By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS
London : Britain’s longest-serving Asian member of parliament Tuesday hit back at critics of his recent speaking appearance at a London rally with Tamil Tiger sympathies, saying he will seize any opportunity to bring peace to Sri Lanka.
Keith Vaz was criticised by the Sri Lankan High Commission in London for being in violation of British anti-terrorism laws after the rally attended by 10,000 Tamils Nov. 27 heard a speech by Velupillai Prabhakaran, chief of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam, broadcast live from his hideout in Sri Lanka.
Two other ruling Labour party MPs, Joan Ryan and Virendra Sharma, spoke at the rally and a message from Simon Hughes, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, was read out.
Vaz told the rally, “I understand the demands made by some for an independent Tamil state. They will grow, unless there is a just peace.”
And Ryan, MP for Enfield North, said: “I am sorry to have to remember the 70,000 innocent Tamils who lost their lives in the struggle. We must pursue the aims and values for which they lost their lives.”
But Vaz, who is the chairman of the powerful Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said Tuesday he would make his appearance and say the things he said again if he thought it would help the peace and reconciliation process between Tamils and Sinhalas in Sri Lanka.
“He will continue to search for peace and resolution and speak when he thinks he can help the process,” a spokesman for Vaz told IANS.
He said Vaz, who also chairs an all-party committee for Sri Lankan Tamils, is in favour of the two warring sides returning to a 2002 ceasefire agreement and condemns all terrorism, including that practised by the LTTE, which is banned in Britain and India.
“But the key is to get the two sides talking again, which alone can bring about a restoration of the ceasefire.”
Vaz, who has been an MP for two decades, says he went along to the rally on the invitation of Tamil constituents in his Leicester East constituency and that he had no idea the organisers would broadcast a speech by Prabhakaran.
Sharma, who has succeeded the late Indian-born MP Piara Khabra in the London suburb of Southall, explained his action saying: “Along with my many colleagues from Parliament we went along to pay tribute to all these people who died, irrespective of their creed or colour.
“It’s not a question of support for the Tamil Tigers. It was just a straight forward tribute meeting. That is my interest and that is what I said. I have a large number of Tamil people in my constituency and they expect their MP to be there,” he told a constituency newspaper.
Vaz’s strong defence comes as London police were reported to be examining the video clips of the rally to check for any evidence of breach of the law.
Informed Sri Lankan sources in London told IANS that the organisers of the rally had assured police that they would not broadcast speeches by Prabhakaran, display LTTE flags or photos or raise funds.
“There were no flags or photos, but there was some fund-raising going on,” the sources added.
They said Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Britain Kshenuka Senewiratne has written to the British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and one other senior government minister to complain of the huge rally, which was held at the ExCel conference centre in east London.