By

Shamindra Ferdinando

An LTTE rally held at Dundas Square, Toronto last Sunday (March 9) in support of an international war crimes investigation targeting Sri Lanka attracted fewer than 300 persons though Toronto is home to over 200,000 Canadians of Sri Lankan origin.

Canada based sources told The Island that the National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) had declared thousands would attend what it called Tamil Genocide Awareness Rally, but participation had been very low.

They said that several participants carried LTTE flags, though Canada proscribed the group in April 2006. Having categorised the World Tamil Movement (WTM) as an LTTE front, Canada banned it in June 2008.

Sources described the NCCT established two years later as the successor to the WTM.

Asked whether the police had tried to prevent the display of LTTE flags, sources answered in the negative. A statement issued by the NCCT accused the Sri Lankan military of killing 70,000 Tamil civilians. The allegation was made on the basis of the findings made by UNSG Ban Ki-moon’s panel of experts.

In spite of the extremely poor show, the NCCT called for an internationally monitored referendum in Sri Lanka, in line with the precedents set in East Timor and South Sudan, to bestow basic political and human rights to enable ‘Eelam Tamils’ to peacefully determine their own future.

COURTESY:THE ISLAND