Give Lanka a fair hearing
The majority of the Tamil
Diaspora in Canada are die-hard supporters of the now defunct LTTE
terrorist outfit and are still under the delusion of the dream separate
state projected by the late LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Although the LTTE was militarily defeated and its leadership
vanquished almost five years ago, the LTTE rump continues to live in the
fantasy world created by Prabhakaran. At the height of LTTE terror,
Canada readily offered political asylum to the Tamils and this helped a
large number of Tamils to obtain Canadian citizenship.
Having established their base in Canada, the LTTE sympathisers in the
Tamil diaspora took advantage of their vote base to exert undue pressure
on local politicians there. Some Canadian politicians seized the
opportunity in their lust for power to thrive on the votes of the
adopted Tamils in that country.
Sri Lanka and Canada had always maintained cordial relations in the
past, but regrettably, the LTTE rump and a few unscrupulous Canadian
politicians who depend heavily on the Tamil votes put a spoke in the
wheel during the past few years.
This went to the extent where even the Canadian themselves could do
nothing about. Not only Canadian politicians but also its judiciary
seems to be extremely sympathetic and moreover, inclined towards the
Tamil diaspora. There is no doubt whatsoever that Canada's decision to
boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri
Lanka last year was deeply influenced by the LTTE rump.
It's an open secret that the LTTE, even after it was proscribed as a
terrorist outfit in the US, Canada, UK and the European Union, set up
several front organisations to continue its operations and fund-raising
in those countries. The Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) and the
Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) are two such leading LTTE front
organisations.
It is deplorable that the Canadian judiciary is blissfully unaware of
any of these links when it delivered a verdict in favour of the CTC,
which held many workshops and brainstorming sessions to support the
LTTE's covert activities in Sri Lanka.
The CTC, which sued Sri Lanka-born terrorism expert Prof. Rohan
Gunaratna for linking it to the LTTE, has been awarded 53,000 Canadian
dollars by an Ontario court. Prof. Gunaratne, had told a press interview
with a local newspaper in February 2011, that the LTTE is operating
under the name of CTC, "the main LTTE front organisation in Canada".
The Singapore-based professor had also said that the Canadian
government is aware of this and was conducting its own investigations.
The verdict of the defamation case filed by the Toronto-based CTC was
delivered against Prof. Gunaratna.
In his judgement, Justice Stephen E. Firestone of the Ontario
Superior Court of Justice has ruled in favour of the CTC, awarding it
37,000 Canadian dollars in damages and imposing 16,000 Canadian dollars
as costs.
Justice Firestone, had said that Gunaratna's statements "were clearly
defamatory, either directly or by innuendo, because they imply that the
CTC is involved in the commission of violent and illegal activity. It is
unequivocal and uncontroverted that these statements were, in fact,
false and untrue".
The International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism
Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore which is led
by Prof. Gunaratna, is one of the largest counter-terrorism research and
training centres in the world.
He had exposed the LTTE's sinister terror acts and Tiger strategies
to draw the attention of the international community. He also played a
prominent and praiseworthy role to expose the LTTE's criminal and
terrorist activities.
Prof. Gunaratna, a member of the Steering Committee of the George
Washington University's Homeland and Security Policy Institute, is also
Senior Fellow at the Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy's Jebsen
Centre for Counter Terrorism Studies and the Memorial Institute for the
Prevention of Terrorism, Oklahoma.
A former Senior Fellow at the United States Military Academy's
Combatting Terrorism Centre at West Point, Prof. Gunaratna holds a
Masters in International Peace Studies from Notre Dame, US, where he was
a Hesburgh Scholar and holds a doctorate in international relations from
St Andrews, Scotland, where he was British Chevening Scholar.
Hence, a person of his standing would never say things without
concrete proof. Nevertheless, the LTTE rump in Canada is so powerful
that it could exert considerable influence on anybody or everybody.
Although the CTC claims that it is a representative body of over
300,000 Sri Lankan Tamils in Canada, its conduct and operations have
been highly questionable. It acted as the LTTE's operational and
fund-raising arm in Canada after the terror outfit was proscribed in
that country.
Hence, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice's decision is baffling,
to say the least, and gives a fresh lease of life to global terrorism.
It goes without saying that the CTC openly supports LTTE terrorism in
Sri Lanka. It evidently turned a blind eye to all Tigers' terror acts
which brutally killed tens of thousands of civilians in Sri Lanka.
The CTC has been conducting a sinister campaign to mislead the
international community, by projecting a dismal picture of the Security
Forces. The LTTE rump in Canada and Europe had deftly exaggerated the
number of civilians killed in the battle against terrorism to discredit
the Security Forces to woo international sympathy.
Surprisingly, the verdict was delivered just a month ahead from the
United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) sessions in Geneva next
month where the US plans to bring its third successive resolution
against Sri Lanka. Are these 'quaint' happenings inter-connected to
exert pressure on the international community to support the resolution
against Sri Lanka?
In this scenario, it is obvious why the LTTE rump had targeted Prof.
Gunaratna at this juncture. In a recent newspaper interview, Prof.
Gunaratna had questioned the UNHRC's transparency. "Geneva is no longer
an exercise in human rights but in geopolitics and superpower politics.
After the colossal loss of human lives in Afghanistan and Iraq, the West
has lost their moral right to point a finger at others," he was quoted
as saying.
Prof. Gunaratna had questioned as to why Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper had not raised the issue of human rights during his
recent visit to Indonesia. "If they intended to do so, they would have
not been welcomed either by Indonesia. The people in those countries
would have immediately labelled them hypocrites after the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan," he said.
According to Prof. Gunaratna, it was not human rights but domestic
political compulsions that forced the Canadian, British, Mauritian and
Indian leaders to take a certain stand at CHOGM. Save the Indian leader,
all the others met the LTTE front and other sympathetic groups.
The LTTE rump has mobilsed the Tamil vote in the UK and Canada to
exercise constituency pressure on Harper and his British counterpart
David Cameron. It also pressurised the co-ethnics in Mauritius and Tamil
Nadu. Sri Lanka has become an easy target of the West today and the
country should fight tooth and nail by exposing the dual Western policy,
as expounded by Prof. Gunaratna, a severe critic on the Northern
Provincial Council's demand to withdraw the Security Forces from the
North.
He said the Government should initiate an investigation against
anyone calling for the withdrawal of the Army from the North as there
could be a hidden LTTE hand in such moves.
Prof. Gunaratna's statements have proved to be an obstacle to LTTE
front organisations in the West. Hence, they are making an all-out
effort to get rid of those who point out the stark facts to the
international community.
It is the prime duty of all right-thinking people, especially the
loyal and moderate citizens in Canada, to raise their voice against
these sinister forces. The LTTE rump should not be permitted to control
Canada and influence its politicians with concocted stories to woo
international sympathy.
It is earnestly hoped that moderate member countries in the UNHRC
would study these developments closely and give Sri Lanka a fair
hearing.
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