3.5.2008
By Walter Jayawardhana
The
radical Labour Party Mayor of London who has been overtly
sympathetic to Sri Lanka’s terrorist group Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been ousted from power after
an eight year regime.Ken Livingstone defeatedKen Livingstone
defeated
In
a closely contested mayoral election Mayor Ken Livingston
was defeated by Conservative Party’s Boris Johnson
, according to results announced by midnight, May 2.
Boris
Johnson polled 1,168,738 votes to Ken Livingstone's 1,028,966.
“The result heaped further pressure on Prime Minister
Gordon Brown after his party plunged to its worst council
election results in four decades,” the BBC said.
Livingstone
said he took full responsibility for his defeat and paid
tribute to the Labor Party, including Gordon Brown, for
the support he had been given.
During
a hotly contested election in London, the city’s
provincial daily, the Evening Standard accused Ken of
supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
The
Evening Standard which was exposing in a series of news
items the sitting mayor of London Ken Livingston as a
friend of varied terrorist organizations depicted him
as a friend of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam terrorist
group.
“Livingstone
has addressed a meeting co-organized by a "front"
for a banned terror organization - even though he had
been warned at the highest diplomatic levels about the
group's alleged terrorist links. The Mayor sought backing
from the British Tamil Forum at the meeting in Harrow
on Saturday, according to its spokesman”, the newspaper
said in a lead story in one of its inner pages with a
three column photo of Prabhakaran.
The
newspaper said the Labor Party Mayor has taken part in
this meeting even after he had been informed about the
true nature of the British Tamil Forum, which is alleged
to be a front organization of the LTTE.
The
newspaper alleged , “At a previous meeting organized
by the British Tamil Forum, at the Excel Centre, Docklands,
on 27 November, a video message from the Tamil Tigers'
leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, praising suicide bombing
was played and a collection was taken for Tamil Tiger
"martyrs". The meeting is the subject of a police
anti-terror investigation.”
The
Evening Standard said further in its report, “The
Tamil Tigers, officially known as the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam, pioneered suicide bombing.
“Although
indiscriminate violence has also been carried out by the
Sri Lankan government, Tamil Tiger suicide attacks alone
have killed around 1,600 people, including the Sri Lankan
president and the Indian prime minister.
“Suren
Surendiran, a spokesman for the British Tamil Forum, said
that last weekend's meeting was co-organized by the forum
and a local Tamil Labor councilors, Thaya Iddaikadar.
"The
forum was involved (in the organization of the meeting),"
he said. "About 20 per cent of the people at the
meeting were from the British Tamil Forum and the rest
were local Tamils."
The
Evening Standard further reported, “The Mayor also
gave the forum his "personal commitment" that
he would support its candlelit vigil in Trafalgar Square
this summer to mark the 25th anniversary of "Black
July," a massacre of Tamil civilians triggered by
a Tamil Tiger attack on a military convoy.
“About
1,000 Tamils were killed in this bloodshed, which is generally
seen as the trigger for Sri Lanka's civil war. Mr Surendiran
said the forum "shares the same aspirations as the
Tamil Tigers, but we do not subscribe to their methodology".
Mr Livingstone's campaign has been dogged by allegations
that he is too closely linked to organizations which sympathize
with terrorists.”
Courtesy - Asian
Tribune