Sri Lankan Cricket fans attack the Tamil activists in London
Tamil activists, including youth, women and children, were brutally attacked outside the Oval cricket stadium on the 17th of June 2013 during the ‘Boycott Sri Lankan Cricket’ campaign. This campaign was organised to create awareness on the on-going genocide of Eelam Tamils and to highlight the importance of an International Independent Investigation.
The Sri Lankan cricket fans, in the thousands, started the assault by racially abusing the Tamil activists then bottles, bricks and stones were hurled causing grievous bodily harm. The assault then escalated when a mob broke through the police lines and started hitting the activists with placards and other available materials that they had taken from them. This included a brutal attack on an elderly gentleman and a boy that appeared to be under 10 years of age.
The Sri Lankan Cricket fans further intimidated the activists by taking close range photographs and threatening them of imminent harm if they ever went to Sri Lanka, “F**king Tamils”, “come [to] Sri Lanka, you will never come back” and “We’ve taken over Sri Lanka” were heard. From these verbal chants it is clear that the activists were targeted for being Tamil.
This incident mirrors the brutal violence committed, by the genocidal Sri Lankan state and state sponsored mobs, on Tamils during non-violent campaigns in 1956. This clearly is an attempt by those affiliated with the genocidal Sri Lankan state to silence the voice of the diaspora Tamils.
Tamil Youth Organisation United Kingdom (TYOUK), strongly condemns the brutal attacks committed by the Sri Lankan Cricket fans on the Tamil activists. TYOUK calls on the UK government and the police force to condemn these brutal attacks and carry out an investigation into the incidents that unfolded.
