Why does the LTTE ban need to be removed in Canada?

5 min readMay 17, 2020

Why does the LTTE ban need to be removed in Canada?

The Tamil people of Eelam (aka Sri Lanka) have suffered ongoing persecution and genocide since independence in 1948. After several pogroms, Eelam Tamils democratically decided to create Tamil Eelam to protect themselves from Sri Lanka’s genocide. In 1976, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were created as a military body to protect the Tamil people. A civil war began in 1983. The Tamil Tigers became a strong and effective fighting force.

In 2002, Tamil Tigers (LTTE) entered into a ceasefire agreement with Sri Lanka with Norway’s facilitation and started a peace process while governing the country Tamil Eelam which is North and East of Eelam (aka Sri Lanka). In 2004, they put forward an Interim proposal based on a federal state solution like the one in Canada. Sri Lanka never responded to that proposal.

In 2006, the Canadian government was persuaded to place a terrorist designation on the Tamil Tigers. This had the effect of marginalizing Tamil people in the eyes of the world. When both sides of fighting nations Tamils and Sri Lanka in the peace process, this ban gave a green signal to Sri Lanka to commit further genocide against Tamils and war crimes.

In 2013, former Minister and current premier of Alberta Hon. Jason Kenny said “Canada acted against its own interests by listing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terrorist group in 2006”.

A motion tabled at Ontario parliament in 2018 stated that “The civil war ended in 2009; the Tamil Tigers were completely decimated. There was The terrorist designation is not needed anymore. The Tamil Tigers will never be a fighting force again. The terrorist designation still exists. It is like a black cloud hanging over the heads of Tamils in Canada. It stigmatizes them. It prevents them from publicly mourning and remembering their fallen people at their remembrance services each year. “

In the interests of restoring respect and dignity to the Tamils in Canada, the government of Canada needs to remove the terrorist designation from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Followings are the further reasons:

Over forty thousand Tamil Tigers fallen in the period from 1983 until Mary 2009, and their cemeteries were destroyed by the Sri Lankan regime. Tamils around the world including Canadian Tamils remember them as their heroes. Tamil Canadian view LTTE as freedom fighters and Tamil Eelam government soldiers as they simply implemented a democratic mandate given by Tamils in 1976 by forming the state Tamil Eelam and defended Tamil’s sovereignty. This designation stigmatizes Canadian Tamils and their history.
Enough evidence put forward to UN and world that clearly shows Sri Lanka commited war crimes and genocide against Tamils and there is no implementation of hybrid court (watered down version of International tribunal). Even after ten years, there was no tangible action to correct the mistake. By unfairly putting the ban on LTTE and let Sri Lanka to commit further genocide, simply enabled to China to take full control of Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan regime which is govern by full of war criminals now have no reason to either respect any of UN mandate or listen to west or European nations.
Tamil Tigers (LTTE) started as freedom fight militia in 70s and once they formed Tamil Eelam in early 90s, they became soldiers of Tamil Eelam forming military, naval, police and air forces to defend Tamils, they never returned to gorilla warfare. LTTE stayed as Tamil Eelam government forces until May 2009. They either had intention to return as gorilla warfare or wanted to continue their function abroad. They wanted to provide a clear history to Tamils and the world by completely ending their chapter. By extending a ban on LTTE, Canada simply degrades it’s foreign policy reputation.
Throughout the Eelam Tamil history, the war was between Tamils and genocidal Sri Lanka. After the war ended, Sri Lankan government captured thousands of Tamil Eelam forces as POW, and executed them. In Feb, 2020, “The U.S. State Department’s announcement of a travel ban on Sri Lankan Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, current commander of the Sri Lankan Army and acting chief of the Defense Staff, along with his immediate family, may hold implications for other Sri Lankan leaders who were directly involved in war crimes allegedly ordered by Silva. That includes the country’s current president, Gotabaya “Gota” Rajapaska, who was a U.S. citizen at the time the alleged war crimes took place during the country’s civil war that ended in 2009.”
The Ban also helped Srilanka to prosecute the innocents by the name of terrorists. Preventing diasporas providing financial assistance to war affected people through proper NGO channels. Canadian government provided over hundred million to war affected people in Sri Lanka since 2016 to 2020, however there were only very few Tamil NGOs that received that fund to effectively use it. Moreover, it’s been estimated that only less than 7% of this fund was used for the real needy.
In 2014, The European top court ruled that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers, should be removed from the EU’s terrorism list. The court said that the EU had not produced any evidence to show that there was a risk of the Tamil Tigers carrying out attacks after its military defeat in 2009. In 2019, Switzerland’s Federal Court has ruled that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is not a criminal organisation and that its primary goal was to establish an independent homeland, in a landmark ruling that has seen 12 Swiss Tamils acquitted of charges filed by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). If Tamils file a similar case in Canada, there is more potential that the case can be won.
The only entities that may need this ban are possibly Sri Lankan government and India, both of these nations used Tamil paramilitaries in the past and potentially they can create a paramilitary and name it as LTTE in future. For Tamils, the LTTE is their proud history as they implemented and governed an ethical country Tamil Eelam for at least two decades from 1989 until 2009. Tamil struggle was a legitimate struggle to reclaim their lost sovereignty.
In June 2019, Canadian federal parliamentarians unanimously passed a motion “ d) call upon the United Nations to establish an international, independent investigation into allegations of genocide against Tamils committed in Sri Lanka, including the last phase of the armed conflict in 2009.”. Similar motion also passed by the Northern Provincial council in Eelam in 2015 and called the UN stated that “The case of genocide in Sri Lanka is unique among genocides in history because it occurred over several decades and under different governments”.

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Why does the LTTE ban need to be removed in Canada?

Written by Vel Velauthapillai

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