Opinion:

US continues to view LTTE a terrorist threat:

Canada contradicts its ban on LTTE

By Manjula Fernando

A senior foreign service official in the External Affairs Ministry, taking note of Canada's shockingly outrageous statement that Sri Lanka's ban on 16 organisations for terrorist links will have no legal effect in Canada, said Sri Lanka may have been wrong to distance the United States because it has proved over the years an important ally in Sri Lanka's fight against terrorism.

The US has ‘gone out on a limb’ to prosecute fund raisers and arms procurers of LTTE not just on its soil but even in Canada, extending the hunt down across boundaries and seeking their extradition whereas Canada seems to confirm a suspicion that the listing of LTTE as a terrorist organisation have been limited to law books and it was just a nominal proscription. The organisation and its front had found a safe haven in Canada to do whatever criminal activities its members aspired behind closed doors and sometimes even on open ground.

In a statement issued on April 30 from the office of the Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Minister of State Lynne Yelich said,

“ We are concerned by the Government of Sri Lanka's listing of 16 entities and 424 individuals for purported links to terrorist activities, including some with ties to Canada. Sri Lanka's action has no legal effect in Canada: It does not constrain the freedom of listed groups and individuals to lawfully express their views in Canada.”

The official said Canada has contradicted it s own ban on the LTTE, by this statement since the 16 organisations listed by the Government of Sri Lanka on March 20 included the LTTE.

The LTTE remain a proscribed entity in Canada since April 2006. The announcement of the ban was made just two months after Prime Minister Steven Harper assumed office. Canada has not made any attempt so far to correct the mistake it made through the April 30 statement.

Besides Sri Lanka has designated these organisations in keeping with the UN resolution 1373 adopted by the Security Council in September 2001 under the Chapter VII of the UN charter which binds all countries and calls for action.

The resolution 1373 passed after the heinous 9/11 attack in New York by Al Qaeda dictates that ‘all states shall prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist acts and refrain from providing any form of support – active or passive - to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts’ among other things.

Therefore, Canada's claim that Sri Lanka's action has no legal effect on their soil needs to be questioned.

Nine years before Canada, the US proscribed the LTTE becoming the first foreign country to ban the outfit when they did so in 1997. The senior diplomat said despite Sri Lanka being at loggerheads with the US in Geneva over human rights issues, the US has continued to view LTTE as a terrorist threat. They have not mixed up politics with their foreign policy decisions and allowed electoral pressure to override action concerning world's and its’ own security.

The recent US State Department report suffice the missing piece in the puzzle for Canada if they are serious about tackling terrorism. The US has been putting money where the mouth is in fighting terrorism and we are fighting a common enemy, the official said.

A total of six Canadian citizens were prosecuted in US Courts over charges of arms procurement for the LTTE and one man even served time in a US jail before being deported to Canada.

The prosecuted were Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam, Sahilal Sabaratnam, Suresh Sriskandarajah, Piratheepan Nadarajah, Ramanan Mylvaganam and one other, all allegedly members of Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO), Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) and World Tamil Movement (WTM).

Canadian Federal Government listed WTM as a terrorist organisation since 2008 but the indulgent attitude by individual members of the Canadian government towards LTTE supporters and its members is continuing.

The April 30 statement by the Canadian Government that Sri Lanka's action had no effect in Canada, came through after a letter by vociferous campaigner and sympathiser Rathika Sitsabaiesan, Canadian MP for Scarborough-Rouge River reached Canadian Foreign Minister Baird. Emphasising ‘serious concern’ on the ban Sitsabaiesan wrote, ‘While strong words of condemnation are necessary, they are not sufficient. Canada must take concrete actions to pressure the Government of Sri Lanka to immediately reverse its assault on international civil society.’

A senior intelligence officer said, ‘The US government crackdown of LTTE operations on its soil starting in 2004 crippled the LTTE international network. The global impact of US operations led to the destruction of the LTTE ships. ‘

He said the US spearheaded the international fight against the LTTE when they proscribed the LTTE in 1997. As opposed to British and Canadian politicians lobbied by LTTE fronts using minority votes and funds, US’ s commitment to fight terrorism remains intact.

When the issue of Sri Lankan illegal immigrants came up. Canada and Australia were the most affected. While Australia sent one team after another to verify the claims of illegal immigrants and interview failed asylum seekers, Canada was soon overwhelmed by electoral pressure which swept away their reasoning power.

The Canadian Government in fact acknowledged in 2010 when ‘Ocean Lady’ a rickety boat carrying 76 illegal immigrants from Sri Lanka arrived at its shore that the boat ‘people were trying to take advantage of our system’ (Vancouver Sun July 16, 2010).

Despite international pressure successive Australian governments were consistent in their policy towards illegal migrants from Sri Lanka that majority of them were nothing but economic migrants and ‘persecution of Tamils’ was a fine story fabricated by the human smugglers.

Canada is either blind or yet to realise that their land is being exploited by terrorist fronts.

A Canadian Federal Court Judge hearing a case involving Suresh, an LTTE supporter, in January 2000 ruled, “those who freely choose to raise funds to sustain terrorist organisations bear the same guilt and responsibility as those who actually carry out terrorist acts.”

Those who mollycoddle terrorist fronts and play blind to their undercover activities will bear the same guilt too.