over 350 million pounds a year is spent on these bogus asylum seekers. 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.

Gun running, video and audio piracy, violation of international maritime laws, using children in battle, abuse of asylum and the trafficking of persons are some of the activities for which the Tamil Tiger terrorists are notorious around the world.

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.

It is London that is the epicentre of their international network and it is from here they conduct their campaigns of extortion. 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. The LTTE have their international office at 211 Katherine street in east London. Here they maintain to the world that they do not conduct, contribute, nor are they in any way directly or indirectly involved, in any militant activity. Instead, they claim, they are involved in humanitarian work.

The LTTE office in London, with money raised in the UK is financing terrorism in Sri Lanka. Let me tell you what took place in Colombo just six months ago. Anthonymutthu Nandakumar and Selvathungam Vanigaratnam were stopped by a police team from the Modera police station in Colombo. Nandakumar took the coward's way out and swallowed the trade mark cyanide capsule, but the other was stopped in time. Later Vanigaratnam told a judge that both of them had been given 10,000 pounds by an LTTE activist, with a British Passport, in London, to carry out a murderous mission in Colombo. We believe that this man who gave the money operates not far from here. Just across the river in Long Lane they have another place of infamy. Eelam House. Do you think sending money to LTTE cadres in Colombo to conduct murderous missions, to find out more places to plant bombs to kill more people, is humanitarian work? It was just two months ago when 18 people, including six young children. all of them under 10 years of age, were killed by a Tamil tiger terrorist suicide bomber not so far from the place where Nandakumar and Vanigaratnam were arrested. Did a part of the money Vanigaratnam said he got from London, go to purchase the school bus the Tamil Tiger terrorists used to hide that dastardly bomb. Will we ever know?.

Sothilingam Shanthakumar, who also works at Eelam House in London purchased over 50 tons of high explosives and 10 tons of plastic explosives from the Ukraine. These explosives, purchased with money raised in the UK, were used to blow up the Central Bank in Colombo in 1996, killing nearly 100 people and maiming more than 1300 people. Was that also humanitarian work?

The scourge of many modern societies is narcotics. Tamil Tigers engage in drug smuggling as a means of earning money for their war fund. In the eighties, over 400 Tamil Tiger drug couriers were in Italian jails having being caught in the act. Just imagine. These criminal activities that civilised societies frown upon are funded largely by money robbed from the British social welfare system and by extortion.

V. Manoharan is the head of the International Secretariat which is in London. But Manoharan lives in France under French police surveillance. Why? I hear you ask. Let me tell you. Manoharan who heads the LTTE international network is a convicted drug dealer. He was caught by the French police and convicted of drug dealing in 1985. He spent two years in a French prison. The conditions of his release state that he has to report to the French police once a month and he was not allowed to leave the prefecture in which he lives for an extended time. This convicted drug dealer is the head of the LTTE's international secretariat. Their so called humanitarian work is being organised by an ex-con.

The term ethnic cleansing came into vogue with the onset of the Bosnian Crisis. Ethnic cleansing was practised widely long before that by the Tamil Tiger terrorists. A prime example was in 1990 when the entire Muslim population of the Jaffna District, men, women and children, were given 24 hours, just one day, to pack their bags and leave their homes. These people were chased away from their homes into refugee camps where they now live as destitutes. If this is not ethnic cleansing then what is? The LTTE war is not against Sinhalese, it is against all communities- Muslims, Burghers, Malays and Tamils.

Kokilai, Arantalawa, Dollar Farm and Kent Farm are all places where men, women, children and babies were either, shot, burnt or hacked to death by the Tiger terrorists to clear those areas of Sinhalese and Muslims. 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. One Hundred and Sixty Muslims kneeling in prayer at a mosque in Katthankudy were gunned down in cold blood. That is ethnic cleansing a? la LTTE. That is the nature of these killers. These killers led by a fascist murderer who is wanted in India too, for the murder of their most charismatic leader - Rajiv Gandhi.

Democracy is a word that the Tamil Tiger terrorists are alien to. They treat anything democratic with contempt and hatred. From 1974 to 98, Tamil Tiger terrorists killed over 70 democratically elected Tamil politicians ranging from mayors to members of parliament. It was the same killer responsible for the killing of Mr Gandhi, who shot to death the popular mayor of Jaffna. Alfred Durraiappa, in 1975. Twenty-three years later another mayor now holds office in Jaffna. She is Mrs. P. Yogeswaran, but just three hours ago she was gunned down in cold blood. She made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of democracy. Her husband, another popular Jaffna politician and long time Jaffna MP, V. Yogeswaran was killed on 14 July 1989, by the followers of the same fanatic. Some of you would have known Mr Yogeswaran. he practised law in Britain for many years. It was not only Rajiv Gandhi that the LTTE killed in India. On 21 June 1990, LTTE killers gunned down G. Yogasangari, another Sri Lankan member of parliament who represented the Jaffna district. in the streets of Madras. Is this not yet another indication to the democratic governments of this world that the Tamil Tiger terrorists are not interested in an agenda of peace and democracy?

A few days ago Olara Ottunu, the special representative of the United Nations Secretary General for children and armed conflict, paid a visit to Sri Lanka. and at the invitation of the Tamil Tigers met with them in the jungles of Wanni. Let me share with you a press statement issued by Mr Ottunu after his meeting with the Tamil Tiger terrorists. I quote. The LTTE leadership, as of today, undertook not to use children below the age of 18 years in combat. They further undertook not to recruit children below the ages of 17 years

Friends, is this not an admission on the part of the LTTE that they have been using children barely into their teens, barely into their teens? These children are being used as cannon fodder by unscrupulous Tiger leaders. If only the LTTE lives up to this commitment, I must say, two thirds of their present fighting force will have to return to the bosom of their Parents and Sri Lanka will once again be a haven of peace. The LTTE also tacitly admitted that they drove the population of Jaffna, out of Jaffna, herded like cattle, one night in 1995 to the jungles of Wanni. Out of nearly 800 thousand people who were forced out, over 550 thousand have managed to reach the sanctuary of Jaffna again. Now the LTTE is doing their damn best to keep the remaining 250 thousand in Wanni. Because, if not for them, the LTTE would not have the cannon fodder they need, the human shields and the new recruits. If this is the way they treat their own kith and kin, can you imagine what they are doing to others?

