Opinion:

Sitsabaiesan not on a pleasure trip

by Daya Gamage

The Jaffna-born and raised in Canada since age five, Canadian parliamentarian Rathika Sitsabaiesan's tour from December 28 through January 3 in Sri Lanka's predominantly ethnic Tamil northern region was not to exchange pleasantries with her long lost kith and kin, but on ‘foreign-influenced activities’ well known to her parliamentary colleagues, the Harper regime, and most importantly, to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

CSIS Security Liaison Officers (SLOs) are posted at Canadian diplomatic missions worldwide. They collect relevant information from foreign police services and security intelligence agencies and from open sources, such as newspapers, periodicals, domestic broadcasts and official documents.

Security intelligence is the product resulting from the collection, collation, evaluation and analysis of information. It provides government decision-makers with insight into activities and trends at national and international levels, not necessarily those that can have an impact on the security of Canada. This insight allows decision-makers to develop suitable policy which includes, of course, anticipation of possible threats.

Regardless of its source, security intelligence provides value in that it supplements information that is already available from other government departments or the media. Intelligence conveys the story behind the story.

Special interest

Given Canadian New Democratic Party Member of Parliament 32-year old Rathika Sitsabaiesan's track record and the Harper regime's ‘special’ interest in minority Tamil issues in Sri Lanka, she is undoubtedly an ‘informant’ or an ‘asset’ to the CSIS.

She is one of the several ‘Global’ links to the overall attempt, campaign and manoeuvres currently unleashed by the pro-separatist elements within the Tamil Diaspora in Canada, the United States and many European Union nations to disrupt the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka.

It is in this context that policy planners of Sri Lanka's national security apparatus need to evaluate her visit on a ‘tourist visa’ and not on ‘official diplomatic visa’ to the country and spending all her time in the Jaffna region.

And as advocated by this columnist, this is precisely why the Sri Lankan authorities need to bring ‘external affairs’ and ‘national security’ under a single fold for better coordination and policy formulation.

Ms. Sitsabaiesan's was a splendid fact-finding mission that will replenish Harper's ‘coffers’ of intelligence network on Sri Lanka to share with the US State Department's Office of Global Criminal Justice, headed by Stephen J. Rapp who released an ‘investigative’ report on Sri Lanka's ‘violation of International Humanitarian Law’, an office that handles issues related to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. This office advises the US Government and foreign governments on the appropriate use of a wide range of transitional justice mechanisms, including truth and reconciliation commissions and reparations in addition to judicial processes.

Global spy network

It should be stressed here that Edward Snowden's revelations brought about information on how the US and Canada are closely knit on the global spy network.

What arises out of Ms. Sitsabaiesan's fact-finding mission will undoubtedly strengthen the ‘separatist call’ of global pro-Eelam movements, to help the US Mission in the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva in preparation for the March session, and strengthen the hand of British Prime Minister David Cameron who challenged to ‘meet’ Sri Lanka in Geneva.

Therefore, the Canadian parliamentarian's visit to Sri Lanka is not a private pleasure trip, but a very serious tour that involves this South Asian nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

To give a glimpse of her long-term agenda, we produce some of the sentiments she expressed as recently as December 5, 2013 at a hearing of the Canadian Parliamentary Subcommittee on International Human Rights with special emphasis on Sri Lanka.

She said: “In your testimony, you had identified that what you saw or what you experienced was kind of an ethnic cleansing of mainly the Tamils. But also thank you for identifying that it was also the other minorities who were being oppressed, whether those are the Christians, the Muslims, the Burghers or others. It's not just Tamils. Yes, we Tamils are the largest minority who are being oppressed and cleansed, as you had mentioned yourself, but there are many others on that island who are having to live the reality of what this government is doing.

“One question that I'd like to ask is with respect to the land grabs of the lands formerly held by the Tamils. Reports come from many places, and also individuals who I speak to on the ground in the communities, of two things: One is the colonisation of military and military families in the previously Tamil-owned lands; and secondly, the development of the extractive industries that are associated with the Sri Lankan Government in those same lands that were previous Tamil-owned.”

