Tigers sought C$ 3 million from Canada
RCMP counterterrorism investigators in Toronto have seized a letter
signed by the leader of the LTTE directing Canadian Tamils to send him
$3-million, according to police files released yesterday by the Federal
Court.
The leader's letter, found during a search of the Toronto office of
the World Tamil Movement, discusses the need to "intensify the struggle"
and ensure that Tamils are "strong enough" to fight "with our full
breath," according to the newly unsealed files.
Velupillai Prabhakaran adds that he looks "forward to receiving
substantial contribution from the displaced people of Tamil Eelam" and
advises the "Canadian office" to provide 15 of the 100 "crores" he
needs. A crore is the equivalent of just over $200,000.
The RCMP cited the 2002 letter as evidence the WTM is the "Canadian
branch" of the Tigers, a rebel group fighting a war against Sri Lankan
government forces.
Also known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, the
Tigers are an outlawed terrorist group in Canada because of tactics that
include suicide bombings and political killings.
The solicitation from Prabhakaran is contained in hundreds of pages
of materials the RCMP took to a Federal Court judge last month as part
of an application to seize the WTM's bank accounts. The judge approved
the seizures.
The documents remained sealed until yesterday, although some parts
remain blacked out. Last Friday, the courts released documents
concerning a related investigation into the WTM office in Montreal.
The documents detailing the Montreal and Toronto terrorist financing
investigations (some of which were revealed in the National Post on
Saturday and Monday) provide the first indication the Canadian Tamil
groups serve as "foreign branches" of the Tigers, police claim.
The documents also spell out the money trail, showing how the WTM has
collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in Quebec and Ontario and
shipped it overseas, allegedly to pay for arms and other materials for
the Tamil independence struggle - although WTM officials deny the claims
and no charges have been laid.
"As a result of my four-year involvement with this investigation, I
believe that the World Tamil Movement is involved in terrorist financing
activities in Canada," according to an affidavit by RCMP Corporal DeAnna
Hill, a member of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in
Ontario.
Cpl. Hill says the WTM uses everything from bake sales to the sale of
Tamil Tigers paraphernalia to generate money. But the investigation,
called Project Osaluki, also uncovered one lucrative "terrorist
financing scheme" that targets Canadian Tamils who visit Sri Lanka, she
says.
Travelling Canadian Tamils who try to enter Tamil Tiger-held
territory in Sri Lanka are taken aside and pressured into signing a
pre-authorized payment form allowing the WTM to make a monthly
withdrawal from their bank account, the police documents say. "These
persons, out of fear, compliance or empathy, completed a pre-authorized
payment form at a checkpoint operated or enforced by the LTTE in Sri
Lanka," Cpl. Hill writes.
"Upon their return to Canada, these persons were visited by
representatives of the World Tamil Movement to exact the collection of
the stipend."
Some of the forms were seized by the Canada Border Services Agency.
Police also interviewed those who signed them. The close co-operation on
the scheme between the LTTE in Sri Lanka and WTM in Toronto shows an
"inextricable link" between the two, she says.
"Moreover, I believe this sequence of events provides irrefutable
evidence that the World Tamil Movement acts on behalf of the LTTE in
Canada and participates in active fundraising for the LTTE." The
Canadian government outlawed terrorist financing in 2001. The
investigation into the WTM Toronto branch began on April 22, 2002, and
climaxed with a police raid in 2006.
The case, together with the related probe in Montreal, marks the
first time Canadian police have gone to court to seize real estate and
bank accounts because of alleged involvement in terrorist financing.
National Post
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