2009 Tamil diaspora protests
Encyclopedia
The 2009 Tamil diaspora protests refers to a series of protests and demonstrations
which took place in several countries across the world, urging national and world leaders and organizations to take action on bringing a unanimous cease fire to the Sri Lankan Civil War
, which had taken place for over twenty-five years. The protests took several forms, such as human chain
s, demonstration
s, rallies
, hunger strike
s and self-immolation
by a few individuals.
Tamil
and other communities across the world had concerns regarding the conduct of the civil war in the island nation of Sri Lanka
. The civil war, which took place between the Sri Lankan Army
and the separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
is believed to have claimed the lives of over 100,000 Tamil civilians. Protesters and critics of the Sri Lankan government alleged the civil war to be a systematic genocide
and ethnic cleansing
of the Sri Lankan Tamil minority in Sri Lanka. Critics of the protests alleged the LTTE's use of ethnic cleansing
as well as such abuses as the use of civilian human shield, child soldiers and terrorism.
The first protests in several cities of Tamil Nadu
, India
in mid-2008 where organizations, politicians, celebrities and student associations raised their requests for the government to intervene and stop the civil war. Following the Tamil Nadu protests, other major protests took place in the vicinities of other Tamil diaspora. Notable protests have happened across the world in the cities of Chennai
, London
, Toronto
, Auckland
, Ottawa
, Paris
, Oslo
, Sydney
, Washington, D.C.
, Bangalore
, New York City
, Berlin
, Geneva
, Zürich
, The Hague
, Canberra
, Wellington
, Copenhagen
and Kuala Lampur. The goal of the protests was to persuade organizations and leaders to intervene in the Sri Lankan Civil War and establish a ceasefire, appeal to humanitarian aid organizations to provide resources to the affected areas of Sri Lanka, and help remove the LTTE from any list of terrorist organizations. After the civil war was ended on May 18, 2009, protests continued in a few countries, urging governments to undertake a war-crimes inspection in Sri Lanka.
and Canberra
, Australia
. Over a thousand protested during Sri Lankan foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama
's visit to Australia on October 14, 2008. The protest took place in Canberra outside the National Press Club
. The protesters accused the Sri Lankan government alleging attack on civilians and the prevention of UN aid reaching affected areas. In response to the protests, Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith
stated that he raised the concern of the violence amid the civil war. He also assured that Australia insists that military means will not solve the problem and that a political solution can only result in the ending of the war.
After several local demonstrations, mostly in Sydney, larger protests were organized within Australia during the month of April 2009, with the most significant one being the non-stop protest in Sydney. As of April, 60 rallies and protests have occurred across Australia.
On April 11, three Australian protesters began hunger strikes, like those concurrently occurring in Canada
and the United Kingdom
. The hunger strike ended on April 17. On April 17, a "March for Peace" took place in Canberra. On April 13, protests took place in front of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
's residence in Sydney, urging him to call an immediate ceasefire.
Several hundred protesters rallied in North Sydney
urging Joe Hockey
, Member for North Sydney, to take the concerns of his constituents to the Australian Prime Minister
and Foreign Minister. Similar protests occurred on April 22, as over 600 protesters converged outside Julie Owens
's office to voice their frustration at the lack of action by the Australian Labour Government in preventing thousands of Tamil civilians from allegedly being killed by the Sri Lankan Military.
A "Boycott Sri Lankan Products" campaign was launched in Sydney during the last week of April. The demonstrations occurred with a few roads being closed down to make way. The protests were paused for ANZAC Day
on April 25.
and protests which took place in major Canadian cities with a significant Tamil diaspora
population, during the year 2009 regarding the alleged genocide
. It was part of the global outcry by the Tamil diaspora to end the Sri Lankan Civil War
, investigate acts of war crimes by the Government of Sri Lanka, and restore civil rights for Tamils in Sri Lanka. The aim was also to create awareness and appeal to leaders, notably the Prime Minister of Canada
, Stephen Harper
, the President of the United States
, Barack Obama
and the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Canada, Bandula Jayasekara, to take action in ending the conflict. Several Tamil Canadian
citizens and business-owners from different parts of Canada and the United States took part in major protests set up in Toronto
and Ottawa
, while smaller scale demonstrations took place in Montreal
, Vancouver
and Calgary
.
