Despite having proscribed the Liberation Tigers as a terrorist organization, Canada still wanted Sri Lanka to negotiate with it and was also prepared to host such talks, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said last Tuesday.
“Mr. MacKay said he has spoken to Norwegian officials about Canada playing a more active role in the Sri Lanka talks, including possibly holding talks here,” the Toronto Star reported.
The new Conservative government Monday officially announced that the Tigers have been formally listed as a terrorist group. The listing makes it illegal for anyone in Canada to support or participate in Tamil Tigers activities, including fundraising.
The Toronto Star reported “the implications of the [ban] are a concern for many in the Tamil community, since the majority of Canada’s more than 200,000-strong diaspora supports the political aspirations of the Tigers to create an independent Tamil homeland.”
But according to one legal expert, aside from the political and symbolic implications, the move has limited practical application.
“It’s very unfortunate window dressing,” Queen’s Faculty of Law professor Sharryn Aiken, told the Toronto Star. “As a matter of law, there is very little added benefit.”
Aiken, who worries that Canada has lost its neutral position to help in the peace process, argues the negative impact of the listing outweighs any positive outcome, the paper reported.
The former Liberal government had barred the LTTE from raising cash in Canada, under anti-terrorism legislation brought in after 9/11, but had stopped short of an outright ban.
The LTTE has not commented formally on the Canadian proscription, but Political Wing Chief S. P. Tamilselvan said the move would embolden and encourage Sinhala nationalists urging war while undermining advocates of a negotiated solution.
“The move would definitely hurt Tamil sentiments,” Mr. Tamilselvan told reporters after meeting representatives of the Co-Chairs of Sri Lanka’s peace process.
Other LTTE officials pointed out that contrary to expectations, support for the movement has steadily grown in the United States and Britain, despite it being proscribed there, adding support for the organization stems from the decades of violence and oppression inflicted by the Sri Lankan state.
Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times newspaper reported in November 2004 that eighteen thousand people attended remembrance events in UK, coinciding with Heroes Day celebrations in LTTE-held Vanni. Organizers were compelled to organize two venues last year while five years earlier, before the UK banned the LTTE in 2001, eight thousand attended the London event, expatriates said.
The British ban in February 2001 came amid a unilateral ceasefire the LTTE had been observing since December 2000. The Tigers called off the truce two months later.
In the wake of the British decision, the hardline Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Sihala Urumaya (now Jeyathika Hela urumaya) claimed victory and have announced that they will extend the campaign to oppose Norwegian attempts to facilitate talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government.
The LTTE’s Political Strategist and Chief Negotiator, Anton Balasingham warned at the time, “the British decision will encourage the repressive Sri Lankan regime to be more uncompromising, intransigent and to adopt a military path.”
Two months later, the Sri Lanka Army launched Operation ‘Agni Khiela’, an all out effort to recapture Elephant Pass, which had fallen to the Tigers a year earlier.
The offensive was defeated with staggering losses and many observers linked the extended incapacitation of the SLA’s offensive divisions as a major factor (along with the later Katunayake airport attack) in Colombo’s decision to enter into negotiations with the LTTE.
“Mr. MacKay said he has spoken to Norwegian officials about Canada playing a more active role in the Sri Lanka talks, including possibly holding talks here,” the Toronto Star reported.
The new Conservative government Monday officially announced that the Tigers have been formally listed as a terrorist group. The listing makes it illegal for anyone in Canada to support or participate in Tamil Tigers activities, including fundraising.
The Toronto Star reported “the implications of the [ban] are a concern for many in the Tamil community, since the majority of Canada’s more than 200,000-strong diaspora supports the political aspirations of the Tigers to create an independent Tamil homeland.”
But according to one legal expert, aside from the political and symbolic implications, the move has limited practical application.
“It’s very unfortunate window dressing,” Queen’s Faculty of Law professor Sharryn Aiken, told the Toronto Star. “As a matter of law, there is very little added benefit.”
Aiken, who worries that Canada has lost its neutral position to help in the peace process, argues the negative impact of the listing outweighs any positive outcome, the paper reported.
The former Liberal government had barred the LTTE from raising cash in Canada, under anti-terrorism legislation brought in after 9/11, but had stopped short of an outright ban.
The LTTE has not commented formally on the Canadian proscription, but Political Wing Chief S. P. Tamilselvan said the move would embolden and encourage Sinhala nationalists urging war while undermining advocates of a negotiated solution.
“The move would definitely hurt Tamil sentiments,” Mr. Tamilselvan told reporters after meeting representatives of the Co-Chairs of Sri Lanka’s peace process.
Other LTTE officials pointed out that contrary to expectations, support for the movement has steadily grown in the United States and Britain, despite it being proscribed there, adding support for the organization stems from the decades of violence and oppression inflicted by the Sri Lankan state.
Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times newspaper reported in November 2004 that eighteen thousand people attended remembrance events in UK, coinciding with Heroes Day celebrations in LTTE-held Vanni. Organizers were compelled to organize two venues last year while five years earlier, before the UK banned the LTTE in 2001, eight thousand attended the London event, expatriates said.
The British ban in February 2001 came amid a unilateral ceasefire the LTTE had been observing since December 2000. The Tigers called off the truce two months later.
In the wake of the British decision, the hardline Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Sihala Urumaya (now Jeyathika Hela urumaya) claimed victory and have announced that they will extend the campaign to oppose Norwegian attempts to facilitate talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government.
The LTTE’s Political Strategist and Chief Negotiator, Anton Balasingham warned at the time, “the British decision will encourage the repressive Sri Lankan regime to be more uncompromising, intransigent and to adopt a military path.”
Two months later, the Sri Lanka Army launched Operation ‘Agni Khiela’, an all out effort to recapture Elephant Pass, which had fallen to the Tigers a year earlier.
The offensive was defeated with staggering losses and many observers linked the extended incapacitation of the SLA’s offensive divisions as a major factor (along with the later Katunayake airport attack) in Colombo’s decision to enter into negotiations with the LTTE.
