In a bold occupation at 2.30 this morning, a woman from peacestrike.org.uk has converted the Parliament Square Churchill statue into a mock-up of a Sri Lankan death camp. She intends to stay there as long as possible to highlight the plight of hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians facing threat of starvation, rape, torture or murder. phone interview link below.

check back here for timeline u

There was a huge turn-out for the Tamil march in London this afternoon. Police turned a blind eye to the hundreds of Tamil Eelam flags which were proudly displayed. The march was good-natured, though sombre and dignified.

Previous Features: Tamil Blockade at Parliament | Tamils Blockade Parliament Square Again | SOCPA, the tamils, and the grass | Held for 24 hours by police for flag-waving

tamil protesters are leaving parliament square tonight and are calling for support on their march on saturday. a call-out has been put together by members of various supporting organisations.

Police detained Maria Gallestegui (from peacestrike.org) for 24 hours after her arrest yesterday evening for waving the Tamil Eelam homeland flag at Parliament Square.

Maria has finally just been released from Belgravia police station after being held for 24 hours for waving a flag that a week ago we were categorically told on film was not proscribed and so she couldn't be 'processed' or arrest

police have been arresting tamils waving their national flag in parliament square. yesterday, maria (peacestrike.org.uk) tested the legality of this by standing outside new scotland yard and arguing it out on film when confronted by officers. this story is regularly updated as news develops.

when is a flag a terrorist flag? the answer, it seems, depends on who and where you are! if you are a tamil student peacefully demonstrating in parliament square, it is, and you get arrested. if you are tony benn mp and you are in parliament square, you get photographed but not arrested. if you stand outside new scotland yard and challenge the police to arrest you, suddenly it magically becomes

police, rather than test the truth in court, have taken to their usual method of unlawful seizure and intimidation in the battle against tamil flag waving in parliament square

At 16:00 this Monday afternoon (18th), Tamil protestors broke through the police barriers around Parliament Square and have once again blockaded Parliament. Traffic is being diverted away from the square. Although there were many police present, they were apparently taken off guard.

See full article for the timeline of events.

Photos: [1] Previous coverage: 17 May | 15 May |

as more news gets out that the 'safe zone' in sri lanka is a mass of flames, tamils gathered in parliament square this morning with black flags

in secret meetings not recorded in Hansard, our government has formulated a plan to rid parliament square of not only the current tamil protests, but also brian haw's seven and a half year vigil. emergency legislation is expected to pass through parliament unopposed within a matter of weeks.

Tamil protestors have caught police on the hop today and blockaded the road outside Parliament again in the last half hour. Hundreds of protestors have taken the junction at Westminster Bridge Road and traffic is backed up across the bridge and up Whitehall. Police re-inforcements are moving in.

See full article for regular updates and photos.

STRIKE DAY
Make your stand, take a day off work, nursery, school, college, university, and gather in Westminster.

Wednesday 29th April from early...

police mounted a huge operation in parliament square this morning to stop any repeat of the tamil road occupation on this budget day.

police have now flooded the parliament square area tonight at 19:30 and they are telling the tamil protesters to move back onto the grass behind the barriers. updates below.

in a move reminiscent of the farcical GLA fences prior to nelson mandela's visit, and at the time of the burmese protests in summer 2007, the tamil protest in parliament square is being marginalised by the GLA and police while thousands die in sri lanka

Wednesday, 18th March

Protests at main LSR shareholder and government collaborators.

A different feel for demos today, as SHAC went into SOCPA-zone to demonstrate. Very reluctantly we 'got permission' for our 4 protests, and so we started at Barclays next to the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, just next to parliament.

police criminally damaged a megaphone and assaulted a protester in parliament square this morning - there were no arrests

brian was assaulted by a worker putting up barriers in parliament square this morning. his hand was bleeding after the attack, but rather than arrest the culprit, or even (in case of doubt) both, they've instead arrested brian, supposedly for the theft of a key! solicitors are trying to find his whereabouts.

on friday afternoon, brian haw and others saved the life of a tamil protester who set himself alight in parliament square. a police sergeant who saw cctv footage of the incident told them they would be receiving a letter of commendation for saving life and limb. on sunday morning, the same sergeant arrived at 9am to perform an unlawful search of the tents - using force and intimidation against

Monday, 23th February

Only three of us for another mini demo inside the 'SOCPA-zone' where we protested against Barclays (biggest HLS shareholder), but we still managed to do a decent little demo while leafletting about this Friday's march. We managed about 40 minutes of a demonstration before being told to clear off by a sergeant. It's a free society to demonstrate as long as you get permissio

maria gallestegui has been advised by doctors to finish her hunger strike before doing permament harm to her body organs. she will start eating again after demonstrating outside the cabinet meeting at number ten this morning (tuesday) after 30 days without food

Staying in parliament square, Maria Gallestegui continues her hunger strike for Gaza. She has yet to receive any worthwhile mainstream media coverage, despite now lasting 25 days without food.

Her demand is simple, and humanitarian - that the government publicly demand an end to the blockade of Gaza, announce an end to arms sales to Israel, and press for an international tribunal into Israeli w

maria gallestegui has begun her third week without food, in solidarity with the people of gaza.
today she took advantage of socpa legislation to exercise her right to protest behind the gates inside downing street as the cabinet turned up for their early morning meeting at number 10.
there has still been no mainstream coverage of her extraordinary protest

early this afternoon, lembit opek had barbara tucker arrested outside the gates of parliament because the noise from her campaigning for the children of gaza was interfering with him being filmed prancing about on some electric bike - she intends to sue in the high court and give the money to the children of gaza

at westminster court, judge caroline tubbs banned brian haw (the parliament square peace protestor who has been there for more than seven years) with an exclusion order covering the westminster area. barristers eventually managed to have the ruling suspended pending an appeal, but the threat is still very much there.

This morning, some students from Kingston University were prevented by police in Parliament Square from interviewing Barbara Tucker as part of their MA course.

In the arguments which ensued, Barbara Tucker was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer.