Simon Hughes MP negotiates an agreement

The big news today 10/4/09 was the negotiations that Simon Hughes MP had with the Tamil students and the two hunger strikers. It was agreed that the joint demands would be for 1. An immediate and permanent ceasefire 2. Immediate access to the red cross and other humanitarian organizations 3. Immediate access to representatives of the international press 4. A referendum for all Tamil citizens to express their opinion about their future. In order to obtain these goals British members of parliament with one Tamil student each would visit the UN, The office of president Obama and Hilary Clinton, The european council in Brussels and the secretary general of the commonwealth in London. The goal to report back within 10 days because of the urgency of the situation. Also a senior representative of the Church of England about all faiths working together for peace.

I spoke with M.K. Shivaji a Tamil MP from Sri Lanka. He said the killing continues day by day and there have been many civilian casualties. He says the situation is very grave. Many Tamils believe there is a case to use the word genocide in this context.

He also said that various nations were involved with the Sri Lanka government especially economic projects. Chief amongst them being China. It seems China is also hindering Tamil demands for ceasefires etc at the UN. There is a whole news story here which both the mainstream media and the alternative media are not reporting. Much of the Tamil story is untold.

As I have written earlier the media as the fourth estate have lost their way. They are so in thrall to commercialism and chasing either celebrities or sensational stories they have lost the ability to investigate real stories. A very simple example was here in London with the Tamil story. This is on the doorstop of the BBC. Yet simple little facts they get wrong. It was the labour MP who first gave the water to the hunger striker not Simon Hughes MP. Not a big part of the story but should tell the story as it happened. Why have the BBC not been covering this story carefully. A large community of Tamils seem to be solidly behind this protest. A community which I am told is near to 300,000. Very novel is the nature of the protest. It is the first protest I have seen in London that consists of so many families. This in itself is a story worthy of reports.