Colombo’s 'gala war' countered in Germany

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 December 2008, 04:03 GMT]
"A huge amount of Colombo’s war money is lavishly spent in foreign countries in fixing collaborators, capturing or coercing diaspora Tamils and in organizing gala programmes to shield its sins of inhuman war at home," said an activist of a vigilant group of German Tamils called 'Committee for People’s Uprising (CPU),' Friday. "The latest is a festive season’s grand dinner inviting German dignitaries and an exhibition of its 'contemporary civilization' to hoodwink the German public. The Eezham Tamils in Germany effectively neutralized Colombo’s devises on Friday through creative undertakings, right in front of Sri Lanka’s propaganda stall," the activist told TamilNet.



The Sri Lankan Consulate in the city of Frankfurt organised a 3-day photo exhibition, which was a disinformation and propaganda campaign against the Tamil struggle, under the banner of marking "Sri Lanka's 60th Anniversary of Independence." The exhibition was launched on Friday at Kaiserstrasse 52 at Bestregarts, a private exhibition facility in the busiest pedestrian-transit precinct in Germany's second largest metropolitan area.

On the previous day, the consulate had organised an expensive dinner targeting governmental and non-governmental dignitaries at an intercontinental hotel, expecting 800 guests. A few, more than one-hundred guests, attended the feast.

The Consulate, according to the Tamil activists of the committee, had also attempted hoodwinking some diaspora Tamils by extending selective invitations to them under the pretext of a Christmas celebration, without revealing the real intention behind the exhibition, according to the sources.

In advance, the Eezham Tamil activists had also reserved an exhibition spot to launch an awareness campaign on the sufferings of Eezham Tamils, focusing the indiscriminate Sri Lankan attacks against Tamil civilians, especially in the context of the recent cluster bombardment of a refugee camp in Vanni. The Tamil exhibition spot happened to be just 3 meters away from the expensive exhibition facility hired by the Sri Lankan consulate.

Protesting against the demonstration at the doorstep of their propaganda venue, the Sri Lankan consulate complained to the German police. However, the police officials who inspected the Tamil exhibition defended the right of the activists to stage their exhibition as they also had secured permission to conduct their exhibition. Meanwhile, the police officials urged the Tamil activists to consider avoiding the expression of 'sad Buddha', to which they agreed.

The Tamil activists complained that the Sri Lankan consulate engaged in blackmailing activities by filming and photographing the Tamils, who visited the exhibition of the consulate and the participants of the campaign against Sri Lanka's use of cluster munitions and indiscriminate attacks on Tamil civilians. Despite the photographing, the diaspora Tamil youth actively participated in their campaign, distributing more than 9,500 leaflets on Friday, the organisers said.



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