20.10.2008
Laying down an open challenge to the French police, LTTE
sympathisers held an illegal demonstration in the French
capital on Sunday October 19th, foreign media sources said.
According to reports, the sole intention of the demonstration
held at the Republic Square in the heart of Paris was to
support the LTTE, a banned terrorist outfit in France and
many other Western countries, while protesting against the
French police for having forbidden their demonstration.
"These Tamil Tigers are guilty of two criminal acts,"
a legal source said. "They have defied the banning
order and participated in an illegal gathering. Secondly,
they have carried the flag of a proscribed terrorist organisation.
And that is a punishable criminal act."
It is learned that the French Prefecture (Police) had received
an application from a Tamil organisation to hold a demonstration
in Paris on Sunday. After a review of the application, it
was rejected as most of the Tamil organisations involved
had either direct or indirect links with the LTTE, which
is a proscribed terrorist organisation, media sources said.
After the French police banned the demonstration, Tamil
Oli, a radio service linked to the LTTE, called on the Tamil
people in France "to come in thousands to show solidarity
with the Tamils in Kilinochchi, despite the ban imposed
by the French police."
The few hundred LTTE cadres, supporters and sympathisers
who gathered at the venue first tried to hoodwink the French
police by stating that they had come to participate in a
labour demonstration to be held in the Republic Square.
Later they unfolded their LTTE flags and other banners and
held a demonstration, while the handful of French police
looked on helplessly.
It is learned that the French government is furious over
the way Tamil Tigers and their Tamil Oli radio defied the
ban and held a demonstration carrying the flags of a banned
terrorist organisation.
An analyst said that the real intention of the demonstration
was to support the LTTE and not to express concerns over
any humanitarian issue. "This was revealed by the way
the Tamil Tigers defied the ban and carried the LTTE flags,"
he said. "Furthermore, the demonstration was an open
challenge to the police in Paris". |