London Mayor talks to Tiger front

Ken Livingstone has addressed a meeting co-organised by a "front" for a banned terror organisation - even though he had been warned at the highest diplomatic levels about the group's alleged terrorist links.

The Mayor sought backing from the British Tamil Forum at the meeting in Harrow on Saturday, according to its spokesman.

The forum is accused by the Sri Lankan government of being a front for the Tigers, banned in Britain under anti-terrorism laws. A spokesman for the Sri Lankan High Commission in London told the Evening Standard that the High Commissioner, Kshenuka Senewiratne, wrote to Livingstone "early last week" to express her "concerns" about his intention to speak to the forum.

"The British Tamil Forum is one of the main front organisations for the Tigers in the UK," the spokesman said.

"We did not know whether the Mayor knew what the background to the meeting was so the High Commissioner wrote to inform him." Livingstone never replied, the spokesman said.

At a previous meeting organised by the British Tamil Forum, at the Excel Centre, Docklands, on 27 November, a video message from the Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, praising suicide bombing was played and a collection was taken for Tiger "martyrs".

Evening Standard, London