White Pigeon event a disastrous failure - Paris event cancelled

(January,13, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) LTTE front, White Pigeon’s fundraising event ended in a fiasco at the prestigious Alexandra Palace Hall on 12 January 2008. Many celebrities from India did not turn up except for the money crazy few that had made quick bucks to help the White Pigeon to save its face from cancelling the event. Desperate attempts were made by the organisers to pull the crowd and majority of those attended had bought the £25 ticket at a discounted price of £10. The crowd is said to be mere 1,500 persons in the sparsely arranged seatings and many rows in the back and right in the front remained empty. The specially priced tickets for the VIP’s-Very Important Puligal (Tigers) were not sold and the seats allocated remained empty. The organisers had employed a private security firm to provide security. This very same firm is usually hired by the LTTE for their events in London. None of the security guards were seen wearing SIA badges required under the law to be worn at public events.

The security guards prevented anyone taking camera’s to the venue and they were asked to switch off the mobile phones. Despite this some had sneaked their cameras and intermittent flashes were seen in the hall. Even the plain cloth undercover police officers were fully checked before allowing to enter the hall.There was no major police presence except few officers patrolling the area in a police car. The programme was advertised for five hours but ended shortly after two hours. Many items listed were cancelled due to celebrities not attending. The prominent of those did not attend was actor Sathiyaraj, his son Sibi, Jeeva and the singer Chithra. Towards the end of the programme a scuffle broke out between the security guards and about 14 young Tamil boys. The boys attempted to take their anger over poor quality of the programme on the security guards.

The crowd was also disappointed that Very Important Pongal (VIP) i.e Rice Pudding, publicised by the celebrities in the LTTE television adverts were not cooked or served in the hall. The White Pigeon is expected to make huge losses as they would not haven even recovered their costs. The organisers advertised in the LTTE front media paying heavy sums to give publicity for the event. In addition to hall hire and sound system costs the advertising cost is said to run into many thousands of sterling pounds. The White Pigeon put up large posters on the exterior of London Transport (LT) buses in Tamil language to give publicity for the event. The cost of advertising with the LT is said to run into thousands of pounds.A similar event was planned in Paris today (13/1) involving the same celebrities and this has now been cancelled indefinitely.