Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled to visit the United Nations next week and deliver a speech to the General Assembly. Outside of the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, hundreds of Canadian Tamils protested his presence at the UN.
Digital Journal reported this week that the National Council of Canadian Tamils, the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam and other non-governmental organizations will rally in front of the United Nations in New York to protest Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to the UN where he will deliver a speech to the General Assembly.
On Friday, hundreds of Canadian Tamils protested outside the United States Consulate in downtown Toronto on University Avenue to show their dissatisfaction with the government’s decision to allow the Sri Lankan President to set foot in the United States, and potentially Canada.
“The protest is to tell the world that the world shouldn’t allow a war criminal to come into their country; it could be Canada, U.S., or any country, especially Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is responsible for 30,000 lives,” said the National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) Chairman Mohan Ramakrishnan. “He is coming to the U.S. and we as Canadian Tamils, we stand by the protest and we don’t like to welcome him.”
The large rally was succeeded by a march along University Avenue to Queen Street to City Hall and back to the U.S. Consulate. The walk contained chants of “Mahinda Rajapaksa – War Criminal” and “Close the camps – Save the Tamils.” Marchers also carried signs stating: “UN & USA bring this war criminal Sri Lankan President to justice,” “UN & USA investigate war crimes on Sri Lanka” and “UN, USA don’t engage with war criminal Rajapaksa.”
During the demonstration, representatives handed out vital information to the general public about who Rajapaksa is and the recent 18th constitutional amendment that passed on Wednesday that “will fundamentally transform Sri Lanka’s political system, stripping away the facade of democracy.”
According to Agence-France Presse, the recent constitutional changes will end a two-term limit on the Presidency and increases Presidential powers over the nation of Sri Lanka as it removes the checks and balances on the executive branch.
Furthermore, according to the Sri Lankan Guardian, the Sri Lankan President will only have to seek the opinion of a five-member council in order to appoint several commissions, including the Human Rights Commission, the National Police Commission, the Finance Commission and many others.
The five-person panel includes the Prime Minister, the speaker, the leader of the Opposition, a Member of Parliament that is appointed by the PM and an MP nominated by the Opposition leader.
The U.S. State Department spokesperson, P.J. Crowley, said in a written statement: “The United States is concerned that this constitutional amendment weakens checks and balances and thus undermines the principles of constitutional democracy.”
Speaking with various representatives at the U.S. Consulate, Ramakrishnan said they were very cooperative and will provide any kind of support to the Canadian Tamils and the organizations involved. The NCCT Chairman noted that there will be continued dialogue between the two parties in the future.
Comments
Where were these Tamil Canadians when the LTTE, an internationaly banned terrorist group, slaughtered 60,000 people in Sri Lanka? Thank goodness someone put an end to one of the world's most ruthless terrorist organizations. War crimes? Give me a break. We have probably commited more war crimes in our recent wars than anything accused of the Sri Lankan government.
Where were you gentleman when the Sri Lankan government aided thugs burnt Tamil people alive in July 1983,. Where were you in the Tamil pogroms of 1977 and in 1958 ? Where were you when the Sri Lankan army butchered 50,000 Tamils in the name of a terrorist war? If the Tamil people wanted to go separate ways why should you occupy their land? The so called ruthless "terrorist" organizations deeds are minuscule compared the white van terror of Gotha & his clan. Where were you when the white van abductions were happening?
Tie them to the trees and get them to write letters saying that they wanted to be tied. What Sri Lanka did was a humanitarian operation. Humanitarian murder humanitarian rape humanitarian kidnapping, Humanitarian destruction of property etc. Punishing a war criminal is not going to solve the problem. Sri Lanka should be ruled by the UN until civilized norms and behaviors is restored or else this will endanger world peace and stability. Sri Lanka a jokers paradise.
Sri Lanka's gift to Tamils is 40,000 Widows in Jaffna
40,000 head of household in Jaffna homes are run by Widows!!
A survey conducted by the Women’s development Center has revealed these statistics. This disastrous situation is the result of the war in the North. The number of widows in both North and the East districts is 80,000 following the war.