Addressing another witness at the same committee hearing, she remarked, posing a question: “I'm not sure if you had touched on the extractive industry, because we know that one of the economic drivers of Sri Lanka is the gem and mining industry and the lands that have been taken from the Tamils are being developed by the extractive industries that are controlled or owned by the Government or some brother.

“The second part of my question is also another tangent. Could you touch a little bit more on the number of widows, war widows, who have been created?

“The last number I heard is there are over 90,000 war widows who have been created, and so could you touch on what you witnessed on the ground of the reality of life for women-led families and households please?”

Canada's premier newspaper The Globe and Mail described her parliamentary victory in 2011 in this manner: “For Ms. Sitsabaiesan might be the most compelling of the new crop of young NDP MPs. She's the first Tamil-Canadian MP, and so has become the de facto standard-bearer for thousands of Canadians who have felt defeated - militarily, in their country of birth, and politically, in their new home. As a 29-year-old woman from political cultures - both Canadian and Sri Lankan - in which older men make most of the decisions, she exudes the poise, organising skills and confidence of an old-school political veteran.”

Denying entry visa

Apart from connected to political violence and terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and espionage, under the Canadian immigration laws, entry will be denied if the person is suspected of ‘foreign-influenced activity’ which constitutes a threat to the security of Canada.

When reviewing Ms. Sitsabaiesan's ‘tourist visa’ application, one could have gone through her credentials which significantly include ‘foreign-influenced activities’ - as we have stated earlier - she was undoubtedly under the spell of ‘Canadian interests’ in Sri Lanka as shown by Mr. Harper's campaign to stop Sri Lanka hosting the Commonwealth Heads Summit and his own boycott. To conceal her credentials, she applied for a ‘tourist visa’ instead of an official visit by a parliamentarian which comes under the category of ‘diplomatic visit'.

This writer, during his official duties in the Political Division of Colombo's American Embassy, occasionally ‘name checked’ certain visa applicants to facilitate the Consular Section. One such applicant was Father Sinnarasa, Sri Lankan citizen, who applied from a Scandinavian country to enter the United States - whose application was refused as his ‘background check’ revealed he was one of the detainees under Sri Lanka's Prevention of Terrorism Act who escaped the LTTE-orchestrated jail break in Batticaloa.

Despite being successful in ‘domestically’ defeating a separatist movement, Sri Lanka continues to face external threats to her territorial integrity and sovereignty. Precisely, this is the reason that the Sri Lankan authorities have no alternative other than tightening the entry borders, monitoring those who are entering and departing, as Canada always maintains that right, and use its intelligence network to that effect, as Canada does.

Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act can be a wake-up call for Sri Lankan authorities to be more alert to visits such as that of Ms. Sitsabaiesan who is associated with separatist elements of the Tamil Diaspora in Canada, and could be very useful to other separatist elements in the United States and Europe.

Following is from the Canadian Act on the subject of ‘inadmissibility’ to Canada.

(Quote) 33. The facts that constitute inadmissibility under sections 34 to 37 include facts arising from omissions and, unless otherwise provided, include facts for which there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have occurred, are occurring or may occur.

(1) A permanent resident or a foreign national is inadmissible on security grounds for

(a) engaging in an act of espionage that is against Canada or that is contrary to Canada’s interests;

(b) engaging in or instigating the subversion by force of any government;

(b.1) engaging in an act of subversion against a democratic government, institution or process as they are understood in Canada;

(c) engaging in terrorism;

(d) being a danger to the security of Canada;

(e) engaging in acts of violence that would or might endanger the lives or safety of persons in Canada; or

(f) being a member of an organization that there are reasonable grounds to believe engages, has engaged or will engage in acts referred to in paragraph (a), (b), (b.1) or (c). (End Quote)

Courtesy: Asian Tribune