In the third commitment that was given the LTTEs leadership acknowledged and undertook to review its strategies and tactics with regard to the bombing of civilian populations and sites throughout the country.

So they are now admitting to the terrible violence they have perpetrated all this time, killing and maiming thousands of people through their practices of indiscriminate bombing of civilian centres. I wonder what the LTTE propagandists at Eelam house have to say about this. For years now they have being strenuously denying to the British media and public that the LTTE perpetrated these crimes.

Let us hope that the Tamil Tigers will keep to these promises given to Mr Ottunu. But we have learnt from past experiences that these terrorists do not care two hoots about the promises they make. The United States, Canada, Malaysia, Australia, Switzerland, Germany and India have joined with Sri Lanka in banning, proscribing and taking other actions against Tamil Tiger terrorists and their activities. In these countries, anyone caught aiding, abetting or engaging in Tamil Tiger Terrorist activities are being incarcerated or punished. These countries have woken up to the horrors of Tamil Tiger terrorism. 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.

The UK government is quick to sympathise when a bomb explodes in Sri Lanka and to condemn the Tiger terrorists for bringing about more strife and bloodshed. As much as we Sri Lankans appreciate these messages of condolence, we would like to see some firm and positive action taken against these terrorists, specially here in Britain, where they still continue to enjoy the famous British hospitality. Instead of being an asset to society they have become a burden to the very society that is nurturing them.

The United Kingdom has often in the past and even today, continues to reaffirm their vehement opposition to any form of terrorism. But what puzzles most people is the apparent lack of concrete action by British authorities to prevent these murderous activities of Tamil Tiger terrorists conducted from the centres of their deceitful international web in 211 Katherine Street and 202 Long Lane.

Drug trafficking, piracy, fraud, robbery, gun running and people smuggling are activities that are not conducive to a democratic and peaceful society. Surely it is in the interest of the British people to prevent the Tamil Tigers from further destroying the very fabric of its democratic and peaceful society.

As Sri Lankas foreign minister said here in London last month, Sri Lanka has been a true and trusted friend and ally of Britain throughout the past years; both countries have enjoyed the warm ties existing between them. What Sri Lankan people find utterly nauseating, utterly nauseating, is the fact that this stalwart of peace and justice, the United Kingdom, is doing nothing to bring to justice the Tamil Tiger terrorists.

If Sri Lanka is to enjoy peace, it is imperative that the Tamil Tiger terrorists are defeated. This can only be done by first dismantling its international network that raises the funds used to fuel the war. It is then that conditions conducive to peace can be created. Furthermore their fascist of a leader and his henchmen must be taken out of the equation, if not they will continue to brainwash the future generations with their manic, despotic and distorted visions of a divided island.

Today this despotic Tamil Tiger Terrorist Leader has been compared to the infamous Pol Pot of Kampucheas killing fields fame. In the Western press, The New York Times in its 20 May 95 issue called him Asias latest master of terror. The Times of London called him a megalomaniac, comparing him not only to Pol Pot, but also to Hitler.

Massacres of civilians, ethnic cleansing of men, women and children, suicide bombings, destruction of private, public and religious buildings, other property and the persecution of even their own kith and kin who dare to defy them are sufficient to label the Tamil Tiger terrorists as this worlds most menacing, ruthless and bloodthirsty terrorist group

People of Britain we appeal to you. Stop harbouring these scoundrels of war and ban them from this country.

We Sri Lankans as one people, one voice and one country are on a long journey to peace. For us in the United Kingdom the lull is over, this is the second step we have taken to achieve our goal - the banning of Tamil Tiger terrorists in UK. The first step is the vigil which continues to provide a yeoman service by publicising the atrocities committed by the Tamil Tiger Terrorists. During our quest for the proscription of the Tamil Tiger terrorists from the UK we will undoubtedly come across several obstacles. We must as one people face these hurdles with courage and steadfastness.

What is happening here today is unique. Never in the history of our community in Britain has there been such a massive mobilisation of people against this barbaric terror group. Let us rally together in solidarity, face the future with hope and resolve to continue our efforts in our quest for our final goal. Let us stop this carnage, this senseless and unnecessary conflict.

We must make it a priority to stand together as one against Tamil Tiger terrorism. Your presence is ample evidence that we can muster the support we need. It is now up to us both collectively and individually to keep this momentum going and carry on our fight to ban the LTTE in UK.

I like you to think of the following as you leave Trafalgar square. It is just over three months since the vigil outside Downing Street began, since then more than 400 people, 400 people, have been killed in Sri Lanka, due to this conflict created by the Tamil Tiger terrorists. How many more must die till we are able to persuade the British Government to proscribe these terrorists in the UK?

On behalf of the organising committee, I would like to thank you very sincerely for your presence here. This is ample evidence that we can stand up as one and defeat the enemy that is tearing our country apart. Sri Lanka needs us and we are duty bound to help her in her hour of need, it is not only our help but also the help of countries where these Tamil Tiger terrorists hide that is needed. We appeal to you, people of great Britain. Wake up to the perils of Tamil terrorism and ban them from your shores, if not Sri Lankas problem today will be your problem tomorrow.

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