Tamils march in London as Sri Lanka mops up Tigers

The number of Sri Lankan Tamils protesting in Parliament Square today has risen from hundreds to thousands, as they call for the Sri Lankan military to end their assault on the last remaining Tamil Tiger (LTTE) stronghold in the northeast of Sri Lanka.
 
Some of the London protestors are carrying red flags with the symbol of the Tamil Tigers, the separatist rebels. Many say that they have lost family members during the country's decades-long civil war.

One, Parameswaran Subramaniyan, has been on a hunger strike for two weeks in a makeshift tent. Growing weaker and weaker, he says that he will not eat until the British Government has arranged a ceasefire. "Britain has a moral responsibility to intervene," his spokesman said. "If he dies, it will be on Britain's hands."
 
In response, Gordon Brown has released a statement saying that he is "deeply concerned" and sent Des Browne, his special representative, to New York for discussions at the UN about the treatment of Tamil civilians caught up in the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil separatists.

Today, as the Sri Lankan government gave the rebels a 24-hour deadline to surrender before they launch a final assault, video footage emerged which showed around 25,000 civilians fleeing the 17 sq km no-fire zone controlled by the Tamil Tigers in the north-east of the island, after government troops broke through a large earthen fortification.

The government claims the civilians had been refused permission to leave the zone and were being used as a human shield. President Mahinda Rajapakse said: "The footage clearly shows that the people are defying the LTTE and escaping. They are running to safety. The only thing [LTTE leader Velupillai] Prabhakaran can now do is to surrender."

The Sri Lankan military says that three suicide bombers killed 17 and wounded 200 of the civilians who were fleeing. But with the Sri Lankan government refusing to allow free access to the area to journalists and aid workers, these reports - and the rebels' reports that the military have killed many civilians during their offensive - are impossible to verify.
 
Observers in Sri Lanka believe the majority of the Tamils escaping the conflict zone will be kept by the Sri Lankan government in overcrowded and unsanitary camps. There, they will have to contend with disease, water shortages, makeshift barbed wire fences and a government which will refuse to let them leave. ·