Thousands protest killing of Sri Lanka pro-rebel MP

COLOMBO, Nov 13 (Reuters) Thousands of protesters joined a march in Colombo today commemorating a slain rebel-backed MP and demanded the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers halt renewed violence.

Shouting ''Don't kill Tamils'' and waving banners that read ''Stop Crimes against humanity'' and ''Shame'', some 3,500 supporters of the non-partisan National Anti-War Front accompanied the coffin of Tamil MP Nadarajah Raviraj, who was killed on Friday.

He was the second high profile member of the Tamil National Alliance, seen as the Tigers' political proxies in parliament, murdered since December. His colleagues blamed government forces or their supporters.

''This is to show our sympathy. We should eliminate this kind of killing from society,'' said human rights activist Nimalka Fernando, dressed in traditional white of mourning, as the procession wound through central Colombo.

Raviraj's killing comes after a series of deadly attacks that have killed more than an estimated 3,000 civilians, military personnel and Tiger fighters so far this year amid the worst violence since a now tattered 2002 truce.

His funeral will be held on Wednesday in his hometown of Chavakachcheri in the northern, army-held Jaffna peninsula.

President Mahinda Rajapakse, under increasing international pressure to solve a rash of extrajudicial killings, massacres and abductions blamed on both sides, has requested British assistance in the investigation into Raviraj's murder.

He rejects outright the Tigers' demand for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the island's north and east, where they already run a de facto state.

Foreign nations from the United States to India to peace mediator Norway have called on both sides to halt violence threatening to plunge the island into a full-blown return to a conflict that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983.

REUTERS PDM PM1712