It is time the world takes note of the WMD's of the Srilankan Government. After killing about 200,000 tamil civilians in the past 30 years, about 30,000 in the last month of the Tamils alone and showing no accountability of the civlians or the prisoners it had taken, it is devloping these WMD's (Weapons of mass desception)
Tamils are starving in Sri Lanka. The NGOs are desperate to give them more funds which are available. Sri Lanka Government is forbidden to bring these funds to the needy
The NGOs in Jaffna peninsula due to limitations imposed on them by Sri Lanka government in getting funds from abroad are unable to help the abandoned resettled Tamils to help them engage in livelihoods.
Why NGOs are not allowed to help the resettled Tamils ?
Sri Lanka Government wants the Tamils to starve and be like slaves !
As Sri Lanka is begging the Tamils to return to Sri Lanka , the Sinhala mob attacking Tamils and looting , burning their homes in Sri Lanka !
More than 100 Upcountry Tamil families were displaced after Sinhalese estate workers burnt their houses and properties in Kiribatgala rubber plantation in Nivithigala in Ratnapura district Monday night. The attack on Tamils comes following the killing of a Sinhala estate watcher who was found dead Monday after being abducted by unidentified persons Sunday night. Tension prevails between in the district following the outbreak of the violence. Tamils in the district complain that they have been increasingly targeted by Sinhala mobs in recent times.
Two houses of upcountry Tamils were burnt down and several houses were looted by gangs led by the attackers.
Over 200 persons belonging to the Tamil families living in Dela division in the Kiribatgala estate has taken refuge in the neighbouring estates.
Tamils in the area have been subjected to threats for a long time.
Sinhala hoodlums in Rakwana town in the district have been targeting Tamil women who return home after work in garment factories, and rob them of their gold jewelry and other valuable articles. At least ten such incidents were reported throughout the past 4 years.
Three years ago, in February 2007, seven houses of Tamils were allegedly burnt down by a Sinhala mob.
Tears Are More Powerful Than Bombs
Mourning over the genocide!
Ghastly murder of innocent people
Who owned only their lives!
Mothers carrying babies in their arms
Old aged unable to run in a hurry!
Meek creatures
Unable to defend themselves!
Cruelly killed!
Massacred!
Bombed!
We can not forget the tragic death!
A huge mass of sixty-three thousand lives!
Dastardly destroyed!
We are unable to express anything!
The government is all powerful!
There is no force to contest
No way to combat
The propaganda of a government
Officially carrying
an onslaught against minority!
We are weeping
Mourning over the genocide!
Tears are more powerful than bombs!
Truth is mightier than the media!
We are weeping all alone!
We are mourning in the dark!
We strongly hope
A day may come
When people will know the truth
And spring to immediate action
At least to save the remaining people!
Let us weep!
Let us cry aloud!
Let all our blood ooze out as tears
Draining from our eyes continuously!
We will weep till our death
To save our race from extinction!
Uh, lets see here. What did the Tamils do to provoke the masses in July 1983? What did they do to provoke the masses in1977 and 1958? Go back and read the truth. Not what your LTTE friends are telling you! How many Tamil deaths were caused by the LTTE? The LTTE supporters and all of those in the Tamil diaspora world wide who gave money to the LTTE should stand trial for War Crimes! The best thing for Tamils to do now is to send money to the NGO's with the same fury that they did to the LTTE. The Tamils in Sri Lanka would be the riches in the world!
Killing civilians is nothing new in Sri Lanka. Civility and decency are never heard of from Sri Lankan regime.
Consecutive governments elected by the majority Sinhalese population in Sri Lanka orchestrated several ethnic riots on Tamil minoritiy since 1956 sending scores of refugees all over the world. The Sri Lankan leader brothers in comparison to the Nazis have established a totalitarian regime purely on the basis of selling racist policy to majority population.
Sri Lanka is the first country to impose a strict out of bounds to media and NGOs to kill upto 40,000 civilians in last three days of the conflict after ICRC was kicked out, though ICRC cannot provide testimony to war crimes.
Sarath Fonseka who was to reveal information on war crimes is convicted under martial law.
There are many other human abusers watching this tiny country to follow suit.
Slobodan and Al-Bashir are scratching their heads thinking they would have killed more.
