Please action now:
International day of action
Protest at India House,
Aldwych, London WC2B 4na
Wednesday 8 April 4:00pm – 5:30pm
Not a rupee, not a bullet for the war-mongering Rajapakse regime!
“Given the scale of what is happening in Sri Lanka, the silence is inexcusable. More so because of the Indian government’s long history of irresponsible dabbling in the conflict.”
Arundhati Roy, Booker Prize winning writer.
In a statement sent to the public meeting organised by the ‘Stop the Slaughter of Tamils’ in Chennai attended by over 500 people.
As protests continue outside Parliament in central London calling for an end to the civil war in Sri Lanka, Tamil and Sri Lankan socialists and activists make the final preparations for a day of international protest tomorrow, Wednesday 8 April.
The protests, called for by the campaign group ‘Stop the slaughter of the Tamils’, will target Indian embassies world wide for their deals with the Rajapakse regime to supply armaments which have been used in the genocidal slaughter of the Tamil people.
Supporters of the campaign in India itself will be protesting in Delhi and Chennai against their government’s complicity in the slaughter being carried out.
Protest in London will take place moving picket around the Aldwych outside India House between 4:00pm and 5:30pm.
Background Information:
Faced with starvation and death, nearly 200,000 Tamil people are trapped in a small area in the north of Sri Lanka. They have been in a nightmare situation since early January. There are no facilities – water, food, medicine or shelter. There are no hospitals in the area. There are no facilities to treat the injured. There are no services to deal with the growing numbers of dead bodies. These horrors go beyond those seen in all the years of war in Sri Lanka. Over 3,000 people have died in recent weeks. The Sri Lankan government of Mahinda Rajapakse refuses to cooperate in a ceasefire. All critics of the government are silenced.
Indian government hypocrisy:
The Indian government sees Sri Lanka as a ‘golden key’ that will open up an economic advantage for India, particularly in the current global economic slowdown. In order to maintain its economic domination in Sri Lanka, the Indian government has repeatedly said that it will not interfere in the internal affairs of the Sri Lankan government. In fact the Indian central government has been accused of providing arms and expert assistance to the Sri Lankan government. But the ordinary people, the workers and poor masses in Tamil Nadu, have shown their opposition to the slaughter of Tamils in the north of Sri Lanka and their anger at the Tamil Nadu government’s hypocrisy. Students have protested, fasts and human chains have been organised and the Madras (Chennai) High Court Advocates’ Association took formidable strike action. Despite this the Tamil Nadu government and India’s central government continue to turn a blind eye to the killings and suffering.
Please sent your protest letters to [model protest letter- Protest Letter]
Mr. Shiv Shankar Mukherjee
High Commissioner of India
India House
Aldwych
London
WC2B 4NA
fax 020 7836 4331
administration@hcilondon.in
[or]
President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapakse,
priu@presidentsoffice.lk
[or]
Government of India…
presidentofindia@rb.nic.in;
pmindia.nic.in/write.htm
Please copy to join@stoptheslaughteroftamils.org
Ends