28 March, 2024

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Rajapakse’s London Tour

By Westminster Insider –

Rajapakse had to cloak his arrival inLondonby taking security measures unprecedented since the end of the civil war and retreat by cutting short his stay.

At 18:00 BST (British Summer Time) on the 3rd of June, Scotland Yard informed activists that Rajapakse will not arrive on Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL503 at terminal 4 of London’s Heathrow airport (LHR) but the next day instead. Organisers of the demonstration at LHR knew both the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and BAA, the operator of LHR had granted Rajapakse VIP clearance, and, therefore, were unlikely to intercept him at the terminal. Nevertheless, they went ahead with it to send a message that countenancing Rajapakse on British soil was not acceptable. Over seven hundred activists converged on LHR and mounted one of the biggest demonstrations inside an airport terminal. To their surprise Scotland Yard firearms officers encouraged them saying they too would do the same if their families had suffered like Tamils.

At 06:30 hours on the 4th June Scotland Yard informed activists that Rajapakse had departed Colombo. However, they did not reveal his time of arrival. Later that morning they reported that he was residing at the Hilton in Park Lane. Activists had been granted permission by Scotland Yard to mount a protest outside the Dorchester Hotel between 13:00 and 19:00 hours on the 4th, but changed it to the Hilton. The stage was set for another confrontation.

A stage managed pro-Rajapakse demonstration was bussed in at 13:00 hours numbering approximately one hundred and unfurled their lion flags. Only three diaspora activists were present. However as time ebbed away, their number grew peaking at over 3,000 with their red and gold roaring tiger flags fluttering in the summer breeze. Shouts of “Jayawewa” were drowned by “Rajapakse war criminal” or “our nation Tamil Eelam” as both groups faced-off each other acrossPark Lane. Scotland Yard received their first complaint from the Sri Lankan delegation on the tiger flags at 15:00 hours. They received several more but refused to act. Activists claimed that it was the Tamil national flag and not that of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The Hilton was still offering rooms for 389 pounds per night. Some activists paused for a moment to book rooms at the hotel and further disrupt Rajapakse’s stay. Others walked past High Commission staff and his minders to quench their thirst at Gavin at Windows, the Michelin starred restaurant and bar at the top of the Hilton, which offers one of the best views of London.

Despite demonstrations on the 3rd and 4th being large, it was not the set piece event. This was going to be a massive demonstration in front of the Mansion House on the 6th between 08:00 to 13:00, where Rajapakse was due to deliver his speech at the first session of the Diamond Jubilee Economic Forum. In addition to the diaspora being mobilised in the United Kingdom (UK), twenty bus loads of demonstrators were being brought in from afar as Switzerland andFrance. It threatened to bring traffic in the City of London to a halt.

Concerned senior commanders at both Scotland Yard and the City of London Policeurged the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), the organisers, to cancel the first session of the Forum. They feared that neither of them in the midst of jubilee celebrations had sufficient resources to police it. The CBC obliged posting the following comment on its website “After careful consideration the morning sessions of the Forum on Wednesday 6th of June have been cancelled and will not take place. The event will therefore commence with lunch at 1300hrs followed by the originally planned afternoon sessions beginning at 1400hrs”. But, it was not just policing which prompted the cancellation. Activists had contacted the CBC with a view to buying to tickets and disrupting Rajapakse’s speech from within the Mansion House. The CBC informed them that individual tickets were 945 pounds but were willing to do a ‘group deal’ for a company.

At 17:00 hours on the 5th of June activists were invited to a meeting with a Scotland Yard team led by a chief superintendent at the police control centre in Pratt Walk, London SE11 6AS. They requested shifting the Mansion House demonstration to the Hilton following the cancellation of the Rajapakse speech and offered to grant permission for it from 08:00 to 17:00 hours. They also said that there would be “no need” to demonstrate after that time for “another two months”. The message was that Rajapakse had once again been forced to cut short his visit to London and was leaving on the eve of the 6th -he was expected to leave on the 7th –, and, that he was due back for the Olympics.

