Sinhala Attempt to Intimidate Tamil Post Master in London

Last Tuesday (04/01/21005) a person visited the post office in London where I am the postmaster. It is a post office with a grocery shop. There is a collection box in the shop and a White Pigeon poster in the post office window for Tsunami victims of Tamil Eelam.

The person asked if I am the owner of the post office and he asked me for a copy of the White Pigeon notice and he wanted to have a discussion about that poster. I gave him a copy of the poster. He asked who gave me this poster and told me it is illegal to collect money for theLTTE because it is a banned organisation in the UK. I told him that White Pigeon is a registered charity organisation in the UK and we have a charity number on the poster. My intention is to help the tsunami victims in the NorthEast. I don’t care about whether it is banned or not - I want to help our people affected by the tsunami.

The person repeated that it is illegal. I explained to him that in this country selected representatives like MP’s and councillors are collecting money for the same organisation and they should know the laws of this country better than him. He told me sarcastically, "I think they wouldn’t know about the ban." I told him the MPs are not fools.

While this argument was going on, he gave a copy a paper cutting. I asked him what is this and he told me that it is a paper cutting of the Island newspaper. I refused to read the paper, stating that it is a racist paper and I don’t want to read this nonsense. Than I asked him who he was. He said that he is a journalist for the Island and his name is Dushy Ranatunge and to tell the LTTE because they know me. I told them they don’t care about fools like you and he went away.

A few hours later a journalist from the Evening Standard called me and asked me about collecting money in the shop and I explained to her station all the reasons why we are helping White Pigeon and she was very impressed and appreciative. They published an article the next day appreciating the community and mentioning my name.

Here are a few paragraphs from the Evening Standard of 05/01/2005 headlined 'London Rallies to Save the Survivors' - "Sri Lankan-born Mano Haran is running a collection outside his post office and general store at Southgate. Five of his relatives have been killed and countless members of his community on the north coast of Sri Lanka are missing. He has put collection buckets for Sri Lanka charity White Pigeon which have raised one hundred thousand pounds on the pavement outside his shop and estimates 150 pounds have been given in spare change so far. He said everyone has been pulling together in the area – students, councillors and community leaders. Everybody wants to help."

Tsunami Disaster & Tamil Eelam