Mayoral leaks and pro-Tiger protests

A letter from the Sri Lanka High Commission to the mayor of a London borough and leaked to a pro-LTTE website has prompted a protest and a call for an inquiry.

The protest has come from the High Commission (HC) as well as Sri Lankan organisations here including some Tamil and Muslim groups, informed sources said.

Two days before International Peace Day last month, Sri Lanka's High Commissioner wrote to the mayors of all the London boroughs warning them that LTTE activists were trying to use the occasion to castigate the Colombo government and propagate its ideology in the name of peace vigils opposite mayoral offices.

The letter that was faxed to the mayor of Harrow, Janet Cowan had leaked from her office and ended up on the pro-LTTE website Nitharsanam. The leak was traced to the Harrow mayor's office as the Norway-based website failed to obliterate the fax number of the mayor's office when it reproduced the letter.

The HC has now written to the mayor protesting at the leak of a document from the representative of a foreign government, that it was a breach of confidence and urging the mayor to inquire into this leak. The letter has been copied to the ombudsman that oversees the conduct of city boroughs and, interestingly, to the chairperson of the Labour Party. Notifying the Labour Party was an indication that the HC suspected a Labour Party councillor to have been involved in passing on the letter to the website.

The Conservative Party leader of the Harrow Council, Chris Mote was quoted by the Harrow Times as saying that it was clear that the letter had been passed to the LTTE site by someone at the borough offices.

The Labour Party leader in the council Navin Shah was reported as saying that he would investigate the leak, as was his duty, and if one of his members was responsible he would take action, both under the party's rules and the council's code of conduct.

Councillor Shah told the newspaper that such behaviour was unacceptable from someone holding an elected office.

One of the principal organisers of the so-called vigil was Harrow Councillor Thaya Idaikkadar, the chairman of the Tamil Councillors and Associates, the body that mounted it.Idaikkadar had told The Harrow Times that he had no idea who had leaked the letter and urged the HC to "get their facts right." He was also quoted as saying that "no one at those vigils had LTTE membership."