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Breaking The Silence Journal: London

School of Economics17 November 201

'Breaking the Silence', a series of university exhibitions began early lastweek, with students at the London School of Economics & Political ScienceLSE! holding an exhibition raising awareness of genocide and detailing theongoing human rights crisis in Sri Lanka"

#unning a stall on $oughton Street, themain street within LSE, members of both

the LSES% amil Society and LSES%mnesty (nternational Societycam)aigned to raise awareness amongststudents, through a combination of)osters, artwork, and informativeconversation"

Students voiced their shock and disgust at the lack of retros)ective action,while also condemning the decision to host the recently concluded*ommonwealth $eads +f overnment -eeting in Sri Lanka, with onestudent describing it as,

.a s)it in the face of the international community, and all the*ommonwealth stands for."

http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=9249http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=9249http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=9249http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=9249

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he /ice0President of the amil Society,elaborated on why she felt the BSseries was crucial, stating,

.s a amil )erson, the emotionalconnection to this event is obvious"

By raising awareness amongst thegeneral student )o)ulation, we wishto show )eo)le why we feel SriLanka is a genocidal state and whywe fight so hard for 1ustice" herewould be no )oint in having a amilsociety if we forget about ourhomeland 0 we must ensure thisty)e of cam)aigning continues through the year."

he LSES% mnesty (nternational Society were also e2ually as )assionatein their conviction against Sri Lanka's human rights record, collecting over344 signatures for a )etition calling for an investigation into thegovernment's actions during the ethnic conflict against innocent civilians" re)resentative voiced their discontent, saying how,

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.the barbaric and atrocious crimes which ha))ened in and are stillha))ening in Sri Lanka needs recognition 0 ( can not believe it issounder)layed in 5estern media."

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Each student who came to the stall wasalso invited to write down one word ontoa blank sheet of )a)er which they feltbest described everything they had 1ust

been informed about"

he most common exam)les included'5ar *rimes', 'enocide', and 'orture',while one student also )oignantly usedthe )hrase .*onvenient (gnorance. 0succinctly describing the entire situation"

fter their exhibition, both societies again collaborated to host a screeningof the recent documentary, '6o 7ire 8one', holding a discussion afterwardswhich was covered extensively by the LSES% amil Society twitter )age9LSES%amilSoc!" he discussion was not only useful in describing thegeneral student's disgust at the situation in Sri Lanka, but alsoconstructively s)oke about how a difference can be made through students

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themselves"

(f you wish to follow the Breaking the Silence exhibition series, you can doon witter by using the $ashtag ':BreaktheSilence'"

Stay tuned for the next )iece in the Breaking he Silence ;ournal, as theexhibition travels to universities across the %