Since the ethnic Tamil minority in Sri Lanka began their terrorist campaign for independence in 1983 from the majority Sinhalese population, Tamil financing has predominately come from the estimated 800,000 Tamils living abroad, specifically in Canada , Australia , and elsewhere. During the two decade-long terrorist and guerrilla campaign, the Tamil Diaspora has provided up to $150 million annually to finance the armed struggle for independence. Throughout this time, an estimated 65,000 Sri Lankan citizens have lost their lives, and at least 1.6 million have been displaced. Although international governments have long regarded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terrorist organization, the Canadian government has only now recognized the Tigers as a terrorist organization, thereby making it illegal for Canadians to support?financially or otherwise?the Tigers.
The Tamil Tigers have long depended on the financial contributions made by both Tamil expatriates and narcotics trafficking to finance their terrorist attacks, and they have used generous donations to equip the Black Tigers?the group’s elite suicide bombing squad ?and to create a sophisticated naval force known as the Sea Tigers. Throughout their existence, the LTTE have perpetrated several spectacular suicide attacks, including the assassinations of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 by a woman and of President Premadasa of Sri Lanka (Terrorist Incident forthcoming). The LTTE has often used teenagers wrapped in explosives and indoctrinated in LTTE ideology to perpetrate suicide attacks, demonstrating the craven nature of the Tigers.
Internationally, the Tigers have forged close connections to terrorist groups such as Hamas , Hizballah , the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) , and al-Qaeda . The Tigers have transferred weapons from al-Qaeda and its various affiliates in Pakistan to the Abu Sayyaf Group in the Philippines . Although the Tigers lack shared political or ideological beliefs with the groups they do business with, a growing level of cooperation and assistance has been well documented by Rachel Ehrenfeld, author of “Funding Evil”. LTTE members have been arrested in India , Australia, the UK , France , Germany , Canada, and the US for drug trafficking. Rand Beers, former Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Tigers have extensive ties with drug trafficking networks in Burma and have assisted in the transportation of the country’s massive heroin enterprise. Such examples illustrate the transnational nature of the Tigers and the inherent threat the group poses not only to South East Asia but to the rest of the world. Simply identifying the Tigers as a localized separatist group is incorrect, as the linkages between the Tigers and other transnational terrorist organizations that have openly declared war upon the West is evident.
Canada’s liberal asylum laws are internationally beneficial in that they allow persecuted communities to seek safety within its border while potentially posing a threat to several countries, including the US. Several internationally recognized terrorist groups actively fundraise among the immigrant communities in Canada with expatriate contributions to terrorist organizations recognized as a significant source of funding for groups, including the Tigers. Canada’s Security Intelligence Service has repeatedly recommended that the Canadian government ban the group in accordance with the Anti-Terrorism Act but have been rebuffed on several occasions.
Since 9/11 , the international community has attempted to curtail the financing of transnational terrorist organizations through a variety of means. However, without a coherent and synchronized approach by national governments, eliminating nefarious financing activities will prove futile. Although the recent decision by the newly elected Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is encouraging, the Canadian government’s approach in curtailing and eliminating the activities of transnational terrorist groups within its borders is disheartening and could prove harmful if any of the groups attempt to perpetrate a large scale attack in the US via the US-Canadian border .
