2009 Tamil protests

In 2009, numerous protests and demonstrations are taking place in several countries across the world containing Tamil diaspora urging national and world leaders and organizations to take action on halting the Sri Lankan Civil War, which has been taking place for over twenty-five years. The protests took several forms, such as human chains, demonstrations, hunger strikes and self-immolation by a few individuals, and is currently ongoing in several countries.
Tamil communities across the world held concerns of the civil war in the island nation of Sri Lanka. The civil war, which is taking place between the Sri Lankan Army and the separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has, to date, claimed the lives of 100,000 Tamil, Sinhalese, and Muslim civilians in Sri Lanka. Protesters and critics of the Sir 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 LTTE allege the use of ethnic cleansing as well as such abuses as the use of civilian Human shield, child soldiers and terrorism. The first protests occurred in Chennai and other cities of Tamil Nadu, India in 2008 where organizations, politicians, celebrities and student associations consecutively raised their requests for the government to intervene and stop the civil war. Following the Tamil Nadu protests, other major protests sprung in the vicinities of other Tamil diaspora. Notable protests have happened and are still happening in Chennai, London, Toronto, Ottawa, Paris, Washington, D.C., New York City, Berlin, Geneva, Zürich, Oslo, Sydney, The Hague, Canberra, Auckland, Wellington, Copenhagen and Kuala Lampur.
The common goal of the Tamil protests is to persuade organizations and leaders to intervene the Sri Lankan Civil War and appeal to humanitarian-aid organizations to provide resources to the affected areas of Sri Lanka.
Locations
North America
*2009 Tamil protests in Canada (Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary)
Eurasia
*2009 Tamil protests in India (Chennai)
*2009 Tamil protests in Norway (Oslo)
*2009 Tamil protests in the United Kingdom (London)
Oceania
*2009 Tamil protests in Australia (Sydney, Canberra)
Criticism
The protesters have been criticized by certain observers of the conflict. A former Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, questioned their motive, saying if their primary concern 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, the protesters want to "bring about a situation that would allow the Tigers to preserve their fighting capability and prolong the insurgency".

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