By

Sujeeva Nivunhella in London

Tamil Eelam lobbyists suffered a setback when a ruse to project the LTTE flag as the official symbol representing the Tamil language on two websites was spotted by the Sri Lankan High Commission in London, which lodged a strong protest resulting in the immediate deletion of the material by the hosts of the sites.

It happened last week when the Metropolitan Police, the capital city’s police service, was providing information of its activities to London’s residents in English and some other major languages used by migrant communities living in the UK.

This was intended to help those not particularly conversant with English to understand the services provided by the police.

With the respective national flags depicting the countries where the particular languages are spoken, in the case of Tamil, the LTTE flag or a slightly doctored version to make it easier to sneak pass the British authorities was displayed as the Tamil National flag.

On seeing this attempt to hoodwink viewers of the website, the Sri Lankan High Commission immediately wrote to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London protesting against this grave distortion by the Metropolitan Police. A request to delete it without delay was made.

Asked by the Sunday Island, Acting High Commissioner, Neville de Silva said that the mission informed the FCO it was objectionable that the Tamil language spoken by some 70 million people in India and is also an official language in Sri Lanka and Singapore, should be represented not by the national flags of any of those countries, but by the flag that has been long identified as a symbol of a terrorist organization banned by the UK Government under its Terrorism Act 2000 for the past 12 years.

“It is an insult to the Tamil language and culture of millions of people around the world to be told that an LTTE-like flag represents their language”, de Silva said.

In a letter to the head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the High Commission had said it was a matter of grave concern and raised doubts about the intentions of whoever was responsible for what de Silva called a “serious faux pas”.

He said that he had pointed out to the Met Police chief that it is curious how his organization, which should be well acquainted with the LTTE flag which has been displayed so often by its supporters, was unable to recognize it and allow it to be used on its website as a national flag.

Although the Met Police is yet to reply to the High Commission on its embarrassing gaffe, it had erased Tiger flag from its website.

The Mayor of the Lewisham Council in London was prompt in replying by letter to the Acting High Commissioner saying he “apologized sincerely for making a similar error on its website”.

Sir Steve Bullock in his letter said the use of the flag was an isolated incident and that he would ensure that it does not happen again.
COURTESY:Sunday Island