Kosovo Liberation Army is a prohibited one. Sri Lanka is vehemently opposed to the formation of Kosovo.
The President who is also the Minister of Defence, The Minister of Finance and Planning, the Minister of Highways and the Minister of Ports and Aviation did not implement the seventeenth amendment which required a Constitutional council to appoint commissioners for various public commissions but appointed the commissioners himself. Last week he has cleared the functions by passing the eighteenth amendment which says that the President can appoint all those commissions.
How does he ever get to sleep?
After winning the war with support from rogue nations, this president is trying to solve the ethnic probem by occupying the traditional lands of Tamil with the Army and copnisung with the majority community.
The victoms of war have not been resettled in their original lands.
There is no democracy now in Sri Lanka, but only a dictatorial family rule.
President, the Speaker of Parliament, the most powerful Defence Secretary
are all bothers.
China is patronising this regime and so they do not care for any opinion by the civilised nations.
Even India, so called largest democracy in the world aided this regime in killing innocent civilians under the guise of destroying the Tigers.
Now India is influncing the UN Secretary not to proceed with the investigation of war crimes, as their hands are not clean
Sri lanka is ruled under emergency rule, even after more then18 months
of ending the war.
This president who promised to abolish the Executive presidency, twice in his election
campaigns, after winniing and getting a taste of power, somersaulted on his promose. He took advantage of a weak opposition, bribed corrupt MPs from the opposition to pass a bill in amending the constitution, geting fulll powers in the land, without giving a chance to to the citizens to discuss the bill.
In this excercise he was aided by the dishonest judges of the supreme court
who had to support the bill for their existance.
This president took advantage of the 911 tragedy which resulted in the US policy of war on terror. Tigers who were freedom fighters were taged as "terrorists" and the international community were taken for a ride, in helping the regime to destroy the Tgers, but with massacering thousands of innocent civiians.
This evil Rajapaksa must be killed. No mather when.
sinhalaya racists wait for some time for us to come back with more vigour and vengenence.
your politicians will start addressing your people from the glass boxes and you will be running
again for your lives again .
tamil land is our land you have no rights to be there.once we hang mahinda,gotha,basil,we will deal with your clergy. every pansalas in our land will be razed to the ground,not a single army will be left remember the last time .
this time with western money and western technical know-how different war will be waged.
not a singalese will be allowed to step on our land.
we want to remind all sinhal civilians whatever your mis-deeds now will come back to haunt you!
thamilarin thagam thamil eelath thayagam.
well said. good to see we have true tamilans like u. we will get our land back. there is no questioning that.....
tamilarin thaaham thamileela thayaham
Hang him for war crime, Act now before he escape from USA.
We will use our ET technology to spot the Sinhala peple. And our laser guided death rays will zoom in on them and vaporise them. They will beg for mercy, but we will not show them mercy. Prabakran will rise from the dead victorious - he will fight the evil family in supreme-mortal combat, and kill them in one stoke. Then together with his Risen sun Charles they will rule the Sinhala land!!!
USA should arrest Mahinda for his numerous war crimes against civilians and surrendered soldiers. That's the only way to end the dictatorship in Sri Lanka.
Justice must be made!
It is a myth that terrorism can not be defeated militarily. This is a myth promoted mainly by liberal minded loony tunes. If there is a movement adopts to suicide bombings of innocents, kill moderate political leaders, forcibly recruit teens to fight, use civilians as human shields, use political dialogue to rearm and regroup, collaborate with extreme groups, etc, there is only one answer. Militarily destroy them. Tamil Terrorists qualified on all those counts. When media, Human Rights groups, “pink pantied” UN and many other groups were screaming to stop the war against terror, Sri Lankan government clamped down on them and well executed their military plan. This indeed worked well though many liberals did not like it. Countries that face brutal terrorism should follow Sri Lankan model. Would it come at no cost? Of course not! Cost may be huge but continuing terror cost (human and logistical) is much higher than cost of militarily defeating terror. To defeat terror militarily one can not be half-hearted. Sri Lanka had entire country behind the fight against terrorism, so they won it. Now they realize fruits of the winning war, their economy grown 8.5 for last 6 months. Tourism is booming. Tamil’s are living a better life. Country has a solid and growing reserve fund, which was draining on war before. All what we hear is good news since Sri Lanka defeated terror.
