Sri Lankan High Commission Accused of Blocking Tamil Canadian Event

On his way to pick up groceries from a market, Jit Kunam’s uncle was killed. It was an aerial bombardment that took his life.

Jit Kunam, an engineering student at Carleton University, says the loss of his uncle “was really shocking.” But over the years, Kunam says he has lost other relatives as well as his “close friends, who (he) studied with in Sri Lanka” from the on-going civil war that has already claimed 75 thousand lives over the past 18 years.

The Sri Lankan civil war involves the two main ethnic groups, the majority Sinhalese and the Tamils. The Tamils see the civil war as a struggle against national oppression with the goal to establish an independent nation, while the Sinhalese view the war as a terrorist rebellion.

Kunam says he believes remembering all those people who have died is important. “It’s sharing our grief with others. We want to say that we still feel and we want to share our thoughts.”

But for Tamils in Ottawa, this year’s Remembrance Day was nearly cancelled because of a letter from the Sri Lankan High Commission to the Ottawa-Carleton school board, whose facilities were being used to host the annual event.

The Academic Society of Tamil Students (ACTS) was responsible for organizing the Remembrance Day that was to be held at Woodroffe High School. Other Tamil organiza­tions, including the World Tamil Movement (WTM), decided to support the event. It was the involvement of the WTM in the Remembrance Day ceremony that sparked the contro­versy.

Mohan Samarasinghe, a consular official of the Sri Lankan High Commission, explains, “The WTM has been designated as a front organization (for) the LTTE (Liberation of Tamil Tigers Eelam) by the government of Canada and the LTTE has been recognized by the government of Canada as a terrorist organization.”

“Many flyers (were) distributed in Ottawa saying this event was being organized by the WTM,” says Samarasinghe. “That is what prompted us to look at the issue and make rep­resentation to the school board seeing it was being held in a public school.”

However, not everyone agrees with the High Commission’s position. WTM was listed on the 1999 US list as a front for the Tamil Tigers, which is updated every two years. The organization was removed from the 2001 US listings. Kunam says he is frustrated that no one in the school board confirmed the information the High Commission gave them.

“US hasn’t listed (the WTM), Canada hasn’t listed it, even the UN doesn’t list,” says Kunam. “The school board never cross checked it. (The High Commission) says (the WTM) is listed, but where is it listed? Nobody knows.”

Because of the High Commission’s letter, the school board decided to cancel ACTS’ per­mit to hold the event and left them scrambling for another location. Arularasy Singam, Vice-President of ACTS, says she was angered by the near cancellation.

“We had booked the Woodroffe High School for the 25^th of November, (the Sri Lankan Remembrance Day),” says Singam. “We booked it two months back. It was on Friday, the 23^rd, (the school board) called us and told us that they had to cancel it because they received an e-mail from the Sri Lankan High Commission that our group was linked to ter­rorist organizations so they won’t be able to provide us” with the facilities.

ACTS managed to book the MacNabb Community Centre instead but were unable to inform all the anticipated attendees about the change in venue.

“We had been preparing for about two months,” says Singam. “Our members were going door to door and giving out flyers and we were expecting a lot of people” to attend the event. But, because ACTS had to change locations just a couple days before it was to be held, Singam says that many people missed out.

Samarasinghe says he feels badly that “the two main communities of Sri Lanka that are established in Canada do not see eye to eye on many issues.” Yet, he says he believed it was important to warn the school board.

“The LTTE is responsible for a war in Sri Lanka,” says Samarasinghe. When “the WTM engages in fundraising for the LTTE, it is of tremendous importance to the government of Sri Lanka. When the WTM organizes events which could also be used for this purpose,” the Sri Lankan High Commission believed it necessary to get involved.

Yet, David Gunalan, 29, representative of the WTM, states that they are not a front for the LTTE. “I won’t call the WTM a front for the LTTE. I don’t know the evidence supplied for them arriving at that conclusion.”

Gunalan says the WTM’s only involvement in the Remembrance Day was in the form of support. “We reinstated the event by saying yes, there is an event being organized by this student group and we support and we invite people to attend since we share the same val­ues.”

As for the WTM fundraising for the LTTE, Gunalan says that is a misrepresentation. “Our main goal is to help the people back home in Sri Lanka and specially the areas where there is a lack of medical supplies.” Tamil Canadians “generously contribute and the WTM sort of act as the organization that collects and coordinates” these contributions.

Gunalan says he believes the larger issue is the Sri Lankan High Commission interfering in the Remembrance Day.

Although “I don’t understand every protocol of an embassy,” says Gunalan. “I feel my rights’ve been violated that a Canadian event can be stopped or manipulated by a foreign embassy.”

Carl Schwenger, Spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs, says, “it’s interna­tionally recognized that embassies are not to meddle in the internal affairs of the country but at the same time are responsible for putting across the positions of their government.”

“If these people were Canadian citizens, a Canadian organization that wanted to conduct some type of public event, then I don’t think the Sri Lankan High Commission should have taken on the role to censor anyone,” says Schwenger. “But, at the same time I would argue that they have a right to express an opinion.”

Jeanne Laux, professor of political science at the University of Ottawa, says the Sri Lan­kan High Commission involvement seems outside the responsibilities of a High Commis­sion. “Normally in diplomacy it is not for the diplomats to pronounce in any way on the internal affairs” of another country.

Yet, Laux says, since September 11th “there may be protocols that we don’t know about that have been signed by CSIS or DFAIT” to coordinate security and foreign intelligence between governments. “This interference may be condoned by the security environment.”

The new security environment saw the creation of the list of international terrorist. The list was put in place by the UN and recognized by many countries, including Canada.

Jean-Michel Catta, Spokesperson for the Minister of Finance, explains the need for a list of terrorist groups. “It is essentially a part of Canada’s anti-terrorist plan and in the wake of September 11th, people have become more concerned and they have demanded that they are safe and (that) their security is ensured.”

Such a list frustrates Singam because she feels it can be used as a tool to manipulate peo­ple. “After September eleventh,” Singam says, “Whenever a government says terrorism, everyone is listening to them” but they don’t know “what is really going on in Sri Lanka, they just listen to whatever the government says.”

For Singam, the LTTE are not terrorists, even though their struggle involves arms. “In my view, LTTE are freedom fighters, they fight for the rights of Tamil people.”

Kunam agrees. “As far as I’m concerned the Tigers, they are freedom fighters.” But Kunam adds, “if they are involved in any Human Rights violations I would strongly con­demn that too.”

However, the Canadian government doesn’t differentiate between a freedom fighter and a terrorist. Catta says terrorists are simply defined as “groups or individuals that use vio­lence and unlawful means to achieve their goals.”

Ultimately, Catta says, the list is an important aid. “If there are indeed terrorists in this country,” finding them and preventing them from “funding terrorists activities ensures the security of Canadians.”

Kunam says the “LTTE are not a threat to Canada, they have never been a threat to any­body” here. “At the end of the day, we are Canadians,” says Kunam. “We just wanted to celebrate (Remembrance Day) –that’s all – we are not here on a collision course with Can­ada.”

For Gunalan, Remembrance Day “was very sentimental and important.” The interference of the Sri Lankan High Commission, for him, only “opened a lot of old wounds.”

“I saw those people being killed (in Sri Lanka) and when I personally had to get into bun­kers to save myself, there I felt (my rights were) violated,” says Gunalan. “Finally, I decided that it’s enough of it and let’s get out of here and luckily made it to Canada.”

After the High Commission sent the letter, Gunalan says he “felt the same way” as when he was in Sri Lanka “disgusted, helpless, violated.”