By Peter Main
Hundreds of demonstrators have prevented Sri Lanka’s President Rajapakse from addressing a business meeting in the heart of the City of London. He had been due to deliver a keynote speech at the Commonwealth Economic Forum at the Mansion House.
Protesters waving Tamil Tiger flags and placards demanded not only that he should not speak, but that he should be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Although the crowds grew in the course of the morning, it proved impossible to prevent Rajapakse from attending a banquet with the Queen at Marlborough House on Pall Mall at lunchtime. After the orchestrated mass celebrations to mark her 60th year in office it was, at least, useful to see the kind of people she prefers to mix with.