The first notable demonstration took place on 28 January 2009 in front of the Consulate of Sri Lanka in Toronto involving a few hundred people. The following day, several thousands gathered in front of the Consulate of the United States in Toronto to appeal to the Government of the United States to take action on ending the civil war. A 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) human chain
of several thousands of citizens took place the next day along major streets in Downtown Toronto
. There after, demonstrations began to escalate in size and occurred on Parliament Hill
in Ottawa for sometime, until returning to continue in Toronto. Other tactics by protesters included occupation
of major streets, sit-in
s, hunger strike
s and Internet activism
.
. Protests, rallies, human chain
s, strikes and demonstrations have continuously taken place throughout the South Indian city of Chennai
by lawyers, politicians, activists, student groups, celebrities, and many organizations. The aim of the protests was to urge leaders, such as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi
, Tamil Nadu opposition J. Jayalalitha, Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh
and Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee
to intervene and stop the Sri Lankan Civil War
and stop any diplomatic assistance or relations with the island nation.
The first of the protests actually began when the South Indian Film Artistes' Association
, a non-profit group of film actors, directors, producers, and other artistes of the Tamil film industry
, staged a one-day hunger strike in September 2008.
With regard to sentiments among those deceased in the war, several individuals had self immolated themselves on various days. Those who self immolated themselves were Muthukumar, Murugathasan, Amaresan, Pallapatti Ravi, Gokularathinam,
Tamilvendhan,
Sivaprakasam, Raja, Ravichandran, Ramu, and Sivanandam.
prior to it being asked to leave by the Sri Lankan government of Rajapakse which ended the ceasefire in 2006 after alleging multiple violations by the LTTE. Pro LTTE Tamil communities and organizations within Norway organized large protests including ones outside the Norwegian Parliament, Prime Minister's office and other parts of Oslo. There was also Protests outside the Sri Lankan embassy where a few Protesters broke into the Embassy was the first one to turn violent in global Tamil Protests through no one was hurt but cause severe damage to the Embassy of Sri Lanka. Hundreds of Tamils gathered in Bergen city in Norway. They organized a 48-hour famine protest starting on November 20, 6:00 p.m.
These protest was organized by the British Tamil Forum, a prominent Diaspora organisation and a key association organizing of the event.
The first protest in 2009 began on Saturday, 18 January 2009 with around 9000 British Tamils in front of No. 10 Downing Street in London participating in a mass vigil from 3:00 p.m till 7:00 p.m.
There were two major protests in London one in January and one in April. The first protest began on Saturday January 31, 2009 which attracted a crowd of around 150,000 Tamils. The protest started at around 10 am but people arrived earlier than expected. The protest lasted till 2pm. The marchers began gathering at 1pm on Millbank, near the Tate gallery. By 2pm the riverside road, which had been closed to traffic was filled and roads leading back to Pimlico and Vauxhall stations were also full of Tamil protesters.
The second protest began on Saturday, 11 April 2009 which attracted more than 200,000 Tamils. This protested started at around 10 am. 3,000 protesters who were at parliament who were already there since 6 April joined the protest to show their support. The protest was started by the second generation diaspora Tamil youth and students with the help of British Tamil Forum and TYO. The protest carried on until night but the non-stop protest carried on.
On 6 April an ongoing protest began, which continued into the middle of May. The aim of protest is encourage British intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War. Two British Tamils, 21-year-old Sivatharsan Sivakumaravel and 28-year-old Parameswaran Subramanyam, went on hunger strike. On 11 May, the protesters in Parliament Square "spilled through police lines" causing roads to be blocked, with the protesters "noisy but peaceful."
In October 2009 the Daily Mail
falsely claimed that a police surveillance team had been watching the two hunger strikers and that Subramanyam had been secretly eating McDonald's
burgers with the help of clandestine deliveries. Subramaniyan denied the Mail's allegations, calling them "entirely baseless" and a "conspiracy to defame the Tamil struggle". He stated that he had medical proof. The police refused to discuss the allegations. The false claims were widely reported in the Sri Lankan media, and the Sri Lankan government and its supporters used them to attack the Tamil protesters.
