CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

LTTE TERRORISM AND THE TAMIL DIASPORA

Goonetilleke Ekanayake

Although spectacular gains have been achieved by the Government of Sri and and its armed forces in combating LTTE terrorism both within and without the country, no steps have so far been taken to deal with the real culprits behind LTTE's heinous crimes, the overseas Tamils who happen to be their motivators.

The Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora numbering around 750,000 individuals domiciled in a number of affluent West European and North American countries as well as in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and South Africa should be held accountable for the daily loss of valuable lives, wanton destruction of property and the general carnage that is taking place in the country. Apart from the insignificant number of hard core elements who have been recently brought before the law, the masterminds continue to operate with impunity with the connivance of corrupt politicians, dishonest journalists, warped academics, greedy lawyers and the not so holy members of the Christian clergy.

It is generally well known that the vast majority of these expatriate Tamils culprits belong to the first generation migrants who sought greener pastures under the guise 'political refugees' in the aftermath of the goon riots orchestrated by president J R Jayawardana and his government in 1983. Their 'passage to freedom' was initiated and well lubricated by the Sri Lankan Tamil diplomats who occupied important ambassadorial positions in almost all of the affluent countries at the time under J R's government. Presently these immigrant Tamils are either employed in well paid professions as doctors, engineers accountants, teachers, architects etc or are involved in lucrative businesses set up and funded by LTTE. Prior to migration they helped themselves lavishly to all welfare benefits such as free education and free healthcare that the country had to offer. It is also an open secret that a considerable number of them gained admission to the popular courses of studies in our universities through the back door, thanks to the manipulations of dishonest Tamil academics thus depriving genuine scholars from the majority Sinhala community of their rightful places. It would be not be incorrect to state that Tamils of Jaffna peninsula, a region which contributed least to the economy of the country helped themselves to the plums of the pudding by dubious means. Despite having gobbled up the lions share, instead of contributing their best to assist their motherland which educated and nurtured them, these ungrateful Tamils have chosen a path of destruction causing innumerable hardships to the populace and the country.

A few of the several clandestine activities that the Diaspora are presently engaged in and brought to light by Sri Lankan officials, patriots and foreign journalists through the international and Sri Lankan media include the following. Conducting smear campaigns against GOSL our security forces and Sinhala Buddhists particularly Buddhist monks in order to belittle them in the eyes of the international community, raising vast amounts of money through extortion from gullible Tamils, managing businesses, collecting funds for bogus charities, trading in narcotics, credit card scams etc. They are also engaged in purchasing illegal arms from corrupt army personnel and arms dealers in countries such as those of the former Soviet block, Thailand and Cambodia and transporting them to Tiger heartland. Smuggling Tamils from Sri Lanka into affluent countries as political refugees has been going on for quite a long time.

There is no guarantee that even after the inevitable annihilation of LTTE in the near future, these expatriate traitors will cease to manipulate world opinion and cause embarrassment to GOSL and Sinhala Buddhists whenever possible. Why do we have to be at their mercy all the time? Time has come to explore ways and means to properly deal with these traitors.

It is on record that although they obtained asylum citing 'torture by the Sri Lankan security establishment', most of these expatriate Tamils make the pilgrimage to their country of origin regularly. A few years ago, a member of the Canadian parliament revealed that in one year alone, 60% of Sri Lankan Tamils granted asylum in that country went on holiday to Sri Lanka, the very country which was supposed to have tortured them. This situation continues to prevail in all other countries which opened their doors to these cheats. It is regrettable that GOSL never capitalized on this bit of valuable publicity to compel the host countries to bring the bogus refugees to justice
One option available to these countries would be to rescind their existing immigration laws and deport the culprits back to Sri Lanka. Some of these countries would be more than willing to do so, considering the mayhem created by these so called 'asylum seekers' in their countries. But do we really need this scum back any way?

However we do posses a valuable tool to strike back. We could bring in requisite legislation to permit cancellation of dual citizenships held by the 'behind the scene' traitors. Legislation should be enacted requiring all Sri Lankan born 'political refugees' who wish to visit the country to declare whether or not their claims for asylum were a result of 'torture by Sri Lankan security forces'. A negative response would make them liable to prosecution for making false declarations in order to seek asylum in their countries of domicile. A positive response would empower GOSL to refuse entry into the country based on the premiss that their security could not be guaranteed by the very same security forces. It would be detrimental to continue tolerate the atrocious behaviour of these Tamils who cannot be permitted to 'eat the cake and have it too'. It is the prerogative of any country to decide who should be permitted to enter that country and such legislation based on security concerns would not be in violation of human rights of any individual.

Expatriate Sri Lankans of all races living in these countries would be glad to provide the names and addresses of such individuals with concrete evidence against them, which could then be verified by the diplomats and approved. It is a mockery that the very people who spread canards among the international community about the behaviour of the gallant members of our security forces are being protected by the same security forces whenever the former chose to holiday in Sri Lanka.

Enough is enough. Let those in power take immediate steps to address this serious issue.

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