A large pro-Tamil protest outside the U.S. Consulate became increasingly incensed Monday as news leaked out of Sri Lanka that the leader of the Tamil rebels had been killed in combat.
The latest news reports from the conflict zone are that Velupillai Prabhakaran and his top lieutenants have been killed and that the civil war that has ravaged Sri Lanka for nearly three decades has come to a bloody end this weekend.
Some Tamil-Canadians, who have been holding a vigil outside the U.S. Consulate in Toronto for days for family and friends have been killed in the violence, dismissed the news as propaganda from the Sri Lankan government.
"The world must be joking," one protester said, speaking to the crowd of thousands through a megaphone. "No one can lay a finger on Prabhakaran."
Several people at the protest held placards with pictures of the Tamil leader and flags associated with the Tamil Tiger rebel group.
The reports out of Sri Lanka have not been verified, mostly because journalists and humanitarian aid groups have been banned from entering the conflict zone.
The Tamil supporters said they won't stop protesting until Canada and the U.S. insist the Sri Lankan government open their borders to Western aid. They are expected to stay outside the Consulate on University Avenue through the night.
Demonstrators say they are concerned with what the future holds for the Tamil people who have been displaced from their homes.
"This isn't about winning. This isn't a football game, it's a human life! A human life!" said one man who has lost 20 family members, including his mother and sister, to the violence.
About 25,000 civilians have been killed since the civil war began.
Toronto's Tamil community has been staging almost weekly protests since January. In the past month, protesters stepped up their action and have taken to protesting outside the Consulate on a nearly daily basis.
Protesters have been loudly chanting "genocide, genocide" over and over again while holding picket signs with pictures of war casualties to help get their message across.
"Nobody is listening," said one man, frustrated with the lack of response from the government. "Ultimately, we can only cry. We can only cry. Nobody is coming forward to help us!"
