Canada probes LTTE aid agencies

by Manjula FERNANDO

The LTTE has either infiltrated or created two dozen front and cover organisations in Canada to support its terrorism campaign, International Terrorism Expert Prof. Rohan Gunaratne said in the aftermath of the action taken last week by the Canadian Revenue Agency to revoke the charitable status of the ‘Tamil Refugee Aid Society’.

Gunaratne told the Sunday Observer that the Canadian State was investigating a number of aid agencies and there could be ‘other arrests’ in the near future. The World Tamil Movement, Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation and Canadian Tamil Congress are among those under close scrutiny for their involvement in funding the LTTE’s terrorist cause. Investigations on these organisations, some of which have already been stripped of their ‘charity status’ are continuing.

These organisations had been exploiting the ‘charitable status’ to raise millions of dollars in Canada and channel it to the terror outfit’s fat coffers to buy arms, ammunition and explosives during the conflict.

The ruling on the Tamil Refugee Aid Society came after an engineer from Toronto, Thiruthanikam Thanigasalam was jailed for 25 years recently in the United States for attempting to pay US $ 1 million to buy missiles, launchers and 500 AK-47 assault rifles in August 2006. He has been identified as the Charity’s Toronto office Representative.

According to a statement issued by the Canadian revenue agency, “The Ottawa Society had provided $713,000 to the Tamil Tigers, whose long revolt against the Sri Lankan government was crushed last year”, the National Post reported.

“The Government of Canada has made it very clear that it will not tolerate the abuse of the registration system for charities to provide any means of support to terrorism, and that the tax advantages of charitable registration should not be extended to an organisation where its resources may, directly or indirectly, provide any means of support for, or benefit to an organisation listed under the United Nations Suppression of Terrorism Regulations or the Criminal Code of Canada, or to any other body engaged in terrorism,” said the statement which was published in the National Post.