Tiger’s Collecting Funds in Canada : Sri Lanka Tamil Tigers use pressure to raise funds, Canadian police say

US Bureau Asian Tribune

Washington, D.C. 11 May (Asiantribune.com): The Tamil Tigers terrorist group has been aggressively fundraising in Montreal using a sophisticated pre-authorized payment scheme and other methods to collect money from the city's 25,000-strong Tamil community, according to the Canadian intelligence, says National Post, Canada’s leading newspaper in its May 10 edition.

Documents recently unsealed and filed in a Quebec court provide the first look inside an ongoing Royal Canadian Military Police ((RCMP) investigation called Project CRIBLE that is probing complaints that a Montreal nonprofit group has been working with the Tamil Tigers to raise money for civil war in Sri Lanka, the Post further reports.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, popularly known at Tamil Tigers, has been fighting the government of Sri Lanka to win an independent ethnic Tamil separate state in the predominantly Tamil northern province and ethnically mixed eastern province in Sri Lanka accusing that successive administrations, according to the Tamil Tigers controlled by the majority ethnic Sinhalese, discriminated against the Tamils.

The Tamil Tiger claim twenty five years ago when they started its military offensive against the Sri Lankan state that that they are the sole representatives of the ethnic Tamils (12.5%) has eroded as 54% of them are now domiciled in Sinhalese majority districts in the rest of the country. Since late, the support it received from the Tamil Diaspora in western nations too has eroded due the Tiger leadership’s authoritarian rule in the northern Sri Lankan areas it controls. Sri Lanka, formally known as Ceylon when under the British rule for almost two centuries until it gained independence in 1948, is geographically located off the coast of southern India.

Following is the full report the National Post carried in its May 10 issue:

Launched in 2003 by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Quebec, the investigation is examining several prominent members of the World Tamil Movement (WTM) in Montreal suspected of soliciting money for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE).

"Known as Tamil Tigers, members of the WTM in Montreal are very active in fundraising activities for the WTM. People from the community are intimidated by them and feel obliged to give donations, as they know that these individuals are in fact working for the LTTE," writes RCMP officer Denis Boudreau in an affidavit used to obtain a search warrant.

The Tamil Tigers are on Canada's official terrorist list, meaning it is illegal to raise money for the group. No charges have been laid and none of the allegations has been proven in court.

Yesterday, the leader of the WTM in Montreal, Manivannan Karunananthaswamy, said he could not comment because of the continuing investigation.

The Tigers have been condemned internationally for terrorist tactics that include suicide bombings, ethnic cleansing, political assassinations and the recruitment of children. It assassinated a Sri Lanka president in 1993 and an Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. It is declared a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in the United States.

Canada has one of the world's largest populations of Sri Lankan Tamils, and front organizations that support the Tigers operate in the country the same way Sikh extremists once used Canadian charities and non-profit groups to disguise their fight for independence. "Canada is a place of choice for these organizations, considering that it regroups the biggest Tamil community outside of Sri Lanka," the RCMP affidavit says.

Sri Lankan foreign minister during his recent visit to Washington appealed to U.S. authorities to clamp down on LTTE front organizations who operate in the guise of cultural organizations to raise funds for the Tamil Tigers for its operations in Sri Lanka.
Toronto has traditionally been the hub of LTTE activity in Canada, but the RCMP affidavit suggests the Tigers have shifted at least some of their activities to Montreal. According to the police document, fundraising initiatives in Montreal include:

- Threatening those who do not contribute to the cause of Tamil independence. A letter containing death threats was circulated in the Montreal Tamil community in September, 2003, police said. Signed by the "Patriot Army of Eelam," it accused individuals of being traitors because they were not supporting the WTM. Police suspect the WTM was behind it.

- Soliciting large donations from Tamil-owned businesses and Tamil community members. The WTM claims the money is for hospitals, schools and orphanages, but "contrary to Tamil Tiger propaganda, the money collected in Canada does not reach the poor people in Sri Lanka, even in regions controlled by the LTTE," the RCMP affidavit alleges.

- A "Tamil Savings Fund" was launched by the WTM in late 2005 to raise $100-million for the independence struggle. Tamil- Canadian families and businesses were told to "loan" up to $50,000 to the fund. Those who could not afford to give were told to borrow money from a bank or credit card. "Some members of the LTTE came from Sri Lanka to participate in this fundraising alongside established WTM members," the police said.

Police also interviewed several Tamil-Canadians who said they had been coerced into becoming donors during visits to Sri Lanka.

Tamils who travelled to their homeland to visit family in LTTEcontrolled areas told police they had to pass through a checkpoint where they were forced to sign forms promising to make monthly payments to the Tigers.

Tamil Tigers control several areas in the north of Sri Lanka. The government military has succeeded in clearing the eastern province of Tiger cadres and has destroyed almost all of their military camps and installations in the recent offensives.

The Tigers sent the forms to the WTM in Montreal, according to police. Members of the WTM then visited the homes of those who had signed the forms to collect the money.

In some cases, the Tigers make people sign pre-authorized payment letters authorizing the WTM to make monthly withdrawals from their bank accounts, the documents say. The Montreal man responsible for collecting the pre-authorized payments has about 150 names on his list, police said.

The Project CRIBLE investigation is one of several across Canada that are examining Tamil Tigers fundraising.

Police in Toronto are investigating the World Tamil Movement headquarters in Scarborough, Ont., while in Vancouver, police have also probed WTM activities. Similar investigations are underway in the United States, France, Australia and Britain.

The Quebec INSET national security team is a combined unit made up of RCMP, Surete du Quebec, Montreal city police, Immigration Canada, Canada Border Services Agency and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Since the investigation began four years ago, officers have recruited several informants who have given police information about the WTM.

The informants were not paid and said they were co-operating with police to help the Tamil community, police say.

"The goal of this investigation is to gather evidence on the financing activities in Canada of a terrorist group known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. This organization is suspected of collecting funds in Canada that [police] believe are used to finance terrorist activities in Canada. The LTTE operates in Canada through a front organization known as the World Tamil Movement," the RCMP said.

As part of the investigation, police have had the WTM office on Van Horne Avenue in Montreal under surveillance. According to the RCMP affidavit, on April 11, 2006, the day after Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced he had put the Tigers on Canada's list of outlawed terrorist organizations, police saw a senior member of the WTM and three others carrying boxes out of the building to a car.

The surveillance team followed the car to a recycling depot, where the suspects put the boxes in a dumpster, the affidavit says.

Police seized the boxes. Inside, they found lists of WTM donors and other financial information as well as Tamil Tigers paraphernalia.

Arguing the WTM was "in the process of getting rid of all evidence linking them to the LTTE," police obtained a warrant and searched the office on April 12.

More than a year later, the investigation is continuing. Crown lawyers have asked a judge to let police continue examining the materials seized during the search. A hearing is scheduled for next week, says National Post concluding its report.

- Asian Tribune -