Tamils protest bloody offensive

An estimated 45,000 Tamils in Toronto, Canada, took to the streets in a huge show of force on Jan. 30. They were protesting atrocities by the Sri Lankan army against civilians.

Tamils are a minority in Sri Lanka, a large island south of India where, for the last 25 years, an organization called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been fighting for the creation of a separate state for Tamils. The government recently launched a bloody offensive against them in the northern, Tamil-populated part of the island.

Toronto is home to 200,000 Tamils, one of the largest communities of Tamils outside southern India and Sri Lanka.

A day after the Toronto protest, more than 50,000 Tamils demonstrated in London.

In Toronto the protesters constructed a human chain in the downtown area and blocked traffic in a bid to call attention to what they described as Sri Lankan-government genocide against Tamils. Estimates of the civilian dead there range between 300 and 800 as a result of recent government military operations. UNICEF says many infants and children have been injured or killed in these operations.

Human Rights Watch, which condemns the LTTE, has also criticized the Sri Lankan government for mass arrests of civilians fleeing battle areas where the government is attacking LTTE outfits. The organization has called on the U.N. and concerned governments to pressure the Sri Lankan government to spare civilians from harm.

The Sri Lankan government has imposed severe restrictions on the movement of journalists and human rights monitors. This has cast serious doubt on claims by Sri Lanka’s military that it has only targeted LTTE fighters in its offensive.