More LTTEers arrested in Canada
CANADA: Three Canadian residents accused of supporting Sri
Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were arrested this week
at the cusp of a joint Canada-US anti-terror sweep and face extradition
to the United States, police said yesterday.
Ottawa and Washington brand the movement a foreign terrorist
organisation.
A total 11 suspects, including six Canadians, were nabbed by the US
Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in
both countries for trying to buy illegal weapons and other alleged
crimes.
The last three Canadian suspects to be arrested were picked up by
police in the Toronto area Monday through Wednesday, RCMP Sergeant
Michele Paradis told AFP.
"Over the last several weeks, the RCMP and the FBI have collaborated
on an operation directed at the efforts of individuals, Canadians among
them, who allegedly conspired to procure weapons on behalf of the Tigers
for its ongoing war against the Sri Lankan Government," Canadian Public
Safety Minister Stockwell Day said in a statement.
"Our Government considers the Tigers a terrorist organisation and was
quick to take action when we added them to the list of terrorist
entities in April," he said.
US authorities unveiled Monday charges against eight suspects accused
of supporting the LTTE. Some of them had met with its leader, Velupillai
Prabhakaran, officials said.
Four suspects were arrested Saturday after trying to purchase
surface-to-air missiles and AK-47 automatic assault rifles from an
undercover police agent posing as a weapons dealer, the US district
attorney in Brooklyn, Roslynn Mauskopf, said in a statement.
Other charges against multiple defendants include providing material
support to the LTTE by fund raising and money laundering through sham
charities, and trying to bribe US officials in a bid to remove the LTTE
from the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.
On Thursday, the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) moved to distance
itself from the accused. Kavitha Pathinathar said on behalf of the CTC:
"In the strongest of terms possible, we categorically condemn this
isolated incident."
AFP |