tamil protest - police warnings

Published: April 20, 2009 19:42 by rikki

despite warnings from around 40 police walking right through the crowd, the tamils have voted to remain in the road, and police threats to move them have for the moment subsided.

among the crowd are women, children and elderly, and while mainstream media cameras are trained on the group, it seems unlikely the police will start using force, despite their warnings. call it 'the G20 effect' perhaps.

meanwhile in sri lanka, the government there have issued a final ultimatum on the tamil freedom-fighters to surrender by midday tomorrow or face a final military surge likely to kill and injure many of the 150,000 tamils still in their homelands.

no senior government official has come to parliament square to discuss the wishes and concerns of the peaceful protesters who have successfully brought westminster to a standstill - this despite daily petitions to downing street for weeks, and every attempt to contact the government.

Published: April 20, 2009 22:52 by rikki

in the last hour, many of the tamils have left. there were a lot of families with small children, and with clear skies the temperature is dropping fast.

as a result, the area of road in front of the palace gates is now clear. parliament square is still completely closed to traffic.

a few hundred tamils have continued their sit-down round the corner at the start of westminster bridge road, and they look set to try and stay the night.

meanwhile, there are two dozen police vans parked on whitehall, as well as another dozen around the square. no doubt there are even more near-by.

it seems unlikely the police will allow the road to be blocked by morning, and will probably move in to clear the protest by force once any mainstream coverage has gone home.

a glimmer of good news is that the GLA have been round and removed most of the fencing around the square, leaving a few panels at the corner nearest the churchill statue - these panels serve a useful purpose as a canvas for huge banners, and also offer some protection to the continuing hunger strike on the pavement there.

Published: April 21, 2009 07:51 by rikki

at midnight, the tamils (as they do every three hours) held a two minute silence. after the noise of the evening, and surrounded by so many police, it was an eerie moment after the big ben bells rang out.

then after a few words among themselves, they all stood up together, picked up every last scrap of rubbish, and sauntered back onto the grass and pavements of parliament square.

they had decided that, as their numbers dwindled, those remaining may be in danger of police brutality, and to avoid this, they would act in concert and return on their own terms peacefully.

this left the surreal sight of a deserted and ultra-clean street surrounded by hundreds of bemused plod. priceless.

Published: April 21, 2009 08:03 by rikki

just a couple of hundred demonstrators stayed the night with the hunger striker near the churchill statue.

the roads are back to normal for the moment, and more protesters are arriving again this morning.

the tamils are happy that they acheived their aim of shutting down parliament square, westminster bridge and whitehall for the whole of the first day back for parliament.

despite the fatuous remarks of a few mad MPs and the inevitable 'G20 effect' backlash in some parts of the media, yesterday was a rare and fine example of what democracy DOES look like. a large group of justifiably concerned and angry people caused havoc in extraordinary circumstances and brought parts of london to a standstill. none were beaten up, none were abused, none were illegally detained. their powerful action got picked up by the media, and their wishes and needs were unavoidably noticed by the authorities.

it is a sad reflection of our sham democracy that, despite all this, no senior government figure has yet talked to them, and that the uk government has still not made any meaningful announcement or intervention in the ongoing and escalating genocide in sri lanka.