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Tamils protest in Denmark, Sweden, 2500 march in Oslo

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 May 2006, 17:03 GMT]
More than 2500 Norwegian Tamils assembled at juni plassen Victoria Terrasse Monday 2.00 p.m in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the facilitator's main office in Oslo, and marched to the Norwegian parliament, the Stortinget. Protest rallies were also held in Denmark and Sweden.

The officials of Tamil organisations in Norway, members and residents numbering more than 2500, assembled at juni plassen Victoria Terrasse Monday 2.00 p.m in front of the Foreign Ministry where the representatives met Mr. Hilde Haraldstad, Deputy Director, Peace and Reconciliation Section, and Foreign Office Executive Officer Mr. Sondre Bjotveit and handed an appeal on behalf of the Tamils in Norway.

The protesters then marched on to the portals of the Norwegian Parliament where they handed a memorandum to Mr. Olav Akselsen, Head of the Foreign Committee. The memorandum appealed to Norway to speak out the ground reality and to be more pro-active to save the peace process and avert a break-out of war.

Balasingam Yogarajah, Coordinator of the Federation of Tamil organisations and a member of Oslo Municipal Council, led the delegation of representatives of the the Tamil Organisations in Norway comprising Mylvaganam Sitravelauthayam, Leader Tamil Sangam, Kanagaratnam Pulendran, Leader Norway Hindu Culture Centre, Kamsayini Gunratnam Representative Tamilsk Youth Organisation, and Vasanthi Francis Subramaniam, Leader Tamil Women's Organisation, sources said.

The Swedish Tamil representatives in their appeal said that just peace in Sri Lanka is possible only if the international community recognizes the Tamils' right to self-determination, and urged Sweden to recognize the democratic and sovereign rights of Tamil people.