A Kingston University student, representing the British Tamil students, is calling for immediate political action by the international community to end the Sri Lankan ‘genocide’.

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A Kingston University student, representing the British Tamil students, is calling for immediate political action by the International community to end the Sri Lankan ‘genocide’.

Sports science undergraduate, Johnny Sovnalinganm joined students from across the nation to protest against the Sri Lankan government attack on the civilian population.  He said: “the government are killing innocent people, children are dying.  I have lost family members in this genocide.”

Johnny has been chosen as a representative of the student Tamil community that have gathered at Parliament square to protest. The loosely formed group of several thousand students have demonstrated on the streets of London, calling for an immediate ceasefire throughout April and May.

He continued: “We have no idea whether my auntie and grandmother are alive or well, we have no contact with them. My uncle who lives here has lost six family members, his wife and daughters are all dead in the Vanni area.”

Johnny is concerned with the lack of action by the British government, and feels every day that the International community fail to take action more innocent lives will be lost.

This is supported by, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director, Sam Zarifi, who said: “The Sri Lankan’s frequently broken promises of not using heavy artillery against civilians shows that it is not a credible source of information.”

The Kingston student and Tamil student representative has met with the foreign secretary David Miliband to express his concerns. The Labour MP promised to exert further pressure on the Sri Lankan government to stop action in the civilian areas. The Foreign secretary visited Sri Lanka earlier this month, however was unsuccessful in his bid to persuade the Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to declare a ceasefire in the civilian populated area.

During the meeting with Johnny, Mr.Miliband was reluctant to use the word genocide and referred to the actions as ‘killing people’ when discussing the issues.

The use of genocide or killing people is an important issue to the cause.  According to the United Nations genocide is an 'intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.'

Russia and China have argued that the conflict is an ‘internal matter’ of ‘domestic concern’ and that the Security Council of the UN has no right to interfere because it does not accept that the Sri Lankan government is committing ‘genocide’.

The UN would be duty-bound to act according to the Genocide Convention if it was recognised as such. This echoes America calling the Rwandan atrocities ‘tribal killings’, the lack of action resulted in a death toll of 800,000 to a million Tutsis’ over the course of a hundred days in 1994.

However, according to Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch: "Recent satellite photos and witness accounts show the brutal shelling of civilians in the conflict area goes on... neither the Sri Lankan army nor the Tamil Tigers appear to have any reluctance in using civilians as cannon fodder."

The affected area has according to the United Nations approximately 50,000 innocent people are trapped in the conflict zone.

“There are real fears that the ‘bloodbath’ will turn into a flood of misery after 13th May. The Security Council must act on its responsibility to protect the civilians in Sri Lanka before hundreds more are killed and wounded by the two sides or succumb to malnutrition and disease,” said Sam Zafiri.

Johnny is concerned that the government are not allowing NGO’s and the media into the area to monitor action.

Last week, the Sri Lankan government expelled three British television journalists who had provided the first uncensored information about living conditions in the internment camps which are currently housing tens of thousands of people displaced from the conflict area.

Johnny is one of an estimated 120,000 Tamils that live in the UK according to the Tamils forum. He is the president of the Kingston University Tamil Society, and has fundraised over £500 this year towards food and clothing for the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.

He said: “the government has not allowed humanitarian aid into the conflict-struck region, they have attacked hospitals, and killed innocent children. We must act now.” Yesterday, the International Committee of the Red Cross-flagged ship carrying 25 metric tons of food turned back due to fighting in the conflict zone, for the second time in as many days."

Johnny believes that “if the International community fail to take action, and take it slowly, there will be no Tamil nation, they will all be dead.” He believes “the government is trying to kill all Tamils, they are treating the Tamils like terrorists, but they are fighting for a nation.” 

To follow Johnny and the Tamil protests go to www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29117