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 chains, demonstrations, rallies, hunger strikes and self-immolation[1] 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.[2] 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.[3] 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,[4] Paris, Oslo, Sydney, Washington, D.C., Bangalore, New York City,[5] Berlin, Geneva, Zürich, The Hague, Canberra,[6] Wellington, Copenhagen and Kuala Lumpur.[7] 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.
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In Australia, several protests took place in the cities of Sydney and Canberra. Over a thousand protested during Sri Lankan foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama's visit to Australia on 14 October 2008.[8] 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 aid by the United Nations 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 had occurred across Australia.[9] On April 11, three Australian protesters began hunger strikes, like those concurrently occurring in Ottawa and London. The hunger strike ended on April 17.[10][11] On April 17, a "March for Peace" took place in Canberra.[12] On April 13, protests took place in front of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's residence in Sydney, urging him to call an immediate ceasefire.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15]
A series of demonstrations and protests took place in major Canadian cities. 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-kilometre (3.1-mile) 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.
In India, protests took place primarily in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Protests, rallies, human chains, 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,[16] Amaresan,[17] Pallapatti Ravi,[18] Gokularathinam, [18] Tamilvendhan, [19] Sivaprakasam,[20] Raja,[21] Ravichandran,[22] Ramu,[23] and Sivanandam.[24]
Norway had acted as a peace mediator in Sri Lanka 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 Parliament of Norway Building,[25][26] Inkognitogata 18,[27] and other parts of Oslo.[28] There were also protests outside the Sri Lankan embassy where a few protesters broke into the embassy, making it the first violent movement in Tamil diaspora protests across the world. Although no one was hurt, it did cause severe damage to the Embassy of Sri Lanka.[29] Hundreds of Tamils gathered in Bergen, organizing a 48-hour famine protest starting on November 20.[30]
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.[31]
There were two major protests in London one in January and one in April. The first protest began on Saturday January 31, 2009[32] 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.[33] The protest carried on until night but the non-stop protest carried on.[34]
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.[35] On 11 May, the protesters in Parliament Square "spilled through police lines" causing roads to be blocked, with the protesters "noisy but peaceful."[36]
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.[37] Subramaniyan denied the Mail's allegations, calling them "entirely baseless" and a "conspiracy to defame the Tamil struggle".[38][39] He stated that he had medical proof.[38] The police refused to discuss the allegations.[38][39] 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.[40][41][42]
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.[43][44] The newspapers accepted that the claims had been "entirely false", apologised to Subramanyam and paid him £77,500 in damages.[45][46]
The Tamil Protests had also left the London police with £7.1million overtime bill.[37] The British Human Rights Act grants everyone the right to gather with others and protest.[47]
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.[48]
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