Why These Tamil Sons in London, Mourning Their Slain Mothers in Sri Lanka, Have Placed Westminster Under Siege [Edition 2]

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WHAT'S your name, please?" "Miles." "First name?" "Superintendent." "Your parents must have been very farsighted." "Yes, when they had me 47 years ago they probably realised I'd end up here one day." Here being the steps of Portcullis House, the MPs' office block in Westminster, and Superintendent Miles being the Met commander on the ground charged with policing this, the third day of protests by British Tamils inflamed by the military actions of the Sri Lankan government as it moves to extirpate the last of the Tamil Tiger fighters hanging on in the city of Vanni.

The UN may have called for a ceasefire but there's a widespread perception among the Tamil community here that the British Government is essentially in cahoots with the Sri Lankans and that aid from both the UK, the World Bank and the IMF is being diverted into arms purchases. Besides, as Subramaniyam Paramestvaran, one of a pair of Tamil students from Mitcham who have gone on hunger strike in Parliament Square, told me: "My mother, brother and sisters were killed two days ago in Venna by the Sri Lankans, using poison gas. They say they are attacking the LTTE [the Tamil Tigers] but there have been pictures of these dead babies in the papers." Both Paramestvaran, and his fellow hunger striker, Siviatharsun Sivakumaravel, have refused all food and drink since 10am and there's no mistaking the intense emotional atmosphere that surrounds them. When I arrived in the square at noon yesterday, there were only two or three hundred demonstrators, but more and more were coming all the time, filtering their way between snap-happy tourists and dour policemen in stab-proof vests. "We are hoping for maybe as many people as we had on the bridge on Monday, perhaps 15,000 or 20,000," said Cejay, a good-looking young London Metropolitan student in black, who was striding up and down the front rank of the protesters.

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Why These Tamil Sons in London, Mourning Their Slain Mothers in Sri Lanka, Have Placed Westminster Under Siege [Edition 2]

"We're going to be here no matter how long it takes," he continued. "We are willing to sacrifice our lives for the people back home." And yes, Cejay had also lost family in Vanni -- an aunt and cousins. "Tamil Tigers! Freedom Fighters!" shouted a small girl through a megaphone. She was wearing a pink top emblazoned "Miss Attitude" and can...

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