Police say around 2,000 supporters of Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka have gathered in front of Britain's Parliament. The crowds have been meeting daily for more than a month to call for a cease fire on the Indian Ocean Island. But Monday's gathering in London appeared larger after Sri Lanka declared it had crushed the final resistance of the Tamil Tigers and killed rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, ending his three-decade quest for an independent homeland for minority Tamils. Police say there have been no arrests at the London gathering, and the Tamil supporters have not blocked roads around Parliament as they did in recent days. Vigilant Tamils Shocked Tamils mounted a vigil outside the United Nations headquarters in Geneva Monday urging international action to help their minority after Sri Lanka declared a final victory over Tiger rebels. About 100 protesters have been in place since late Sunday night, with organizers claiming thousands of sympathizers are expected to descend on the site over the course of the afternoon. “Stop killing Tamils right now,” said one placard, while another read “it is better to have two countries at peace than one at war.” “As we speak, civilians are dying” in Sri Lanka, said protester Tharan Deivendran. “We will remain here until (the international community) finds a solution” for injured and displaced civilians, added Maharajah Mahaventhan. Swiss police said the protest was without incident to-date, but have deployed medical support. Sri Lanka's military declared a final victory earlier Monday in its decades-old conflict with the Tamil Tigers, after routing the remnants of the rebel army and killing its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. The declaration marked the end of one of Asia's oldest and most brutal ethnic conflicts which left more than 70,000 dead from pitched battles, suicide attacks, bomb strikes and assassinations. The Sri Lankan government's moment of triumph has also come at the cost of thousands of innocent lives lost in indiscriminate shelling, according to the United Nations. The UN's rights body now wants a war crimes probe. The international Red Cross, the only neutral organisation that has been allowed to work in the war zone, has for its part described “an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe.”
