Boston's Tamils gather to protest abuses
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Boston's Tamil community is holding a fast and a vigil this afternoon and evening at Copley Square to protest what Tamil leaders say are continuing abuses of civilians since the final offensive by the Sri Lankan military against Tamil rebels last month.
Siva Logan, a leader of Tamils in the Boston area, says in an announcement that protesters will gather at noon, and remain there across from the Public Library until a candlelight vigil at 8:30 p.m.
The Boston Tamil Association of New England says the protest is on behalf of what it maintains are 300,000 Tamils still held in detention camps after the end of the decades-old war, which ended in a furious offensive by the Sri Lankan military ending the Tamil ethnic minority's separatist fight. The association says the fast also will mourn a death toll it says reached 30,000 in the final phase alone. The Sri Lankan government has said the toll is far lower than that, but independent observers have acknowledged widespread suffering in areas that were previously controlled by the Tamil guerrillas.
The community is calling on President Obama and the United Nations to observe the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine and to intervene on behalf of the civilians still caught up in the aftermath of the war.
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About James F. Smith
Jim Smith came home to his native Boston in 2002 to become the Boston Globe's foreign editor after spending 22 years abroad. He was previously based in Buenos Aires and Mexico City for the LA Times, and in Johannesburg, Tokyo and The Hague for the AP. In 2007 he became the Globe's national political editor, coordinating presidential campaign coverage. He is a Yale graduate, and has an MBA. He is married to Maxine Hart and has two sons, Matthew and Daniel.
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