Sri Lanka

Worldwide protests at MP’s murder

ON MONDAY, 13 November, up to 10,000 people filed through central Colombo, Sri Lanka, with the coffin of murdered TNA MP, Nadarajah Raviraj. It was no silent protest. People wanted their feelings to be heard as they moved along the main highways cordoned off for the occasion.

Speakers and placards demanded an end to war preparations and to the kidnappings and killings. The sectarian Sinhala communalist forces clearly want the tragic civil war renewed. But this united demonstration of Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala people showed the deep-seated desire for peace and for an end to sectarianism.

On 15 November, the day of Raviraj’s actual funeral in his home town near Jaffna in the North, world-wide protests were held at Sri Lankan embassies. In Belgium, in Austria, in Pakistan, in Sweden, in Israel and in Britain, the message was the same.

For reports from the pickets and also background material on Sri Lanka see www.socialistworld.net