Indian Tamil actors protest Sri Lanka war conduct
NEW DELHI (AP) — Tamil movie stars in India, including superstar Rajnikanth, fasted for a day to protest what they say is the mistreatment of ethnic Tamils in neighboring Sri Lanka and to demand an international investigation into alleged wartime abuses there.
The actors were joined Tuesday by directors and producers in Chennai, capital of India's Tamil Nadu state.
The Sri Lankan civil war is an emotional issue in the state where a political party has already withdrawn its support from the national government, accusing it of watering down a U.N. resolution criticizing Sri Lanka's conduct against its minority Tamil population during a final military push against Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009.
A U.N. investigation indicated that the ethnic Sinhalese-dominated government might have killed as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the war.
