Expatica news

Thousands of Tamils protest in Berlin

Berlin — Thousands of Tamils from all over Germany demonstrated in Berlin on Friday in the latest of a series of protests worldwide against the ongoing violence in their home country.

Organisers in the German capital said that between 6,000 and 7,000 Tamils took part in the angry but peaceful protests, carrying placards with slogans and photos of children maimed in the violence of recent weeks.

Berlin police said the demonstrators numbered around 2,000.

A Sri Lankan army commander said on Friday that the leader of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels was trapped in a small strip of jungle and intended to make a final stand with his surviving forces.

The fighting has sparked a wave of international concern for the fate of 50,000 people still said by the United Nations to be trapped in the conflict zone.

The UN also estimates that as many as 6,500 civilians may have been killed and another 14,000 wounded in the fighting so far this year, diplomats said.

Up to 30,000 Tamil demonstrators have taken to the streets in Canada, and there have been other protests in Paris, London and elsewhere.

AFP/Expatica