Are you in your dream? only thing happening is MR's and their family's bank acconts are booming.you Modayas will not realize until you come to a state that you will have to beg for a piece of bread!
The Sinhala Buddhist ONLY nation is a rogue nation in a state of perpetual denial headed by a Gang of Four War Criminals along with several others of the same type who are bankrolling loans, enriching themselves and bankrupting that nation further. Let the sleepy UN bring on the War Crimes Tribunal under international law to bring about justice and rule of law in a lawless land. The President is trying to cover up his crimes by getting rid of DNA evidence and executing dastardly ethnic cleansing in the Wanni and elsewhere in the north and east using Chinese contractors and an ethnic military! The ultimate international rogue being let off the hook!
almost all the sinhalese are animals because their history says they come from the lyons(a lyon who f***** a sinhala woman ) and the barbarian race started then.
tell me what kind of culture they lead? what kind of music they have? have they done anything other than bila songs?i saw few days ago karuna amman singing and dancing with few modayas.good on you amman next time when you come to ourside i want to see you chop more sinhalese than last time (approx 600 racists)you did.i want to tell all my people we needto play a clever game this time this is changing the sinhalese as tamils. it can be done plese beleive in yourself.don't beleive what the sinhala press says that everything is champagne and caviar in the sinhala areas the poor educated sinhalese are going through these people can be exploited and manipulated by helping them(western diplomacy)try and marry sinhala girls and have as many children as you can(we in the west develop a mechanism where these plans can be funded and encouraged) introduce websites where sinhala girls can easily access and contact tamil boys .lure them to the tamil areas show them the good life.sponsor poor sinhala families on one condition thay have to change their religion any other than sinhala-budhism . i have to go before saying one thing every tamil has a duty towards our strugle . we will win and who ever inflicted pain to oue people will be dealt with properly (eye for an eye).they will be punished the way they inflicted pain on to our poor people.i like to tell something to the families of gotha,mahinda, basil,rambukwella,when we take revange don't running crying like sarath fonseka's wife is doing now (we are not shedding any tears for her} if you live by sword you will die by sword.
tamilarin thayagam thamil eela thayagam.
sinhalavanin motherland is sri lanka not thamilarin tayagam.
stayaway modaya we are prepared to sacrify our lifes for our land.
The Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of Sri Lanka government continues to torture hundreds of Tamil youths arrested and detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) without trial, a journalist who had met the detainees said, under conditions of anonymity. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka government intends to keep the Tamil youths who were combatants of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in detention for five more years, sources close to Sri Lanka prison authorities said.
Tamil youths who had been arrested under PTA in the North and East besides those arrested in Colombo and its suburbs where they had been employed have been detained for more than five years in places like Colombo TID Head Office and Boosa Prison.
TID men who had brought LTTE former combatants held in the camps in Vavuniyaa and Velikantahai to Colombo in the name of interrogation continue to torture them. The TID men further threaten the youths that they may have to spend their lifetime in prison if they refuse to sign statements prepared by TID.
The TID men attack the detainees blindly using iron rods, cricket bat and batons besides squeezing their testicles. Videos of detainees being killed and tortured are shown by the TID men to terrorize the detained youths.
Not only the Tamil detainees but their family members who visit them are also subjected to untold difficulties. Only ten minutes are allowed for such visitors who had travelled a long way to see the detainees.
The visitors are not allowed to give any food that they had brought along but forced to by food from the prison canteen run by a Boosa Prison officer if they want to give the detainees any food.
It is alleged that Abdeen, a Muslim officer of the Division Four of the TID exhorts money from the relatives who come to see the detainees and that another Muslim officer Mohamed torture the Tamil detainees with racial hatred.
Meanwhile, the Tamil detainees in Boosa Prison are not allowed medical treatment if they fall ill while the sanitary facilities are very poor. There are only three lavatories for hundreds of prisoners and only a minute given to each to bathe. A request for more water is responded with ruthless attacks.
"The number of widows in both North and the East districts is 80,000 following the war."
It means 80,000 Tamil men were killed by Sri lankan army.