Subramanyam then took legal action for libel against the Daily Mail and The Sun, which had repeated the false claims, which he won in June 2010. The newspapers accepted that the claims had been "entirely false", apologised to Subramanyam and paid him £77,500 in damages
.
The Tamil Protests had also left the London police with £7.1million overtime bill. The British Human Rights Act
grants everyone the right
to gather with others and protest.
Diaspora protestors such as Jan Jananayagam
of Tamils Against Genocide
reiterated to the BBC
that Tamils lived under "existential threat" in North Eastern Sri Lanka, that delayed recognition of genocidal acts cost lives and that based on its record in Rwanda
, the United Nations had not proved that it alone could defend Tamil people.
, Martin Collacott, a former Canadian high commissioner to Sri Lanka questioned the objectives of the protesters. In the editorial, he said if the primary concern of the protesters was the safety of Tamil civilians, they would have asked the Tamil Tigers to free those trapped in the war zone instead of using them as "human shields." However by asking for a ceasefire, he said that the protesters want to "bring about a situation that would allow the Tigers to preserve their fighting capability and prolong the insurgency."
Following the blocking of the Gardiner Expressway on May 10, the Mayor of Toronto David Miller
condemned their tactics as "wrong," and called the blocking of the expressway "unacceptable."
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
which took place in several countries across the world, urging national and world leaders and organizations to take action on bringing a unanimous cease fire to the Sri Lankan Civil War
Sri Lankan civil war
The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil...
, which had taken place for over twenty-five years. The protests took several forms, such as human chain
Human chain
A human chain is a form of demonstration in which people link their arms as a show of political solidarity.The number of demonstrators involved in a human chain is often disputed; the organizers of the human chain often report higher numbers than governmental authorities.Notable human chains, in...
s, demonstration
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
s, rallies
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
, hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
s and self-immolation
Self-immolation
Self-immolation refers to setting oneself on fire, often as a form of protest or for the purposes of martyrdom or suicide. It has centuries-long traditions in some cultures, while in modern times it has become a type of radical political protest...
by a few individuals.
Tamil
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
and other communities across the world had concerns regarding the conduct of the civil war in the island nation of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. The civil war, which took place between the Sri Lankan Army
Sri Lankan Army
The Sri Lanka Army is the oldest and largest of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and is responsible for land-based military and humanitarian operations. Established as the Ceylon Army in 1949, it was renamed when Sri Lanka became a republic in 1972...
and the separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a separatist militant organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Vellupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a violent secessionist and nationalist campaign to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for Tamil...
is believed to have claimed the lives of over 100,000 Tamil civilians. Protesters and critics of the Sri Lankan government alleged the civil war to be a systematic genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
and ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
of the Sri Lankan Tamil minority in Sri Lanka. Critics of the protests alleged the LTTE's use of ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
as well as such abuses as the use of civilian human shield, child soldiers and terrorism.
The first protests in several cities of Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in mid-2008 where organizations, politicians, celebrities and student associations raised their requests for the government to intervene and stop the civil war. Following the Tamil Nadu protests, other major protests took place in the vicinities of other Tamil diaspora. Notable protests have happened across the world in the cities of Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
and Kuala Lampur. The goal of the protests was to persuade organizations and leaders to intervene in the Sri Lankan Civil War and establish a ceasefire, appeal to humanitarian aid organizations to provide resources to the affected areas of Sri Lanka, and help remove the LTTE from any list of terrorist organizations. After the civil war was ended on May 18, 2009, protests continued in a few countries, urging governments to undertake a war-crimes inspection in Sri Lanka.
Australia
In Australia, several protests took place in the cities of SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Over a thousand protested during Sri Lankan foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama
Rohitha Bogollagama
Chandrasekera Rohitha Bandara Bogollagama is a former Sri Lankan politician and was the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 28 January 2007 until he was defeated in the General Elections held on 08th of April 2010, losing his seat in parliament...
's visit to Australia on October 14, 2008. The protest took place in Canberra outside the National Press Club
National Press Club (Australia)
The National Press Club is an association of primarily news journalists, but also includes academics, business people and members of the public service, and is based in Canberra, Australia. It was founded in the 1960s as the National Press Luncheon Club by a few journalists with the backing of the...
