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Ken Livingstone has addressed a meeting co-organised by a "front" for a banned terror organisation - even though he had been warned at the highest diplomatic levels about the group's alleged terrorist links.
The Mayor sought backing from the British Tamil Forum at the meeting in Harrow on Saturday, according to its spokesman.
The forum is accused by the Sri Lankan government of being a front for the Tamil Tigers, which wages an armed struggle for a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka and is banned in Britain under anti-terrorism laws.
A spokesman for the Sri Lankan High Commission in London told the Standard that the High Commissioner, Kshenuka Senewiratne, wrote to Mr Livingstone "early last week" to express her "concerns" about his intention to speak to the forum.
"The British Tamil Forum is one of the main front organisations for the Tamil Tigers in the UK," the spokesman said. "We did not know whether the Mayor knew what the background to the meeting was so the High Commissioner wrote to inform him." Mr Livingstone never replied, the spokesman said.
At a previous meeting organised by the British Tamil Forum, at the Excel Centre, Docklands, on 27 November, a video message from the Tamil Tigers' leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, praising suicide bombing was played and a collection was taken for Tamil Tiger "martyrs". The meeting is the subject of a police anti-terror investigation.
The Tamil Tigers, officially known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, pioneered suicide bombing.
They have been responsible for numerous attacks in Sri Lanka, including a military assault on the country's main airport in 2001 which caught almost 50 British tourists in the crossfire.
Although indiscriminate violence has also been carried out by the Sri Lankan government, Tamil Tiger suicide attacks alone have killed around 1,600 people, including the Sri Lankan president and the Indian prime minister.
Suren Surendiran, a spokesman for the British Tamil Forum, said that last weekend's meeting was co-organised by the forum and a local Tamil Labour councillor, Thaya Iddaikadar.
"The forum was involved (in the organisation of the meeting)," he said. "About 20 per cent of the people at the meeting were from the British Tamil Forum and the rest were local Tamils."
Mr Surendiran said the Mayor was asked a question about the Sri Lankan High Commission's claims that the forum was a Tamil Tiger front. "He said the Metropolitan Police came under him and where there was a legitimate request for a legitimate event his office would always be supportive," Mr Surendiran said.
The Mayor also gave the forum his "personal commitment" that he would support its candlelit vigil in Trafalgar Square this summer to mark the 25th anniversary of "Black July," a massacre of Tamil civilians triggered by a Tamil Tiger attack on a military convoy.
About 1,000 Tamils were killed in this bloodshed, which is generally seen as the trigger for Sri Lanka's civil war. Mr Surendiran said the forum "shares the same aspirations as the Tamil Tigers, but we do not subscribe to their methodology". Mr Livingstone's campaign has been dogged by allegations that he is too closely linked to organisations which sympathise with terrorists.
Yesterday, the Standard told how he had appointed a former member of a banned Sikh terrorist organisation, Dabinderjit Singh, to the board of TfL.
Last week it emerged that one of Mr Livingstone's leading Muslim supporters is closely connected to the Islamic militant group Hamas.
Mr Livingstone's campaign was not available for comment.
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Reader views (39)
Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.
I see emotions running high. Anybody who wants to know the history of violence should know the back ground of this conflict since independence in 1948.
When did the LTTE and the aspiration of an independent state come into question? Not until 1977, when the TULF (Tamils United Liberation Front) became the opposition party in SriLanka demanding a separate state as the only solution for the Tamils. Do you know what happened in 1958, when the "Sinhala only" law was enforced, and how many Tamils were murdered and chased away to the North and East? What happened to the peaceful protests by the Tamil leaders who were brutally tortured by the government forces. In 1977 yet again the Tamils were murdered and sent back to the North and East in ships.
So the North and East of SL has been seen as a Tamils State also by the government of SL. Why not give the Tamils a Federal state? LTTE is already running a government and if the Tamils want, let them decide whether to live under the LTTE or move away from the North and East.
This will save a lot of lives of innocent people.
We have got to find a solution to the problem and not to dwell in the past anymore. If any one really cares about peace in SL, then let us get to gether in finding a peaceful solution to this bloody war which has killed more than 100,000 lives since independence.
Let us give the people in SL a taste of what we enjoy in the name of freedom here in England.
I love peace and don't call me LTTE.
- Johannes, Cheltenham
Your report has fundamental inaccuracies. Surely, Ken is entitled to listen to all voters of London and form his own judgement, than be biassed by misleading headlines at the seeming behest of Sri Lanka's Ambassador, a country steeped in bad governance over several decades based on ethnic and religious grounds, and open bloodshed over 22 years. No one in his right senses would wish to be tainted by such propaganda. When more than 75,000 Tamils have been killed, 5000 in the past year alone, and 1300 abducted and gone missing, does this not deserve an international outcry especially when even UN Observers are barred by that Government? Several Reporters have been killed while a number are under indefinire detention. Your News media might wish to give publicity to the killing of even Tsunami aid workers which was independently reviewed by an International Panel of ten Eminent Persons (IIEE) which wound up disillusioned by the state of justice in the country. Incidentally, more than 3000 Tamils were killed or burnt in the Black July 1983 race riot. The ambush you refer to was said to have been preceded by crimes against women by the military. It's a long, long tale of woe which deserves serious bipartisan investigation, not unilateral biassed approach. Thank God, UK has race relations laws. I believe Ken has been fully dedicated to its implementation.
- Saravanamuttu, London,UK
Go through the comments and they prove one thing-
Livingston has made this election a mockery. It is already not about London but whether it is ethical to support foreign terrorists or not. And that is in exchange of votes.
Issues about London? Who cares, there are suicide bombers to sponsor!
- Murali, Reading
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