All you tamils shouting while you'll are staying in other countries and talking big about attacking Sri lanka again again. The question is when? after how many generations? whom gona fight? will you'll gone send your sons to Sri lanka to fight? or you'll still thinking to use under age innocent people who's living in Sri lanka to fight for selfish people like you'll? Why you'll a still having day dreams? I don't think non of the innocent tamils who lives in Sri lanka want to go for a war again. Why all of you'll a still talking about war? Is this what you'll want? Kill innocent people for ever? Even in future?
As a sinhelese, we dont want to have war again in our mother land, for ever. We want to live in peace and we know all the innocent tamils in Sri lanka wants that too. So, let the innocent people to live peacefully.
And did LTTE killed only the people they want? If it is so, they want to kill all the innocent sinhalese people, people who's go for work in public buses, trains, air crafts, hospitals, hotels, schools, bus stands, railway stations, air ports.......ect.... and not even sinhalese, muslims too? If you'll a so hates sinhalese, why muslims? why did you'll kill thousands of innocents muslims?
FINALLY, IF YOU'LL STILL WANT BLOOD, COME TO SRI LANKA AND FIGHT, DONT LET THE INNOCENT TAMILS TO BE THE VICTIMS.
@Anonymus, Your last para is very interesting, calling the tamils to Srilanka to have another fight. The whole world like to see that this time, how you fight your war with tamils. Again UN is out, Media is out, humanitarion organizations are out. War zone is out of bound to the world. Your traditional friends China, Pakistan, Iran, Libiya, Egpt, India and Russiya will give you chemical weapons and phosphorous bombs, you can kill and burn at the same time. It is fed up of you, man. You had a dirty war with Tamils. It is unacceptable to the world. The world should not tolerate this babarism in the 21 st century.
OK why not your Army stand alone with the same weapons the tigers possess and let see who are brave and capable fighters. Definitely Tamils fought alone against these mighty combined strength of undecent countries of numbering 30, according to Srilankan President, which has no humanrights values ,for the last 30 years.
The complete blame is on the civilized nations to allow this, infront of their own eyes, a human genocide.
Cant the Canadian/US Tamils do something on this tryant. See he is no more.
my dear fellow tamils please don'twaste time answering the comments of paid agents of sinhala racist govt.
start thinking what can we do to win back our land and help our suffering brethern in our home land.(TAMIL EELAM).
plese what have you done for our cause (freeing our land and people from the apatheid regime)
please sit down and think what you can contribute ( time,money,your expertise.).
you know that in every developed countries we have our organaisations such as trans national govt ,tamil forum,student organaisations,many genuine charity organaisations please get in touch with them and see what you can contribute.
i urge you everyone that we all are really demoralised and wondering what can we do next ....and we feel we have lost.
i must remind you my dear people yes we have lost the war for the moment (because of the sinhalavans dirty war .using chemical weapons getting help fom their best friends from the leading democracies such as china,pakistan,iran,eygpt,cuba,venuzuvella,colombia,)
we only with our people no one else fought the war. i have to remind you all we may lost the war but we haven't lost the battle.
sinhalavan may say we are terrorsts it doesn' bother me because we were not dealing with a demoratic govt.
srilankan govt consists with rapists,murderers,racists .religious fanatics.liers.paramilitary leaders )
we will win win .our people will be freed .culprits will be brought to justtice.
our main work should be focused on bringing rajapaksa brothers infront of haig and tried for war crime and crime against humanity.(how many innocent women children old people were harmed by this pathtic cowards)
once we have done with them.
we will hunt all the media individuals lied and misled the world to prevent their friends to escape from the law and aid and abet them to comit GENOCIDE.
put them on dock as well.
Well said. Exactly we must do, as you said. The present world leaders also to be blamed for supporting blindly, this genocidal regime of Srilanka's Mahinda Rajapakse. Again the cancer among Tamils are the tamil traitors, who are ever ready to sell and show the strong points of the Tamils to the enemy, for his selfish benifits. Before taking up to the enemy, first the tamil traitors and the selfish tamils to be eliminated from the community. Though the Tamils have shown their bravery and supreme fighting skills in the recent war against Srilanka, the Tamil traitors and selfish Tamils are also equally excelled in their duties to the enemy, to see the Tamils lose the war and uprooted from their homelands. Still doing it relentlessly.
