Website: www.sluna.org E-mail: sluna@idirect.com
MEDIA
RELEASE June
16, 2008
We
welcome Canada’s decision to add the World Tamil Movement headquartered in
Toronto to the list of outlawed terrorist groups under Canada’s Anti-Terrorism
Laws. We would like to congratulate Hon.
Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, and the Conservative Party Government
of Canada for taking appropriate action against the WTM, which functioned as a
Non-Profit Community Organization that was funnelling funds from Canada to the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for their terrorist warfare aimed at
breaking up Sri Lanka. This sends the
right signal that funding for terrorism will not be tolerated by Canada, and
further that the Charter of Rights does not permit Canadian groups to
transgress the right to life and similar freedoms of people living in other
jurisdictions by transfer of Canadian funds to designated terrorist groups such
as the LTTE
The
spokesperson for the World Tamil Movement denied any links to the Tamil Tiger
Terrorists in recent interviews given to various Canadian media. However, the RCMP investigations spread over
many years have revealed their direct ties to the LTTE, making it a key front
organization for raising of funds from the large Tamil Diaspora through
intimidation, threats of harm and coercion of Canadian Tamils to make monthly
contributions and also participate in so called cultural events organized by
the various fronts for this purpose. The
WTM along with the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils (FACT), an
umbrella organization, were both named as front organizations for the LTTE by
the US State Department in their reports on international terrorism as far back
as 1996. The FBI has described the Tamil
Tiger Terrorists as “the most dangerous and deadly extremists in the world
whose ruthless tactics inspired terrorist networks worldwide including the Al
Qaeda in Iraq”.
There are yet other front organizations of the LTTE that share the same address as the WTM but claiming to be Non-Profit Community Organizations which operate independently of the Tamil Tiger Terrorists, whilst justifying the actions of the terrorists and openly carrying on propaganda on their behalf. Some other groups function under generic sounding names such as Tamil Sports Clubs, Student Organizations, Arts and Technology Institutes, which are controlled by the LTTE in order to directly manage every aspect of social activity of the Tamil Diaspora, and extract every penny for their violent separatist campaign which has resulted in the loss of 70,000 lives and damage to valuable property in Sri Lanka over the past three decades. This measure will no doubt help to make a dent in the LTTE’s fundraising operations in Canada, and will contribute in great measure to save the lives of innocent civilians in Sri Lanka.
Yours
very truly,
Mahinda
Gunasekera
Honorary
President)