[5][6][7][8][9] Large sections of the North-East were under de facto control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for most of the 1990s–2000s during the Sri Lankan Civil War.

[21] Eastern Tamils had feudal organizations that centered around Ur Podiyar[22] at a village level and the Kudi system that controlled social interactions.

The most important social group were the Mukkuvar, who had originated from South India and had repeatedly invaded Sri Lanka as evidenced by Sinhalese literature of that period, the Kokila Sandeśa and Mukkara Hatana.

[24] Among the medieval Vanni chieftaincies, those of Panankamam, Melpattu, Mulliyavalai, Karunavalpattu, Karrikattumulai and Tennamaravadi in the north of the island were incorporated into the Jaffna kingdom.

[29] The failure of the Sinhalese dominated government to implement devolutionary agreements through the 1950s and 1960s, abrogation of power-sharing promises, worsening economic conditions, and lack of territorial autonomy caused further disillusionment and isolation among northern Tamils.

[32][33] A similar policy was adapted for employment in the public sector, leaving less than 10 percent of civil service jobs available to Tamil speakers.

[39] Though the TULF had adapted a separatist platform, they were still open to peaceful negotiations and decided to work towards a political agreement with President J.R Jayewardene.

In May 2010, New York based lawyer Visvanathan Rudrakumaran formed a Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam intending to use soft power to reach its end.

The sparsely populated Vanni region is covered in tropical forests with numerous rivers flowing through them, making agriculture and forestry the primary industry in the area.

Following the declaration of independence, which saw large scale movements of people in search of better economic opportunities, and the state sponsored Sinhalese colonization of Tamil territories, the demographics of the North and East had been heavily altered.

The three decade long Civil war that followed the anti-Tamil policies further affected the North and the East with over 80,000–100,000 people estimated to have been killed and over 400,000 Tamils fleeing their homes.

Many people still live in IDP camps in the North and the East and the present-day demographics of the region has been changing due to more and more Sinhalese settling in these territories.

[63] The United Kingdom gained control of Sri Lanka in 1815 and administratively unified the island[32] with a legislative council in 1833 with three Europeans and one each for Sinhalese, Eelam Tamils and Burghers.

The event was organized in response to alleged disappearances, mass graves and abuses under the government's military rule and was designed as peaceful protest.

According to TamilNet, a pro-rebel website, the event attracted thousands of people in these countries including over 7,000 in France,[76] 30,000 in England [77] and over 75,000 in Canada.

They are Further the alliance stands for: Three of its sitting Members of the Parliament K. Sivanesan, Joseph Pararajasingham and Nadarajah Raviraj have been assassinated since 2006, which the TNA party blames on the Sri Lankan Government's army and paramilitary forces.

The ISGA would have broad powers such the right to impose the rule of law, collect taxes, run the administration and oversee the rehabilitation process in the north and east, and it would be controlled by the LTTE until elections were held.

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage gave a cautious welcome, saying that the proposal is "the first time I have seen such a comprehensive delineation of the aspirations of the LTTE...it is significant".

[89] The TNA said it would settle for a "federal structure" in the northern and eastern provinces with power over land, finance, and law and order,[91] and "if the Sri Lankan state continues its present style of governance without due regard to the rights of the Tamil-speaking people" it will launch a Gandhi-style civil disobedience campaign.

[87][88] In the manifesto the TNA also demanded the re-merger of northern and eastern provinces, which were separated in 2006, and has also made a pledge to lobby the international community, including India and has called for power sharing arrangements between both parties.

To date referendums have been held in ten countries (Norway, France, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy and Australia).

[96] In April 2012 DMK president M. Karunanidhi said that India should prevail upon the United Nations to help carve out a separate Tamil Eelam from Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka.

[97][98][99] Lee Kuan Yew said of the movement One-man one-vote led to the domination of the Sinhalese majority over the minority Tamils who were the active and intelligent fellows who worked hard and got themselves penalized.

[102] In 2008, he handed a petition of 4000 signatories to the Australian House of Representatives accusing the Government of Sri Lanka of being guilty of the crime of genocide, supporting the Tamil right to self-determination.

[104] The ANC of the Government of South Africa, noting in January 2009 that the continued conflict on the island has been cited on international monitoring mechanisms as reaching genocidal proportions, described the conflict as a liberation war between the Tamil Tigers for self-determination and the Sri Lankan Government that had led to the deaths of thousands of lives, and called for an end to hostilities and a political solution.

Mtandeni Dlungwana, leader of the province's branch of the African National Congress Youth League stated they were fully backing the Tamil Eelam struggle.

[106] Scholar and activist Noam Chomsky, in a February 2009 interview, said of the Tamil Eelam struggle: "Parts of Europe, for example, are moving towards more federal arrangements.

At a United Nations forum on R2P, the Responsibility to Protect doctrine established by the UN in 2005, Chomsky said: ..."What happened in Sri Lanka was a major Rwanda-like atrocity, in a different scale, where the West didn't care.

"[109]Chomsky was responding to a question that referred to Jan Egeland, former head of the UN's Humanitarian Affairs' earlier statement that R2P was a failure in Sri Lanka.

The TGTE has been called a "ploy to perpetuate terrorism" by the Government of Sri Lanka,[111] which is itself under international pressure for alleged war crime probes.