One should accept now the tamils are a corrupted society with full of traitors and selfish people, who don't even wan't to hear the Tamil's problem. They are safe here in Canada, that is all for them. As a human being, it is the duty of the fellow human, to help the fellow ones out of trouble. It is very well clear now, these selfish tamils will do the same thing to their adopted country, when the country is in trouble. These are bad elements among a healthy society. A person who comes forward to wipe the tears of other man will do it for any one or any country. These selfish fellows will always do the same thing to lookafter their comforts only.
If Sri Lanka is a decent democratic country, then it would not have slaughtered 40,000 Tamil civilians, and maimed 50,000 more including thousands of children in matter of few days in May 2009 alone by encircling them and then curded them into a “No Fire Zone” which included makeshift hospitals and schools and bombed them with heavy weapons even after promised the U.N. (It is against the internationally accepted norms once a head of the country promise the world highest body then breaching that promise) that they would not use heavy weapons against civilians.
The Sri Lankan military planners knew well in advance what catastrophe would engulf Tamil unarmed civilians through the meaningless but devastating military operation that would only kill the masses in cold blood.
As anticipated Mullivaikal, Vanni, North of Sri Lanka became a mass graveyard - the bloody military onslaught by the Sri Lankan armed forces became the assault on every decent human being – the only crime being a repressed and voiceless minority in the Island.
If the Sri Lanka model is now going to become the model for solving internal conflict, it's very troublesome because the model is "keep the world out, keep the U.N. out, keep humanitarian actors out, keep your borders very tight, and do what it takes at any cost. That’s not very good,” said former UNHRC chief.
Sri Lanka’s war criminals including the Sri Lankan President must be brought to books to serve justice. Though the human history is dotted with evilness hatched in the darker corners of human minds, the Tamil catastrophic tragedy opens a prickly awakening chapter in the modern times. The Tamils through their precious sacrifice has given an opportunity to the world to remind, that no government should be given a license to kill its own citizens en-mass under any circumstances.
@JasonKZ, Yours is a good comment and a true one,please.
arasan anraruppaan theivam ninru arukkum
we have a proverb in tamil
If a king has power and destroy on the same day ,The god will do it slowly but sure
If there is a power over us we will see it soon or later
Sri Lanka President can go anywhere in the world. Because of him, there is no bomb blasts in buses, railway stations, towns of anywhere. He put to an end to the ruthless terrorists. He is a very brave person and a great leader to the country. We can life here without any fear now. Where are those demonstrators when terrorists were killing innocent people? They are not worried about innocent people. They are worried about their pockets. We like if Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse stays as President for decades. He will develop our country and will be fair to all the citizens in Sri Lanka.
are you living in cookoo land? General SF ended the war. And MR is only a dictator and plastic patriot
Yes that is true. We support Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse.
Yes. Sri Lankan President is a great person. He eradicated terrorism in the country which destroyed Sri Lanka for 30 years. All the previous governments were hiding behind brutal killer & did not solve the problem. President Rajapakse was not scared of bloody terrorists and he gave the country peace. Lakhs of Sinhala women became widows & lakhs & lakhs of children are living without their fathers. More than seventy five thousand young soldiers are without arm or limb or bedridden because of bloody terrorists. LTTE killed our innocent people. At that time, when LTTE bombarded the Temple of Tooth, killing Buddhist Priests at Arantalawa, killing innocent pilgrims at Sri Maha Boodhi, Anuradhapura, where were those Canadian Tamils. What are they doing now? These people should be deported by the Canadian Government immediately. They are Terrorists and they will destroy Canada too.
ALL U TAMILS, WHO'S SHOUTING FROM OTHER COUNTRIES.... JUST SHOUT AND SHOUT..................... THATS ALL U'LL CAN DO FOR WHOLE OF UR LIFE......... REMEMBER, USA AND UN WELCOME OUR PRESIDENT..................THEY ALL KNOW LISTENING TO U'LL IS JUST A WASTE OF TIME....................... STILL WANT TO FIGHT??????????
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