US declares war on terrorism while Suicide Tiger killers roam free in Canada

Topic started by Rg (@ proxy2.uq.edu.au) on Mon Sep 24 04:55:51 .
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US declares war on terrorism while Suicide Tiger killers roam free in Canada

Sept 22, CP-FEATURE

The death knell for global terrorism has been clearly sounded.

US President George W. Bush told Congress, the US and the world Thursday night that the US effort to fight terrorism will not cease "until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated." In his hard-hitting speech, he said that the global outreach of terrorist networks include thousands of operatives in more than 60 countries.

"Freedom and fear are at war," he said. But he was never firmer. "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," he told an attentive global audience.

Sri Lanka, a country torn apart by terrorism as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) drained the blood of its youth and devastated its property and wealth over the past eighteen years, is obviously at the forefront of the war against terrorism.

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge in her message to President Bush said, "Sri Lanka stands fully committed to support all international initiatives in pursuit of this objective."

Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in his message to Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "The time has come for the international community to close ranks and to take practical and meaningful action to eradicate terrorism. Sri Lanka as always stands ready to work closely with the United States and the rest of the international community towards the realisation of this objective."

With the horrifying images of suicide killers ramming planes into the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC fresh in mind, global attention is naturally focused on suicide bombers and suicide killers and how they breed.

Enter the Tamil Tigers as the most notorious of suicide killers in the world.

Terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna identifies 10 groups actively using suicide as a weapon: two centered in Israeli-occupied lands, two in Egypt and one each in Lebanon, Algeria, India, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Afghanistan.

However, two-thirds of global suicide attacks have been committed not by fundamentalists but by the Tamil Tigers. The latest attack against Sri Lanka's Navy was the 66th high-profile suicide bombing carried out by the Tamil Tigers, when they launched a sea-borne suicide attack against a ship ferrying some 1,200 government troops. In June this year, the LTTE's clandestine Voice of Tigers radio said 217 suicide bombers known as "Black Tigers" were among some 17,211 of their fighters who have died since the first terrorist was killed in November 1982. The LTTE's first suicide bombing was staged by a Tamil Tiger known as Captain Miller who drove a truck packed with explosives into an army camp at Nelliyadi in the Jaffna peninsula on July 5, 1987, killing himself and 39 soldiers.

The LTTE has made suicide bombing an article of faith, with the Black Tigers the most honoured members of the organisation, entitled to one last meal with Prabhakaran himself before setting out on their missions. LTTE motivation for suicide attacks seems to be a kind of en masse cult hysteria as it consciously cultivates rituals like Martyr's Week, promoting a cult of martyrdom, building of special cemeteries, naming weapons after Black Tigers - in short, promising honour after death. This is attractive to those who have nothing to gain in life and with most Tamil Tigers being from lower middle class backgrounds, they easily accept such propaganda.

Another powerful motivation for the LTTE's suicide cadre is an ideology that judiciously uses symbols rooted in Tamil myth, such as the tiger which is the symbol of a favourite Tamil god Murugan.

Thus, they have nearly perfected this inhuman act by invoking martyrdom and recognition by God, if they killed and somehow brought God’s blessings into the act.

From another perspective, how do suicide terrorists like the LTTE survive without international support? The sad truth is there are countries that still harbour such terror groups.

As Richard Perle, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defence, says, "Those countries that harbour terrorists -- that provide the means with which they would destroy innocent civilians -- must themselves be destroyed. The war against terrorism is about the war against those regimes. We will not win the war against terror by chasing individual terrorists... It is the networks that send young men on suicide missions and their sponsors that must be destroyed."

The US banned the LTTE as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in October 1997. In February 2001, the UK followed suit. The LTTE is also proscribed in Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia.

Canada, however, is a country that has refused to listen.

Recently, in the Canadian parliament, Alliance MPs accused the Liberals of having been soft on terrorism and allowing front organizations of terrorists like the Tamil Tigers to operate and fundraise in Canada, fearing that cracking down on them would offend supporters in ethnic communities.

The 1999 United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism calls on states "to take steps to prevent and counteract, through appropriate domestic measures, the financing of terrorists and terrorist organizations."

Canada signed the UN convention in February 2000 but the required Criminal Code amendments have not come forth. The Canadian Jewish Congress last February called on Canada to implement the convention. "Denying international terrorism its crucial financial lifelines is a key way to throttle it. The U.S. and U.K. already have outlawed terrorist fundraising. Canada, unfortunately, has yet to follow suit."

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has repeatedly raised a warning flag about terrorist fundraising activities on Canadian soil. For instance, Canada has the largest population of Sri Lankan Tamils outside Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers are believed to raise anywhere from $1 million to $20 million a year within its expatriate community.

A senior Canadian Cabinet minister, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned that failure to harmonize Canada's immigration, customs and security laws soon -- including deportation procedures for refugee claimants with proven terrorist links -- could bring serious economic repercussions.

However, this week, Canadian Justice Minister Anne McLellan said a new anti-terrorism law is on its way in Canada after last week's attacks in the US, and the government may seek to revisit a Supreme Court case involving the deportation of suspected terrorists. New legal measures will "strike at the heart" of terrorist fundraising capabilities, the Minister said.

"Terrorism has a certain similarity to organized crime. What fuels it is money. And therefore what we have to do is strike at the ability of terrorist organizations to raise money," she said.

The federal government's first priority is to be new legislation allowing it to implement the 1999 United Nations convention which Canada has yet to ratify by making it a crime for people to knowingly fund terrorism.

Stockwell Day, the Canadian Alliance leader, repeated calls for tougher laws, including one to speed up the deportation of undesirables, even if they might face the death penalty in their homelands. The Alliance is also urging the government to name terrorist groups, seize their assets, ban fundraising and extradite anybody charged with terrorist offences. "The war against terrorism begins here, at home, in Canada," Mr. Day said.

The high court is expected to rule this fall on the fate of two suspected terrorists, Manickavasagam Suresh and Mansour Ahani, who argue they will be tortured if sent home to Sri Lanka and Iran, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Tami Tigers continue to fundraise on Canadian soil. Adiyar Vipulananda, a Hindu spiritual leader in Scarborough, furiously opposes aggressive fundraising tactics by Tamil Tigers in temples. However, opposition only brought him death threats. Many others like him want the Tigers out of the temples, he said, but are afraid of retaliation and believe the police cannot protect them. Tamil Tigers "misuse the freedom of Canada," he said.

"The LTTE raises money through drug trafficking. It also raises money by relying upon the willing or unwilling expatriate communities abroad, such as the large number of Tamil refugees in Canada," government lawyers wrote in a recent deportation case.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service suspects that some of those donations come from organizations that show up at temple events to take donations and sell LTTE goods such as flags.

The newest twist in the Tamil Tiger suicide tale seems to be a desire to be hired killers. Some months ago Tamil Tigers were contracted to kill the Bangladeshi Prime Minister. The Uttar Pradesh government issued a high alert when intelligence reports revealed that two Tamil Tigers, one of them a France-based member of a suicide squad, were planning to sneak into the state to kill prominent political personalities. LTTE suicide bombers were to be paid $ 10 million rather than assign the French for half the amount. The logic was that the LTTE was more dependable and leaves behind no clues.

"There is no perfect security, just as there is no perfect intelligence," said David Harris, a former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

What is more difficult to guard against than those who view sacrificial death as their ticket to heaven? Who more difficult to convince than those who embrace terrorists as freedom fighters?

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