Canada's ban on LTTE

THE Government, not least the peace loving people in Sri Lanka, will no doubt welcome the news of the ban imposed on the LTTE by the Canadian Government. The official announcement is to be made today naming the LTTE as a proscribed organisation.

The decision will now make it a criminal offense for any citizen to participate in activities of the Tamil Tigers in that country. It would also mean an end to the fund raising activities of the organisation inside Canada.

According to the report anyone convicted of financially supporting the Tigers could be imprisoned for up to 10 years. It will now criminalise the "war taxes" long being paid - both voluntarily and involuntarily - by some Tamil Canadians.

The Tigers are the 39th terrorist group to be outlawed under the Canadian Anti-terrorism Act. The designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation by the Canadian Government will no doubt come as a great relief to the Government of Sri Lanka in its fight to staunch the massive flow of funds into the LTTE war chest from the Tamil diaspora.

In this regard it is not inopportune here to mention the recent effort by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera to lobby Western Governments to clamp down on Tiger activities in those countries. It seems that the Minister's call had found its mark with at least one country.

As is well known Canada is home to the largest Tamil migrant population with as much as 20,000 concentrated in Toronto alone.

It is also the country which had very vocal proponents of the LTTE cause in the form of local politicians which always stymied efforts of the Canadian Government to come down on the outfit.

In a way Canada was akin to Tamil Nadu though to a much lesser degree where the LTTE had an impact on mundane politics.

We saw recently how local politicians in Canada vying for the pro-LTTE Tamil vote made conciliatory tones on behalf of the LTTE. It is in this light that one should consider the significance of the LTTE ban in Canada.

In this regard all tribute is due to the Canadian Government for its compelling stand taken to muzzle Tiger activities on its shores.

It may be internal compulsions like the rising tide of protests by its citizens against criminal acts by the Tamils that may have swayed the Government to act. However its fall out in the Sri Lankan context cannot be trifled.

The Government of Sri Lanka should now seize on this opportunity to drive home the advantage by getting the Canadian Government crack the whip on the LTTE front organisations as well. If not the ban would not amount to much.

We have all too often seen examples how the LTTE fund raising activities continue unimpeded in the Western countries where the organisation is banned, through different facades.

We saw how even in countries like the USA the organisation acted with impunity. It was only recently that Britain got tough and took steps to ban the Pro-Tiger TRO. The Canadian ban should also boost the morale of the Sri Lankan contingent taking wing for Geneva for the second round of talks.

Although the ban should not be permitted to sour discussions it would no doubt place the Government delegation on a that-much-of-a-sounder-footing in the knowledge that at last the world community is gradually coming to its assistance vis-a-vis the LTTE.