A huge mobilisation had taken place involving all UK based Tamil television and radio stations, newspapers, websites, social media, hundreds of text messages and emails. Organisers were expecting fifteen to twenty thousand protestors. However, news of the cancellation resulted in some loss of momentum. Eight thousand protestors gathered outside the Mansion House. Stewards and police organised them into a long column to the beat of pounding drums and chants of “we want justice” for a march which them took through the Strand, Trafalgar square, through Pall Mall to Marlborough House where the Commonwealth Secretary General was hosting a lunch for visiting heads of government and the Queen. All the way effigies of Rajapakse, some hanging from gallows, were set alight or pounded with shoes.

Also, a large crowd began gathering on the green in front of the Hilton and at noon were joined by protestors from Marlborough House. Chants of “Rajapakse go home” and “Rajapakse terrorist” echoed among others. As passions stirred, the huge crowd surged forward breaking the first barrier. A single police line was soon reinforced by two others. Community liaison officers rushed to the green to cool tempers. They made it clear that blocking off Park Lanewas not an option. It would cause traffic in the West Londonto come to a standstill. They sought to diffuse the situation by assuring the crowd that they were welcome to pelt Rajapakse’s vehicle with any missile they could get their hands on without risk of apprehension.

At 17:15 hours a police outrider in a pre-arranged signal to the crowd blocked off Park Lanein front of the Hilton. Crowds surged to the front of the green once again grabbing anything they could. At 17:30 two black Range Rovers pulled up in front of the Hilton. Rajapakse and his wife mounted the first with his police close protection team in the second. The motorcade drove slowly past the crowed which was the cue to pound his vehicle with eggs, stones and other debris. Once out of sight, the crowds began to disperse. After the area was cleared the Chief Inspector policing the sight, community liaison officers and organisers met for a debriefing at which all parties expressed their gratitude for each other’s cooperation.

For a man supposed to wield absolute power in Sri Lanka, this was no doubt a humiliation. However, the fault was not his. This is a catastrophic failure on the part of the Sri Lankan High Commission in theUK. High Commissioner Nonis and Minister Councillor Pathmanathan must shoulder all the blame. Pathmanathan, a Tamil, whose role was to keep his finger on the pulse of the diaspora utterly failed to gauge its mood. Nonis and Pathmanathan were also oblivious to the extent which the British establishment would go to leave Rajapakse “out to dry”. The press coverage was an unmitigated disaster with the mainstream media choosing to focus on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity of Rajapakse’s army. After this, it is difficult to see how either of their positions remain tenable.

Birnberg Pierce & Partners is a firm of lawyers specialising in human rights that represent Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and had been used by the Global Tamil Forum to seek a warrant for the arrest of general Gallage. Once again the Global Tamil Forum instructed the firm to apply for warrants to arrest two deputy inspectors general of police in Rajapakse’s entourage. It is perhaps this which prompted Rajapakse to cut short his stay.

The meeting pencilled in between G. L. Peiris and the Foreign Secretary, the Rt Hon William Hague PC MP went ahead. Officials at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office reported that discussions were “open and frank”. William Hague repeatedly pressed Peiris on the full implementation of the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and made it clear that the success of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting to be hosted by Sri Lankain 2012 depended on it.

Rajapakse and his entourage should not expect the same degree of refrain from activists when he returns for the Olympics. Organisers said that now that the jubilee was over “all options are back on the table”. The diaspora would welcome the opportunity to disrupt the Olympics and especially the opening ceremony, if he chooses to attend it, to focus attention on the credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity made against his army

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Latest comments

  • 0
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    ha…haaa…In Sri Lanka people have to wait in traffic blocks when this idiot who thinks he is a king, travels around…but in England he has to travel about like a criminal on the run…let’s see if he will come back for the Olympics… :O

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      This has been the normal procedure in SL from time immomrial . I waited for 5 hours when Chandrika was making one of her many trips in COlombo , when she was the President .This was absloute necessasry evil in the climate of killings/ bombing / suicide bombers in SL.