. The protesters accused the Sri Lankan government alleging attack on civilians and the prevention of UN aid reaching affected areas. In response to the protests, Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith
Stephen Smith (Australian politician)
Stephen Francis Smith , is the Australian Minister for Defence. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since March 1993, representing the Division of Perth, Western Australia....
stated that he raised the concern of the violence amid the civil war. He also assured that Australia insists that military means will not solve the problem and that a political solution can only result in the ending of the war.
After several local demonstrations, mostly in Sydney, larger protests were organized within Australia during the month of April 2009, with the most significant one being the non-stop protest in Sydney. As of April, 60 rallies and protests have occurred across Australia.
On April 11, three Australian protesters began hunger strikes, like those concurrently occurring in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The hunger strike ended on April 17. On April 17, a "March for Peace" took place in Canberra. On April 13, protests took place in front of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
's residence in Sydney, urging him to call an immediate ceasefire.
Several hundred protesters rallied in North Sydney
North Sydney, New South Wales
North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Sydney is located 3 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney...
urging Joe Hockey
Joe Hockey
Joseph Benedict "Joe" Hockey , is an Australian politician and member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of North Sydney for the Liberal Party of Australia since 1996....
, Member for North Sydney, to take the concerns of his constituents to the Australian Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
and Foreign Minister. Similar protests occurred on April 22, as over 600 protesters converged outside Julie Owens
Julie Owens
Julie Ann Owens , Australian politician, has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 2004, representing the division of Parramatta, New South Wales...
's office to voice their frustration at the lack of action by the Australian Labour Government in preventing thousands of Tamil civilians from allegedly being killed by the Sri Lankan Military.
A "Boycott Sri Lankan Products" campaign was launched in Sydney during the last week of April. The demonstrations occurred with a few roads being closed down to make way. The protests were paused for ANZAC Day
ANZAC Day
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all...
on April 25.
Canada
A series of demonstrationsDemonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
and protests which took place in major Canadian cities with a significant Tamil diaspora
Tamil diaspora
The Tamil diaspora is a demographic group of Tamil people of Indian or Sri Lankan origin who have settled in other parts of the world. Significant Tamil diaspora populations can be found in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Middle East, Réunion, South Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, Fiji, Guyana,...
population, during the year 2009 regarding the alleged genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
. It was part of the global outcry by the Tamil diaspora to end the Sri Lankan Civil War
Sri Lankan civil war
The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil...
, investigate acts of war crimes by the Government of Sri Lanka, and restore civil rights for Tamils in Sri Lanka. The aim was also to create awareness and appeal to leaders, notably the Prime Minister of Canada
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
, Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
, the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
and the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Canada, Bandula Jayasekara, to take action in ending the conflict. Several Tamil Canadian
Tamil Canadian
Tamil Canadian or Canadian Tamils are Canadians of Tamil ethnic origins mostly from India and Sri Lanka. It is estimated that the Tamil diaspora in Canada is around 200,000. From a population of fewer than 150 Tamils in 1983, it has become one of the largest visible minority population groups...
citizens and business-owners from different parts of Canada and the United States took part in major protests set up in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, while smaller scale demonstrations took place in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
and Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
.
The first notable demonstration took place on 28 January 2009 in front of the Consulate of Sri Lanka in Toronto involving a few hundred people. The following day, several thousands gathered in front of the Consulate of the United States in Toronto to appeal to the Government of the United States to take action on ending the civil war. A 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) human chain
Human chain
A human chain is a form of demonstration in which people link their arms as a show of political solidarity.The number of demonstrators involved in a human chain is often disputed; the organizers of the human chain often report higher numbers than governmental authorities.Notable human chains, in...
of several thousands of citizens took place the next day along major streets in Downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is the central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately bounded by Bloor Street to the north, Lake Ontario to the south, the Don River to the east, and Bathurst Street to the west...
