The article below is abridged from an October 18 Tamilnet.org report.
More than 30,000 British Tamils marched to draw attention to the Sri Lankan government's continued incarceration of more than 280,000 Tamils in military supervised camps. This is despite a Sri Lankan government pledge to release captives within 180 days from the end of the more than two-decades long civil war in May.
Protesters, young and old, carried banners and chanted slogans condemning the fact that 150 days have passed with no concrete steps taken to resettle the Tamils held in the "concentration camps" in Vavuniyaa.
A spokesperson for the march organisers said the protest comes at a time when the international community is indecisive about its future actions towards the Sri Lankan government, which has committed the worst human rights violations.
A Tamil protester said: "This is just a start, we have started the countdown ... Tamils around the world will join in the campaign to unlock the concentration camps."
The marchers carried large banners and pictures portraying the desperate situation faced by the Tamil internees in Sri Lanka.
Large billboards carried clips of the disturbing footage aired on Channel 4 News showing the shooting of gagged Tamil men by Sri Lankan forces.
The rally was joined by London parliamentarians, representatives of Columbian, Kurdish and Palestinian solidarity groups, members of the British Sikh community, and members of civil liberties and social justice organisations.
Ed Davey, MP for Kingston and Surbiton, said the camps are "detention camps" and not internally displaced camps. He said the British government "must end the trade concessions [to Sri Lanka] ... if they [Colombo] refuse to listen, if they do not set the people free from camps ... they could face individual target sanctions against them."
Davey proposed a travel ban on Sri Lankan diplomats visiting Europe.
Andrew Pelling, MP for Central Croydon, asked: "How can a five-year-old child, who stands at the barbed wire, be a threat to the Sri Lankan government?
"It's clear Sri Lanka is willing to brand anyone, even a five-year-old child, as a terrorist."
Andrew Higginbottom, a member of Latin-American Solidarity, told protesters: "Sri Lanka sent their general to Europe to say that this video [of Tamil men being executed] is a fabrication and a fraud.
"If it is a fabrication then you will open the doors of the detention camps, allow the UN investigators in there."
John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington, said: "No government can stand aside while people are imprisoned in the camps and enduring this intolerable suffering so we're calling upon all governments of the world to move against Sri Lanka and demand the freedom of the Tamil people in the camps."