More Raids On World Tamil Movement
PDFYesterday the RCMP raided the toronto headquarters of the World Tamil Movement (reported in the National Post amongst other places). This comes just nine days after the World Tamil Movement’s offices were raided in Montreal, and almost exactly two weeks after Canada’s Conservative government designated the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or “Tamil Tigers”) a terrorist organization. The World Tamil Movement has been repeatedly accused of being an LTTE front group.
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While the Tigers were already banned by the United States, this crackdown is particularly significant as Canada is home to the largest Tamil community outside of southeast Asia.
Serious allegations have been made regarding the Tamil Tigers’ activities, both in Sri Lanka and throughout the Tamil diaspora. Notably, in March the group Human Rights Watch issued a report (Funding the “Final War” LTTE Intimidation and Extortion in the Tamil Diaspora) accusing LTTE representatives of engaging in intimidation and threats of violence to get “donations” from Tamils living in Canada.
Without entering into the debate over what activities the LTTE’s representatives do or do not engage in, or the politics of the struggle against the racist oppression the Tamil minority suffers in Sri Lanka, this police repression should be condemned. It is a transparent attempt by the Harper Conservatives to step up Canada’s “anti-terrorist” profile, and further criminalize the political activities of immigrants in this country.
Particularly ridiculous is the government (and police’s) claim that the LTTE is little more than a bunch of thugs who enjoy little or no support from within the Tamil community. These same State sources explain the previous Liberal government’s reticence to ban the Tigers as being a ploy to win Tamil votes; i.e. this “ban” is acknowledged as not being something that the Tamil community wants. (Even sources which are hostile to the Tigers have criticized the Conservatives for maintaining its support for the racist Sri Lankan government - i.e. last week’s editorial in the Asia Pacific Post).
Worth keeping an eye on…
Categories: anti-terrorism, canada, repression, tamil-eelam
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Thanks for understanding the suffering's of the Tamils. The Ban on LTTE is only one part of the issue, the Srilankan Army and the Sinahalese Majority have always attacked Tamil minorities living in South Sri Lanka who have nothing to do with the crisis in the North.
ReplyDeleteThis is not about LTTE, this is about Sinhalese racist agenda against Tamils. There are over 2 million Tamil refugees in India , who have nothing to do with the LTTE and they are victims of the Srilankan Army attempt on ethnic cleansing.