LTTE supporters disrupted a meeting attended by TNA MPs M.A. Sumanthiran and Shanakiyan Rasamanickam on Saturday (20), demanding a separate State for the Tamil people, and rejecting the Tamil party\u2019s push for a political settlement to Sri Lanka\u2019s ethnic question.<\/p>

They demanded to consider Tamils not as a minority community, but as rightful inhabitants of the North and East and that they are the majority in those provinces.<\/p>

\u00a0Protesters gathered outside the venue of a public meeting organised by TNA Canada and even managed to break into the hall and disrupt proceedings. Both TNA Spokesman Sumanthiran and TNA Batticaloa District MP Rasamanickam were addressing the meeting.\u00a0<\/p>

The meeting was to brief members of the Tamil community in Toronto about ongoing diplomatic efforts to push for a political settlement that devolves power to the island\u2019s Tamil minority. Sumanthiran led a TNA delegation to Washington, D.C. last week to brief high-ranking officials at the US Department of State. Toronto Police were called to the scene after the demonstrators, waving LTTE flags, stormed the meeting hall and disrupted the discussion.\u00a0<\/p>

The protesters claimed they did not want a political settlement and insisted that a separate State of Tamil Eelam was the only solution to the Tamil national question. Focusing their anger on MP Sumanthiran, who has faced similar protests from Tamil extremists overseas in the past, the demonstrators held banners accusing the TNA Spokesman of being a \u201cSinhala patriot\u201d who wanted to live with the Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka.<\/p>