Re: Martin Collacott on Tamil Tigers in Jun 2000
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Posted by Al Gordon on 22:57:16 2005/01/27
In Reply to:
Re: Martin Collacott on Tamil Tigers in Jan 2005 posted by Al Gordon
Paul Martin, Maria Minna, Jim Karigyannis, and now Iwin Cotler cannot claim that no one told them of Canada's role in the slaughter of Sri Lankan citizens. They have know for years, but made the conscious decision that the death, suffering and terror was a price they would pay (more accurately, Sri Lankans would pay) to secure the Tamil vote for the Liberals.
The price is being paid closer to home, as Tamil Tigers here in Canada murder, brutalize, and extort Tamil immigrants to fund terrorism in Sri Lanka.
In June 2000, Martin Collacott warned of the cost to Sri Lankans of the Liberal's policy of appeasemet. They knew, and they chose power over life.
Here is a prescient article by former ambassador to Sri Lanka, Martin Collacott, from June 2000.
Al
Tuesday, June 13, 2000
The Canadian connection
'I'm appalled at how the Tamil Tigers have abused our hospitality'
Martin Collacott
National Post
Support from Canadian sources has been a major factor in nurturing the vicious and bloody campaign of terrorism being waged by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. What is surprising and disturbing is that some Canadian leaders still refuse to admit that by cultivating the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils -- a key front organization for the Tigers in Canada -- they continue to encourage funding that has in large measure made possible the insurgency and acts of terror that have killed tens of thousands of Sri Lankans.
When I served as Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka from 1982 to 1986, the period in which civil war began in earnest, I urged the Sri Lankan government to redress Tamil grievances and worked actively to ensure that Canadian aid (and particularly our large-scale involvement in irrigation programs) was used to benefit the Tamils as well as the other races. I visited the Tamil heartland in Jaffna immediately after the anti-Tamil riots in 1983 and again in 1986 at a time when no other high commissioners or ambassadors went there to demonstrate their concern for the Tamil population.
Having said this, I now must say I am appalled by the way in which the Tamil Tigers and their supporters have abused and exploited Canadian hospitality. Few recent terrorist movements have matched the brutality and ruthlessness of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Their bombs, which have killed hundreds of innocent civilians, have been designed to sow terror among the population as well as try to precipitate a violent reaction against Tamils in order to give substance to allegations that they are being persecuted by the Sri Lankan government (a claim which, inter alia, has enabled large numbers of Tiger members and supporters to claim refugee status in Canada). A particular trademark of the Tigers, and one that reveals their true character, has been their systematic murder of moderate Tamil leaders in an effort to ensure that the Tigers and their extremist supporters enjoy total dominance and control over the community.
While the Tigers have not committed outright acts of terrorism in Canada, they and their accomplices have been involved in a wide range of criminal activities in this country in addition to the extortion of huge payments from Tamils here. These include drug trafficking, migrant smuggling, passport forgery and fraud. They have also been a major factor in the spawning of Tamil street gangs in Toronto, which have accounted for 40 shootings in the past three years and five unsolved homicides.
A particularly sad irony of this situation is that, while the Tigers have been successful in getting many of their supporters into Canada, most members of the Sri Lankan Tamil community came here to seek peaceful lives and to benefit from our traditions of democracy, human rights and rule of law. Instead, we have permitted them to be intimidated and exploited by a group whose principal interest in Canada is to use it as a base for launching insurgency and terror on the other side of the globe. A telling indication of just how thoroughly the Tigers have been able to coerce and intimidate the Sri Lankan Tamil community in Canada is the fact that those who demonstrated last week to express their opposition to Tiger dominance had to do so in New York -- not in Canada, where far more live but where there is no freedom of speech when it comes to challenging the Tigers.
Our failure in this regard arises in large measure from a misguided interpretation of multiculturalism that seems to holds that, if we are to show full respect for our newcomers, we must be prepared to tolerate any and all views they may bring with them, which may include bitter animosities and plans for the resolving of differences in their former homelands by violent means. Surely we can find a way of receiving and, indeed, rejoicing in the richness and diversity that newcomers bring to this country without having to accept views that are fundamentally in conflict with Canadian values and that suggest they have little interest in Canada except as a convenient place from which to settle vendettas in other parts of the world.
An even greater failure on the part of Canada, however, is that we have allowed ourselves at the political level to be manipulated and exploited by organizations such as the Tigers. While it is encouraging to hear from Lloyd Axworthy, the Foreign Affairs Minister, that Canada has signed an international agreement outlawing terrorist funding, Finance Minister Paul Martin insists it is "anti-Canadian" to criticize his attendance at a dinner organized by the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils. Clearly government leaders are prepared to overlook such well-documented terrorist connections for the prospect of securing a few votes at the next election. We owe it to the Canadian public and the many Tamil Canadians who came here to escape violence and intimidation to put an end to the activities and influence of the Tigers and their supporters in Canada.
Martin Collacott was the Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and also served as ambassador to Syria, Lebanon and Cambodia.
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