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UK Tamils call for Commonwealth sanctions against Sri Lankan government

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: The British Tamil Forum, an umbrella organisation of Britain's Tamil associations, has called for trade and travel sanctions by the Commonwealth against the Sri Lankan Government for what it described as its alleged "persecution'' of the country's Tamil population.

The demand was made at a meeting its representatives had with the Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown and a cross-party group of MPs to lobby support for its campaign against the Sri Lankan Government.

The Forum shares LTTE's political aims but claims it has no formal links with it. The LTTE is banned under Britain's anti-terror laws but there have been allegations that its "front'' organisations are engaged in fund-raising activities.

Gajan Ponnambalam, a Tamil National Alliance MP from Sri Lanka, who also attended the meeting said that the majority of Tamils wanted independence.

A parallel was sought to be made between the Sri Lankan Tamils' campaign for an independent homeland and Kosovo which declared independence last month.

Lord Malloch-Brown reportedly rejected the comparison with Kosovo and the demand for sanctions but shared the Forum's concern over the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.

He called for a peaceful negotiated settlement of the ethnic conflict and warned the Sri Lankan Government that there could be no military solution.

Several MPs, including Barry Gardiner and Jeremy Corbyn (both Labour), expressed concern over the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka and stressed the need for the international community to bring pressure on the government to protect the rights of innocent people.

A former Tory MP Lord Neasby, however, reportedly questioned allegations of "indiscriminate'' bombing of Tamil-dominated areas by Sri Lankan Government.

Suren Surendiran, a spokesman for the Forum, said: "The purpose of the meeting was to engage with the Tamil diaspora and understand their perspective on the conflict in Sri Lanka that has already claimed more than 70,000 lives.''

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