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Tamils in Canada vote for independent homeland in Sri Lanka | Sri Lankan Tamils living in Canada have overwhelmingly voted 'yes' for an independent homeland in a referendum held Saturday. A Christian Science Monitor
(CSM) report described the voting process as the latest in a series of such votes
held in Sri Lankan Tamil communities in Europe and North America. It quoted organizers
as saying that the purpose of the vote was to apply international pressure on
Sri Lanka to devolve more autonomy to Tamils. Political analysts, however expressed
sceptism about this goal being achieved anytime soon, but added that it might
help reinvigorate the pro-Tamil Tiger diaspora in the wake of the Tigers' devastating
military defeat this year after decades of fighting. “The referendum has been
organized by groups supportive of the Tamil Tigers,” says Dr. Narenda Subramanian,
associate professor of political science at McGill University, who specializes
in South Asia. “They’ll use this as a way of revitalizing their pro-Tiger network
outside Sri Lanka. They may be laying the foundation for a transnational Eelam
government, a legitimate self-governing authority outside Sri Lanka that will
one day take over a future Tamil state in Sri Lanka - in the event that ever happens,”
he added. Subramanian claimed that the Tamil Tiger network outside Sri Lanka is
still fairly intact, operating covertly under different front organizations even
in countries like Canada that have slapped a ban on the rebel group. Canada is
the third country to be holding such a referendum this year. It is home to the
largest Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in the world, an estimated 150,000 people. The
first referendum was held last May in Norway, which is one of the few Western
countries that hasn’t banned the Tamil Tigers. Norway brokered the 2002 cease-fire
between the Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan government, which was torn up
formally in Jan. 2008. The diaspora in France voted on the referendum just last
weekend. The turnout was high in all three countries, according to the pro-Tamil
Tiger website Tamilnet, which also reports that the vote was 99 percent “yes”
in all three countries. On why it’s necessary to hold a diaspora referendum now
on a resolution that was drafted 33 years ago, Senthan Nada, one of the organizers
and spokesperson for the Toronto-based Coalition to Stop the War, says it’s a
touchstone to determine the future path. |
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