The Wire

It’s unusual for a referendum about the internal politics of a country to be held outside that country. But expatriate Tamils all over the world have been holding such events – voting on whether there should be an separate Tamil homeland within Sri lanka. The Australian Tamil referendum was held on the weekend – conducted by an independent consultancy firm. Organise Dominic Santhiapillai from the Tamil Referendum Council of Australia says it may be possible to use the results of these referendums to request that the UN force a similar referendum on the Sri lankan government.