Coffin protest at Sri Lankan High Commission

Some 200 angry protesters today gathered at the Sri Lankan High Commission in Kuala Lumpur to protest the ongoing civil strife in the island which has killed thousands of civilians.

The protesters called for world leaders, including the Malaysian government, to press for an end to the war between the Sinhala government and the Tamil Tigers.

And to add symbolism to their protest, the protesters brought a coffin to mark the 1,700 civilians who lost their lives in the conflict zone.

Activists also brandished myriads of banners, posters and effigies condemning the Sri Lankan military actions against the civilians.

Some of them also carried placards depicting photos of Indian Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who have remained evasive on the conflict in their neighbouring country.

Photos of Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) commander-in-chief Vellupilai Prabakaran were also displayed by the protesters, while chants of "Down with the prime minister of Sri Lanka!", "Stop killing the children!" and "Obama stop him" were continuously heard from the crowd.

The demonstrators were also armed with large posters showing graphic pictures of dead Tamil women and children.

The bloodbath between the Sinhalese government and the LTTE began in 1983 when the Tamil rebels demanded for an independent state for the minority Tamils in the north and the east of the island.

The Sri Lankan government has vowed to finish off the Tamil Tigers within 48 hours, defying international calls for a truce and warnings of a "humanitarian catastrophe" inside the rebel-held zone.

The protest was lead by Pakatan Rakyat parliamentarian N Gobalakisnan (PKR-Padang Serai), R Sivarasa (PKR-Subang), S Manikavasagam (PKR-Kapar), M Manogaran (DAP-Teluk Intan) and Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang).

Also present were Selangor state assembly representative for Sri Andalas, Xavier Jeyakumar, and Global Peace Initiative movement coordinator S Pasupathi.

About 50 police and riot squad personnel were deployed to control the crowd.

Although the protest was generally peaceful, the police were nevertheless called to calm the situation when the protesters attempted to carry the coffin pass the riot squad barricade to the high commission.

As the protesters attempted to break the police line, the cops responded by pushing the crowd back with their batons and shields.

Although none of the protesters reported any injuries, the coffin was broken into pieces during to the melee and the effigy of the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa was torn apart.

The activists then took the remains of the coffin and effigy to a corner and set them on fire.

The president should be tried for war crimes

The MPs were nevertheless able to submit a memorandum to Sri Lankan high commissioner Dr DD Ranasinghe.

"We also reminded them (the high commissioner) that the United States has said that no heavy artillery or heavy bombing should take place and that the foreign media has been prevented from moving into the affected areas... but his excellency told us (that there) is nothing of this sort," said Gobalakrishnan.

"He claims that the foreign media was free to go in anywhere and all this is utter rubbish...

"I am not very happy with our visit... I believe that his statement was lip service and they are not concerned about the lives being taken away by the draconian government," he said.

Gobalakrishnan added that Pakatan will take its next protest right to the doorsteps of Putrajaya, expected to be held next Friday.

Manogaran also decried that the response from the high commissioner was not positive.

"He is actually justifying the killings of innocent people, citing past LTTE bombings and so on... I think the Sri Lanka government is not able to differentiate between the LTTE and innocent civilians who are dying daily," said Manogaran.

Sivarasa, on the other hand, argued that Rajapaksa should be tried for war crimes in the International Criminal Court.

"The so-called safe zones is safe only in name, because it is being pounded by heavy artillery... and that is what the world has noticed. The world has spoken and told Sri Lankan government to stop," said Sivarasa.

"This is not a legitimate war, you cannot use heavy artillery and shell groups of innocent groups of civilians and say this is war.

"It's murder, it's a war crime. Rajapaksa should be taken to the international court and charged with war crimes. There is enough evidence of them being party to war crimes," he added.

Asked on what impact they hoped to achieve through the demonstration, Sivarasa said: "We want to send a message to the Sri Lankan government. Although the Malaysian government is silent, Pakatan will not be silent.

"We are calling upon the Sri Lankan government to stop the atrocities, to stop the killing, we are calling upon the world as well to act," he said.

"You cannot measure every protest by the impact. What we can do, what we are duty bound to do, which we are doing today, is to protest. We cannot stand silent while innocent civilians are being killed.

"That's our protest, we want them to hear our protest, if they don't we will keep on doing it, we aren't going to stop, we won't stop until the killing stops," he stressed.

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