More ex-Tigers in Canada renounce violence

Five years after they were apprehended buying arms for the LTTE, three Canadians have signed an open letter from prison acknowledging they were wrong and renouncing political violence.

“We incorrectly believed that violence could achieve the goals that we sought,” they wrote. “We now realise that what we did was not helpful in leading to a positive resolution of the issues in Sri Lanka.”

The rejection of armed militancy is a complete reversal for the Toronto men, who were part of the international weapons procurement network that supplied arms to the LTTE.

After they were apprehended in New York shopping for surface-to-air missiles and AK-47 assault rifles worth $1 million — a crime that earned them sentences of at least 25 years — the men have apparently had a change of heart.

“Each of us has come to the conclusion that the criminal activity for which we have been sentenced has caused much harm to all citizens of Sri Lanka,” wrote Sathajhan Sarachandran, Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam and Sahilal Sabaratnam.

“We incorrectly believed that supporting LTTE ideology on armed violence would bring peace to the Tamils. We dispel those beliefs now,” says the joint letter signed by each of them at their prison in Brooklyn, NY., on August 21. The letter, titled “A New Beginning” obtained exclusively by the National Post, was to be released publicly in the next few days.

The repudiation of political violence is the first of its kind to emerge from Canadians who were actively involved in supporting the Tigers, a federally banned armed separatist group that has long been active in Toronto.

Coming two years after the end of fighting between the Sri Lankan Forces and the Tigers, who raised millions of dollars in Canada for their cause, the repudiations are significant because of the positions the men once held.

Sarachandran, (31), is the former president of the Tamil Youth Organisation’s Toronto chapter, while Sabaratnam,(32) was communications director of the Canadian Tamil Congress, the leading Tamil organisation in the country. Thanigasalam,(43) is his brother-in-law.

“Here you have three individuals who are willing to take a very public position, which can affect not only people in Sri Lanka but also the larger Tamil community outside Sri Lanka, since they are Canadian nationals,” their New York lawyer, Lee Ginsberg, said.

They have each written longer, more personal letters that call upon ethnic Tamils in Canada to abandon the armed separatist campaign and instead work to rebuild Sri Lanka.