A common misconception, I have found, is that people (and often the media) assume the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or the Tamil Tigers) and the Tamil people are one in the same. This is a gross misconception, for many Tamil people do not support the LTTE and if they do, it was most likely because no one else in the world was standing up for them. The massive protests in Toronto in support of the Tamils may have seemed to be in favour of the Tigers. But underlying the protests was the disgust with the horrific number of Tamils the Sri Lankan government executed during the last few months of the civil war. While the injustices of the LTTE have been many – including the high profile assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, in 1996 – the Sri Lankan government itself has many things to answer for. BOTH sides of the civil war mercilessly bombed and killed civilians who were, often enough, innocent Tamils. It is these Tamils that need asylum in Canada – not the ones who perpetuated and propagated this war.
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