Some 100,000 demonstrators marched through central London Saturday to demand a truce in Sri Lanka, as hundreds staged similar protests in Scandinavia against Colombos offensive on Tamil rebels. Waving flags and placards and chanting for a truce, they streamed through the citys main Trafalgar Square en route for Hyde Park, led by a large banner reading "Britain act now! Immediate and permanent cease-fire in Sri Lanka".
A spokesman for Londons Metropolitan Police told AFP that an estimated 100,000 people were on the march, while three arrests had been made for public order offences. The Tamil community in Britain numbers about 250,000 to 300,000 and had staged several large protests in London in recent weeks. About 400 demonstrators gathered outside the Norwegian parliament in Oslo, a day after a similar number protests there, with some of the demonstrators having camped out overnight.
In Copenhagen, about 50 demonstrators gathered near the foreign ministry building for a fourth straight day. "Were calling for an immediate cease-fire, to send food and medicine into the conflicted area and to condemn the so-called welfare camps, where people are dying and women are getting raped," spokesman Godfrey Manoharan told AFP in Oslo.
Sri Lankas government says it is in the final stages of defeating the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who launched a campaign in 1972 to create a separate Tamil homeland on the Indian Ocean island. The UN fears that thousands of civilians will be killed or wounded as the Sri Lankan military keeps up its bid to crush the Tigers. Colombo has resisted calls for a fresh truce, saying it would only help the Tigers.