|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
| Wednesday, 16 February 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Security | |
| News Business Features Editorial Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Canada's senior minister responsible for homeland security hinted strongly Monday that she was not excluding adding the LTTE to a list of outlawed terrorist organisations. Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, who is also Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, was cross-examined at a Senate committee hearing about why the Tigers had not been added to a list of 35 terror organisations banned by Canada. Under Canada's Anti-terrorism Act, passed in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, any member of a terror group on this list can be arrested and all funds associated with such terror groups frozen. Opposition Senator John Lynch-Staunton, of the right-of-centre Conservative Party, said Britain, Australia and the United States had banned the Tigers who were on a United Nations list of terror organisations. He wanted to know why Canada had not done the same. McLellan replied: "We constantly review who should be on the list." The main reason for not listing them, so far, she said, was that "the current Minister of Foreign Affairs (Pierre Pettigrew) and the previous Minister of Foreign Affairs (now Defence Minister Bill Graham) have said that there is some hope for the Sri Lankan peace process and perhaps it would be perceived as not helpful to list the LTTE." Lynch-Staunton retorted: "Money has been raised (by the LTTE) for terrorist purposes." McLellan, in her strongest hint that she might add the LTTE to the list of groups of banned terrorist organisations, replied: "Senator, I take your point." - AFP |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