. There after, demonstrations began to escalate in size and occurred on Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill , colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildingsthe parliament buildings serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada and contains a number of architectural...
in Ottawa for sometime, until returning to continue in Toronto. Other tactics by protesters included occupation
Occupation (protest)
An as an act of protest, is the entry into and holding of a building, space or symbolic site. As such, occupations often combine some of the following elements: a challenge to ownership of the space involved, an effort to gain public attention, the practical use of the facilities occupied, and a...
of major streets, sit-in
Sit-in
A sit-in or sit-down is a form of protest that involves occupying seats or sitting down on the floor of an establishment.-Process:In a sit-in, protesters remain until they are evicted, usually by force, or arrested, or until their requests have been met...
s, hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
s and Internet activism
Internet activism
Internet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as e-mail, the World Wide Web, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and the delivery of local information to a large audience...
.
India
In India, protests took place primarily in the Indian state of Tamil NaduTamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
. Protests, rallies, human chain
Human chain
A human chain is a form of demonstration in which people link their arms as a show of political solidarity.The number of demonstrators involved in a human chain is often disputed; the organizers of the human chain often report higher numbers than governmental authorities.Notable human chains, in...
s, strikes and demonstrations have continuously taken place throughout the South Indian city of Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
by lawyers, politicians, activists, student groups, celebrities, and many organizations. The aim of the protests was to urge leaders, such as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi
M. Karunanidhi
Muthuvel Karunanidhi is an Indian politician and a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He is the head of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam , a Dravidian political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. He has been the leader of the DMK since the death of its founder, C. N...
, Tamil Nadu opposition J. Jayalalitha, Indian Prime Minister
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
and Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee
Pranab Mukherjee
Pranab Kumar Mukherjee is the current Finance Minister of India and leader of the current Lok Sabha.Mukherjee is a senior member of the Cabinet Committees on Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs, Prices, Security, Unique Identification Authority of India,...
to intervene and stop the Sri Lankan Civil War
Sri Lankan civil war
The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil...
and stop any diplomatic assistance or relations with the island nation.
The first of the protests actually began when the South Indian Film Artistes' Association
South Indian Film Artistes' Association
The South Indian Film Artistes' Association , also known as the Nadigar Sangam, is an Indian organization consisting of film actors and actresses from the Tamil film industry in Tamil Nadu, India. Formed in 1952, the group has organized several events due industry-related issues and, more recently,...
, a non-profit group of film actors, directors, producers, and other artistes of the Tamil film industry
Tamil cinema
Tamil cinema is the film industry based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, dedicated to the production of films in the Tamil language. It is based in Chennai's Kodambakkam district, where several South Indian film production companies are headquartered...
, staged a one-day hunger strike in September 2008.
With regard to sentiments among those deceased in the war, several individuals had self immolated themselves on various days. Those who self immolated themselves were Muthukumar, Murugathasan, Amaresan, Pallapatti Ravi, Gokularathinam,
Tamilvendhan,
Sivaprakasam, Raja, Ravichandran, Ramu, and Sivanandam.
Norway
Norway had acted as a Peace Mediator in Sri LankaSri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
prior to it being asked to leave by the Sri Lankan government of Rajapakse which ended the ceasefire in 2006 after alleging multiple violations by the LTTE. Pro LTTE Tamil communities and organizations within Norway organized large protests including ones outside the Norwegian Parliament, Prime Minister's office and other parts of Oslo. There was also Protests outside the Sri Lankan embassy where a few Protesters broke into the Embassy was the first one to turn violent in global Tamil Protests through no one was hurt but cause severe damage to the Embassy of Sri Lanka. Hundreds of Tamils gathered in Bergen city in Norway. They organized a 48-hour famine protest starting on November 20, 6:00 p.m.
United Kingdom
The first protest in 2009 began on Saturday, 18 January 2009 with around 9000 British Tamils in front of No. 10 Downing Street in London participating in a mass vigil from 3:00 p.m till 7:00 p.m.
There were two major protests in London one in January and one in April. The first protest began on Saturday January 31, 2009 which attracted a crowd of around 150,000 Tamils. The protest started at around 10 am but people arrived earlier than expected. The protest lasted till 2pm. The marchers began gathering at 1pm on Millbank, near the Tate gallery. By 2pm the riverside road, which had been closed to traffic was filled and roads leading back to Pimlico and Vauxhall stations were also full of Tamil protesters.
