Tamil Protests at American, Indian Consulates in Toronto Special

In Toronto on Friday, two demonstrations occurred in front of the the U.S Consulate and India's Consulate, calling for the end of the "concentration camps" in Sri Lanka against the Tamil people. Please note some images maybe unsuitable for some.

Chants of “Break your silence, India!” and “Save the Tamils, India!” could be heard near the Toronto intersection of Bloor and Sherbourne on Friday, across from the Consulate-General of India, as Tamil community members demonstrated their support of international involvement to release the hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who are in “concentration camps,” as they called them. Dozens of demonstrators, many of whom have family members within the confines of the brutal camps in Sri Lanka, showed up to the event and spoke to Digital Journal, such as one Senthan Nad, who explained that it’s very important to get a real solution to release the Tamils in the displacement camps because a lot of them are being tortured, not given the proper nutrition and some, like the video from Channel 4 that the activists provided Digital Journal with, are being shot and killed.

Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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The video footage is brutal and gruesome and it took eight months for the public to view the absurdities by the forces at hand. In a field of seven dead bodies, a man is carried by one soldier, kicked in the back and on his knees as he gets shot in the back of the head like an execution. The camera pans to the left to show the other bodies, as now eight men lie on the ground naked. Another man is dragged to the field and, once again, in vicious and sadistic fashion, a naked, blindfolded man is shot in the back of the head.

Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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This ghastly and horrid footage was not shot by Tamil Tigers but by Sri Lankans who want freedom of the Press back in their country because presently the government has banned members of the press, especially any journalists who have try to investigate the displacement camps. Senthan is quite concerned about the coming monsoon season in the region as floods rock the area in large proportions. The Norwegian government, one of the mediators of the ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and LTTE, stated in a response to a letter by the group in front of the the U.S Consulate that the future monsoons are their top humanitarian priority and have already given “NOK 77 million in humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka, and is continually assessing the need for more assistance.”

Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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However, Senthan and others on Friday believe this financial aid from Norway and other nations will not go to the people of Sri Lanka, displaced refugees nor the Tamils themselves but to the Sri Lankan officials and be put in their pockets. One flyer actually portrays this fear and more, “Money goes into the hands of Sri Lanka are now used to destroy individuals, families and communities.” One activist, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Digital Journal that he blames the international media as being one of the culprits for letting this happen because they turned a blind eye to peaceful international protests and do not provide enough attention and information to the general population on the present actions of the Sri Lankan government. “It’s because of you people in the media!” Exclaimed the man holding a sign stating, “India You Too Letting a Genocide In Sri Lanka!”

Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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Digital Journal asked one protester if the government of Sri Lanka abides by the Geneva Conventions and, in a vehement manner, he responded, “The government doesn’t care about the Geneva Conventions. They can do whatever they want.” He further added that when the United Nations and other international bodies travelled to Sri Lanka to examine and inspect the camps, the government presented the best looking camps but not the camps where the conditions, as UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon calls, “appalling.” In a flyer, given to bystanders walking along the protest, it states that the United Nations must take responsibility of the displacement camps and the safety of the Tamil inmates. Also Tamils want international aid sent immediately to the people who were and are affected by the violence of the war, which would be distributed by the United Nations.

Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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Digital Journalspoke to another anonymous protester and he wants the Sri Lankan officials who are in charge of the camps to be brought to justice by an international war crime tribunal, which would be established by the United Stations. On the same day, a group of five people, who have been standing in the same spot for 170 days, were informing the general public of the atrocities that are currently occurring in Sri Lanka, as they show gruesome photos; hand out video evidence of Tamil men being executed by Sri Lanka government soldiers and press for political representatives in Canada, the United States and across the globe in front of the United States Consulate at University and Queen.

Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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The group provided Digital Journal a letter that they sent to United States President Barack Obama, through the US Consulate General, that provides the President with their peaceful protest, their reasoning and their solution. “We are going to continue the peaceful protest until our loved ones are freed from concentration camps and to be allowed to live in their birthplaces with freedom as the American people live. When America and the IC failed to free our people from the detention camps, we will continue our hunger strike indefinitely.” The United States government still has not replied to the letter, according to the head organizer. Near the end of the letter, they listed the solutions that the Tamil people want: • To take immediate actions to hand over the detention camps under the control of UNO and resettle the IDPs in their birth places immediately. • To pressure the Sri Lankan government to allow unrestricted access to NGOs, international monitors/observes and medias to the detention camps to report the situation freely. • To pressure the Sri Lankan government to treat all prisoners of war including members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, former members, suspect combatants, non-combatant cadres and their families according to international law, including the Geneva Conventions, which have been ratified by the Government of Sri Lanka and allow independent international monitors to be part of the Government of Sri Lanka’s screening process and persuade them to release the journalist Tissainayagam and the parliamentarian Kanagaratnam from the custody.

Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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One of the goals of these large crowds is to get the average Canadian involved, maybe not by protest, but by contacting their local Minister of Parliament and enacting your rights as a consumer by boycotting anything that is Sri Lanka, “No to Holiday Packages to Sri Lanka, No to Sri Lankan Airlines, No to Ceylon Tea” and the list continues. One displaced victim told a news reporter, according to a piece of material handed out at the Indian Consulate rally, “Where can we run? We have no place to run to. We are stuck here with no solution. What can we do, let our children die? Some help us... please. All we beg is for someone, anyone to help us live a peaceful life. Our children survived eating one meal a day, but now even that one meal has been blocked from getting to us.”

Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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Andrew Moran

Tamil protesters in front of the United States Consulate and Consulate of India in Downtown Toronto.

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Demonstrations have been carried out all over the world and more are expected to follow. On Saturday October 17, 2009, 5,000 Tamil activists will be walking along University Avenue demanding the release of the nearly 300,000 Tamils.