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Sri Lankan-born Thaya Idaikkadar, a councillor of the London borough of Harrow, who ended his four-day fast opposite Parliament said his protest was not about politics, race or language but about the violence against Tamil people.

Talking to the Harrow Times, Idaikkadar said that the "world is ignoring this developing tragedy."

"If the international community does not act soon we will be guilty of condoning the massacres of innocent civilians," the councillor who ended a 101-hour fast as London's landmark Big Ben struck noon, was quoted as saying.Mr Idaikkadar is a member of the Labour Party.

He told the Times that recently 13 members of one Tamil family including a baby were killed by the Sri Lankan military.

"All we want to do is live peacefully with our fellow countrymen."

Mr Idaikkadar's protest was permitted by the police under the anti-terrorism laws that ban even peaceful demonstrations near the House of Commons unless authorised.

Some 150 supporters are reported to have kept him company during the night. "Many people in Harrow are extremely concerned about family and friends in Sri Lanka and the attention that Councillor Idaikkadar is drawing to the situation can only help," Harrow West MP and minister for international aid Gareth Thomas who visited Idaikkadar was quoted as saying.A Sri Lankan parliamentarian Padmini Sithamparanathan on a visit to London, is reported as saying that Tamils in north-east Sri Lanka were living under military occupation and relied on UK Tamils to raise awareness of their suffering. A letter calling on western nations to help negotiations between the two communities was handed at No. 10 Downing Street, the Times said. There are said to be 12,000 Tamils living in the borough of Harrow.