Letter to Amnesty International - Canada:

AI's anti Sri Lanka stance due to LTTE funding

by Manjula FERNANDO

A group of Sri Lankan diaspora organisations have written to the Amnesty International-Canada protesting against the alleged acceptance of funds for their work by the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), a known key LTTE front.

The letter pointed out that LTTE was known for its tactics to buy off genuine organisations to further its propaganda ambitions and the Canadian AI has put its credibility on line by accepting these funds.

Addressed to Secretary General of AI Canada Alex Neve, the letter dated January 1, starts as follows:

"It is with utter disbelief that we read the news story of AI accepting a grant of $50,000 from the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), which is a well-known front organisation for the internationally banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

We as a human rights organisation, concerned mostly with issues related to Sri Lanka, find it embarrassing to note that AI, which never fails to take the moral high ground on human rights, war and peace etc., should even think of accepting funds from an organisation linked to the LTTE."

It further states that, "AI, which has produced numerous reports on the Sri Lankan situation, would have been well aware of the network of the LTTE operations, its methods of fund-raising, money laundering, human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity."

Key

"CTC has been one of the key organisations that openly advocated the aims and objectives of the LTTE and provided every form of support to the LTTE in the war against Sri Lanka and its own Tamil people that differed from their aims.

The LTTE continued the abduction and forced conscription of under-aged Tamil children to their fighting units with the apparent knowledge and approval of the CTC and other front organisations.

Without the funding of the Tamil expatriate organisations like the CTC it would not have been possible to buy arms and ammunition from the black market arms dealers. All this should have been known to AI. The Canadian intelligence services and even independent think tanks like the Mackensie Institute of Canada have documented the network and links of the Tamil front line organisations of the LTTE."

Thus the organisations backed by Sri Lankans have questioned the decision to accept funding by the CTC.

"Your decision to accept funding from CTC, therefore, is mind-boggling.

You have put your credibility on line with this act of accepting funds from a front organisation of the LTTE. It is similar to a Jewish organisation dedicated to protect Jewish security accepting donations from a group of Neo-Nasis, or even from Al-Qaeda.

Transparency

As the AI is committed to transparency and accountability, the organisations have requested the AI, Canada to answer the following questions:

1. For how long has AI accepted funds from front organisations promoting the political agenda of internationally banned LTTE?

2. What is the total amount of funding received from these front organisations? Can you give us a breakdown with dates and contact persons?

3. On what principles/norms/rules of AI did you decide to accept the funding?

4. Can we have a copy of the principles/norms/rules on which AI is authorised to accept funding from outside sources?

5. Assuming that your principles/norms/rules permit you to accept blood money from those who have deliberately adopted policies and practices of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity like the LTTE, or those allied to it, may we know whether your decision to go strongly against Sri Lanka (example: the unusual case of targeting Sri Lankan cricketers in the World Cup) was determined/influenced by the funding accepted by AI?

6. On the available evidence we are forced to conclude that it is the funding and the infiltration of AI by agents of the LTTE, disguised as human rights activists, that has led to the aggressive stance of AI against the Sri Lankan government and, consequently, the reason for not coming down hard on the LTTE war criminals who are still operating abroad.

For instance, AI has never raised the issue of Adela Balasingham, the wife of the LTTE ideologue and propagandist, Anton Balasingham, who was the pioneering head of female brigades - not to mention her direct role in recruiting and training under-aged female LTTE cadres to engage in terrorist activities in Sri Lanka - now living in a safe haven in UK. Why has AI turned a blind eye to this war criminal? If it was an oversight when will it consider taking action against her? AI's slogan against Sri Lankan cricketers was "to play fair". How fair are you in your campaigns against Sri Lanka?

7. How many hard core Tamils who have been active agents of the LTTE have you researched and listed them for their role in the war crimes committed by their parent body?

8. Do you seriously expect us to believe that after accepting funds from fronts linked to LTTE that you are capable of making impartial/independent/objective judgements in relation to Sri Lankan issues?

9. What is the total number of Canadian Tamil membership in your organisation?

10. How many of them are in the higher decision-making level?

11. Can we have a list of the names of those in the higher echelons of your organisation?

12. Will you consider the ethics/morality of your action in accepting money from organisations like CTC as being acceptable to the peace-loving Sri Lankans, knowing that their political agenda is to influence organisations like AI and get their silent nod for their violent campaigns purportedly to safeguard their rights and freedoms in a separate mono-ethnic state to be carved out by armed force?

13. What steps do you propose taking to prevent criminal organisations like those linked to the LTTE from infiltrating AI through devious means to promote their violent politics?

14. Can you give us a list of organisations that are financial contributors to your organisations?

The letter undersigned by Ranjith Soysa, a spokesperson for WAPS, a Sri Lankan group fighting LTTE propaganda, based in Australia, is endorsed by the following organisations:

President - Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka

Vice President - Sri Lanka United National Association (SLUNA) of Canada

President - Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights of Sri Lanka (SPUR)

NSW President - Western Australian Society for Peace Unity and Rehabilitation, (WASPUR) in Sri Lanka

President - Sri Lankan United National Association-Canada

President - Sinhala Centre - U.K

President - Sinhala Association of Sri Lankans in the U.K.

President - Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka, Queensland

President - Australian Federation of Sri Lankan Associations

NSW President - Association of Sri Lankans in the U.K.

President - Sri Lankan Patriots in L.A, USA.