Guest blog by Dominic Whiteman:
The fact that the notorious Vaiko (full name: Y Gopalasamy) has been allowed into the UK is bad enough. He is the leader of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhaham (MDMK) - a pro-LTTE (Tamil Tigers) party in Tamil Nadu, India.
But to let him speak tomorrow - as he is intending to - at an event called Heroes' Day (glorifying the deaths of LTTE cadres) at the London ExCeL Centre is both short-sighted and mistaken of the British Government, who have been taking advice from the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils after originally refusing his visa application. Vaiko is now in London.
The LTTE is a banned terrorist group here in the UK and has been for the last eight years. No-one should be meeting to celebrate the LTTE's dead cadres, let alone a man who openly glorifies violence and terrorism like Vaiko. Indeed, as the Centre for Social Cohesion has been advocating all week (see our Monday press release), the ExCeL Centre event should not go ahead at all. Heroes' Day events in the UK have a history of glorifying terrorism - the highlight of the gathering is a broadcast of the Interpol-wanted LTTE's leader, Velupillai Prabakharan's, Heroes' Day speech from Sri Lanka.
The All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils only works with the British Tamil Forum (BTF). British Tamils who seek peace in Sri Lanka - rather than a bloody fight to the end - are not represented by the BTF nor by this All Party Parliamentary Group.
Why the UK authorities are listening to the All Party Group, run by Virendra Sharma MP and Keith Vaz MP makes no sense at all. They are unrepresentative of Britain's Tamils. They merely represent the wishes of the LTTE, which raises considerable funds here in the UK for its bloody war against the Government of Sri Lanka's military.
When we as a society are seeking to uphold bans against Islamist groups who threaten us, it seems incorrect and immoral of us to be allowing the public gathering of a terrorist group and its cheerleaders right under our noses in London so they can celebrate their fallen comrades and, worse still, raise funds for their cause, which results in thousands of deaths in Sri Lanka.
Catalogue of LTTE atrocities on the Muslims in the East in 1990.
On 23 July 1990 5 Muslims who were staying in the Jariya Mosque in Sammanthurai were killed by the LTTE and three others injured.
On 29 of June 1990 the LTTE killed 6 Muslims including the chief Trustee of the Hijar Mosque, Oddamavadi .
On 2 July 1990 14 farmers were shot and hacked to death at Akkaraipatttu.
On the 3rd July 1990, (on the eve of Eid- Ul- Fithr) UL Dawood , the member of Citizen Committee of the Batticaloa District, and the Cluster Principal of Alighar Central school , Eravur, Al Haj M.L.A Gafoor .J.P and Quazi and his father in law U.L.Ali Mohamed were kidnapped and killed by the armed LTTE cadres.
On 7 July 1990, !7 Muslims were killed at Puthur , a border Muslim village in Polonnaruwa
On the 14th July 1990 , 69 Muslims who were on their way back from Hai pilgrimage were kidnapped and killed by the LTTE at Onthachimadam in the Battiucaloa District..
On 19th July 1990 , Muslim passengers were abducted and killed at Ampilanthurai in the Batticaloa District.
On the 3 August 1990, 140 Worshippers at Kattankudy Meeraniya and Hussainiya mosques were murdered and sixty six were injured.
On 11th August 1990 (Early morning of 12th August 1990) 127 Muslims were massacred at Eravur.
On 12 August 1990 four farmers who were working in the paddy fields in Sammanthurai were killed by the LTTE.
1n August 1990 eight Muslims were shot to death at Akkraipattu. Town.
On 30th of January 1990, A SLMC provincial councilor of North east Provincial Council , M.Y.M.Mansoor was shot by the LTTE and later his corpse was removed from the Kamunai General Hospital by the LTTE. The LTTE also killed five Muslim patients in a private hospital and abducted 10 people, including a doctor on the same day.