  • 0
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    “out to dry ” is it ? Will see . Btw Bean no need for pseudonym we know ur real name :)

  • 0
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    He must be the only president who gave up his national “lion flag” for a luncheon with the queen. Oh! What a patriot he is!..Shame..He must be the mother of all fools to come back to Britain.. Welcome Mahindha!

    • 0
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      Gowrie

      I does not matter as you did it for him evry well by waving your red tiger head underpant of Peelum.

      That itself has rockted his popularity in our motherland by almost 100%.

  • 0
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    So LTTE lost the war in Vanni and the Tamil Diaspora is continuing its war in the streets of London.

    Had Tamil Diaspora urged VP to go to London, he could have waged the war in the London streets, peacefully of course, saving many precious lives and denying extraordinary profits to Merchants of Death and commissions to their local conduits in Sri Lanka.

    Why did not the stupid Tamil Diaspora think about this neat idea?

    • 0
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      Well, my son you think like a Vedda, This primitive thinking has made decedents of veddas to still behave like barbarians… rape and kill

      • 0
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        sam sathy says:

        “This primitive thinking has made decedents of veddas to still behave like barbarians… rape and kill”

        Well this is a news to me.

        I am not saying you have selective memory however I have seen the Tamils and Sinhalese killing their own people and each other since 1971.

        The final tally was in 1971, 18,000 Sinhalese youth were killed, again between 1987 and 1991 about 130,000 were killed or made to disappear, over 150,000 Tamils were killed over 26 years. These figures are yet to be confirmed.

        According to recent reports a women or child is raped every 90 minutes in the island.

        My people did not commit all these crimes. If these crimes were committed, they were indeed committed by your people, Tamils and Sinhalese.

        I would love to see evidence of crimes committed by my people in the scale that I have described above.

        If Tamils and Sinhalese are capable of committing crimes at that scale you ought to be calling Tamils and Sinhalese the new barbarians and not us.

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          Hey Native

          Please show us the evidence boorr not words. Did you do maths if you have been to primary education?

  • 0
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    Sam Sathy..
    I think you will find that the veddas are racially different to the Sinhalese. They are a peaceful indegenous people that have pretty much been wiped out of their traditional livelihood and modes of existance in the name of ‘development’.
    Just because people follow more primitive traditions doesn’t mean they are barbarians.
    In fact if history is anything to go by, those most sophisticated have often been the barbarians. Its attitudes like yours on both sides of the so called fence that prevent peace and reconciliation for Sri Lankans of all ethnicities.
    Don’t tarnish more people through your anthropological ignorance.

  • 1
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    LOL, I see the LTTE monkeys are howling about how they were going to have people arrested, how they chased away Rajapakse… at the end of a scheduled visit etc. Hahaha. Where did we hear all this before.

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    By the way, having seen original footage of the Hilton demonstration I understand why the fake audio had to be dubbed in. The LTTE refugees were actually screeching something about a “besike buda” (gee, what a cultured lot they are), and being drowned out by the Sri Lankans.

    So we were treated to “Zri Langan bresident! Bor griminal!” instead :D

  • 0
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    Some brain washed Tamils were demonstrating in London. It is a pitty that they are victims of their own diaspora.

  • 0
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    Mark Webber asks:

    “Please show us the evidence boorr not words. Did you do maths if you have been to primary education?”

    Lazy little silly fellow,

    You will find part of the answer to your stupid question is in the a book you would have chosen not to read out of your own stupidity and ignorance and the details are as follows:

    STILL SEEKING JUSTICE IN SRI LANKA
    RULE OF LAW, THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
    AND COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY SINCE 1977
    KISHALI PINTO-JAYAWARDENA
    JANUARY 2010
    http://www.icj.org/dwn/database/Sri%20Lanka_final.pdf

    Why cannot you do your own research? Why should I spoon feed you with information which is freely available on the net?

    Even I am able to access information at my freewill with my limited wit, what seems to be the problem with you people?

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