The second protest began on Saturday, 11 April 2009 which attracted more than 200,000 Tamils. This protested started at around 10 am. 3,000 protesters who were at parliament who were already there since 6 April joined the protest to show their support. The protest was started by the second generation diaspora Tamil youth and students with the help of British Tamil Forum and TYO. The protest carried on until night but the non-stop protest carried on.
On 6 April an ongoing protest began, which continued into the middle of May. The aim of protest is encourage British intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War. Two British Tamils, 21-year-old Sivatharsan Sivakumaravel and 28-year-old Parameswaran Subramanyam, went on hunger strike. On 11 May, the protesters in Parliament Square "spilled through police lines" causing roads to be blocked, with the protesters "noisy but peaceful."
In October 2009 the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
falsely claimed that a police surveillance team had been watching the two hunger strikers and that Subramanyam had been secretly eating McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
burgers with the help of clandestine deliveries. Subramaniyan denied the Mail's allegations, calling them "entirely baseless" and a "conspiracy to defame the Tamil struggle". He stated that he had medical proof. The police refused to discuss the allegations. The false claims were widely reported in the Sri Lankan media, and the Sri Lankan government and its supporters used them to attack the Tamil protesters.
Subramanyam then took legal action for libel against the Daily Mail and The Sun, which had repeated the false claims, which he won in June 2010. The newspapers accepted that the claims had been "entirely false", apologised to Subramanyam and paid him £77,500 in damages
Damages
In law, damages is an award, typically of money, to be paid to a person as compensation for loss or injury; grammatically, it is a singular noun, not plural.- Compensatory damages :...
.
The Tamil Protests had also left the London police with £7.1million overtime bill. The British Human Rights Act
Human Rights Act 1998
The Human Rights Act 1998 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received Royal Assent on 9 November 1998, and mostly came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim is to "give further effect" in UK law to the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights...
grants everyone the right
Right
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory...
to gather with others and protest.
Diaspora protestors such as Jan Jananayagam
Jan Jananayagam
Janani Jananayagam is a British Tamil banking professional, activist and politician. She was an independent candidate for the London region in the 2009 European Parliamentary elections.-Early life:...
of Tamils Against Genocide
Tamils Against Genocide
Tamils Against Genocide is a non-governmental organization formed in 2008, based in Columbia, Maryland, United States, which has actively protested the Sri Lankan Civil War and the alleged genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils in Northern Province, Sri Lanka...
reiterated to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
that Tamils lived under "existential threat" in North Eastern Sri Lanka, that delayed recognition of genocidal acts cost lives and that based on its record in Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, the United Nations had not proved that it alone could defend Tamil people.
Criticism
The protests have drawn criticism from observers of the conflict in Sri Lanka. In an opinion piece titled "Misguided Tamil protesters" published by the National PostNational Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
, Martin Collacott, a former Canadian high commissioner to Sri Lanka questioned the objectives of the protesters. In the editorial, he said if the primary concern of the protesters was the safety of Tamil civilians, they would have asked the Tamil Tigers to free those trapped in the war zone instead of using them as "human shields." However by asking for a ceasefire, he said that the protesters want to "bring about a situation that would allow the Tigers to preserve their fighting capability and prolong the insurgency."
Following the blocking of the Gardiner Expressway on May 10, the Mayor of Toronto David Miller
David Miller (Canadian politician)
David Raymond Miller is a Canadian politician. He was the 63rd Mayor of Toronto and the second since the 1998 amalgamation. He was elected to the position in 2003 for a three-year term and re-elected in 2006 for a four-year term...
condemned their tactics as "wrong," and called the blocking of the expressway "unacceptable."
See also
- Sri Lankan Tamil diasporaSri Lankan Tamil diasporaThe Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora refers to the global diaspora of the people of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. It can be said to be a subset of the larger Sri Lankan as well as Tamil diaspora....
- Sri Lankan Tamil people
- Vaddukoddai Resolution
- Sri Lankan Civil WarSri Lankan civil warThe Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil...
- Liberation Tigers of Tamil EelamLiberation Tigers of Tamil EelamThe Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a separatist militant organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Vellupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a violent secessionist and nationalist campaign to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for Tamil...