By Gurmukh Singh, IANS
Toronto : Canada has expressed regret over the Sri Lankan government’s decision to abandon a six-year-old peace pact with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE).
In a statement Thursday, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier warned that a withdrawal from the Norway-brokered agreement will make the search for a durable political solution in the island more difficult and only fuel more violence.
“We remain deeply concerned about the impact of the escalating violence on civilians, humanitarian workers and human rights defenders. Violence will not produce solutions, it will only bring more tragedy to the people of Sri Lanka,” Bernier said.
He said Canada urges all parties to respect human rights and work urgently towards “political solutions that will bring peace to Sri Lanka”.
Canada, where the LTTE is banned, has a big, vocal population of Sri Lankan Tamils who are settled mostly in Toronto’s Scarborough area.
Despite the ban on the LTTE slapped in 2006, there have been reports of its supporters allegedly arm-twisting Tamils to donate money for their cause. The ban bars people from raising money, buying arms and lobbying with political leaders in support of the LTTE.
Two years ago, Canadian authorities and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested many LTTE supporters who were charged with conspiring to buy surface-to-air missiles from undercover agents in the US. They were also charged with money laundering through front organisations and US bank accounts.
These men had travelled from Canada to Long Island in New York to buy Russian-made missiles, launchers and AK-47 rifles.
They were also charged with trying to bribe American officials to get classified information and have the LTTE removed from the list of banned organisations in the US.
Many groups and companies acted as fronts for the Tamil Tigers in Canada before the ban.
Interestingly, LTTE supporters had allegedly tried to strike deals with contenders for the Liberal Party leadership in 2006. They had reportedly offered to vote for candidates who promised to get the Canadian ban on the LTTE lifted.