As published in The Island, September 07, 2015

I always wanted to represent Sri Lanka because Sri Lankans lived in Sri Lanka and people who lived in Canada were Sri Lankan Canadians to me. That too those who wanted to have connections with Sri Lanka. Some who became Canadians were not interested in dealing with us. But, our doors were open for them if they needed our services. I hated and strongly disapproved when certain elements tried to describe all Tamils as LTTE. The LTTE too tried to portray it. It was wrong. I had to counter it hard and strong that we were fighting terrorism and not a certain community.

Wherever, I went I related the story on my interview with late Sarojini Yogeswaran , Mayoress of Jaffna who was brutally assassinated by the LTTE a week after my interview with her on Rupavahini. She told me before the interview ” Son, don’t ask me certain questions that I cannot answer. I am under threat from the LTTE” Within one week of that interview she was killed by the LTTE.

Heavy media battles ensued in Toronto and I had to counter and fight it all. Thankfully the National Post and Globe and Mail gave me their space unlike the Pro LTTE Toronto Star which I had to really fight to give the side of Sri Lanka. I wrote the following to Globe and Mail under ‘Sri Lanka and Democracy’ – ” I have received many complaints from frightened Sri Lankan Tamil/Canadians on how they are being harassed by the LTTE in Toronto and the surrounding area. Though more and more Sri Lankan Tamils and Sri Lankan Canadian Tamils have begun to oppose and stand up against the extortion and harassment meted out to them by LTTE front organisations in Toronto, many still live in fear because these front groups threaten to harm relatives in Sri Lanka. Many of them are forced to take part in demonstrations against Sri Lanka, including ladies and children. I wonder how many Canadians, including Bob Rae (Rae was a Premier of Ontario and later Shadow Foreign Minister of the Liberal Party and a critic of Sri Lanka) are aware of the LTTE’s Grandma Brigade, where they train grandmothers to use weapons. If Mr Rae, for whom we have great respect, and his colleagues were to tell the LTTE groups and supporters ” Stop raising funds here. Force your leader to end terrorism in Sri Lanka” It would help bring peace, and the model democracy in Sri Lanka would flourish”

I responded to Conservative newcomer Chuck Konkel who tried to play politics with the Sri Lankan issue to gain votes for him in Canada in the National Post because he wanted sanctions imposted on Sri Lanka. I wrote under the heading ‘The Tigers are terrorists. Period – ” It is time that people such as Chuck Konkel, who hopes to run for the Conservatives in the federal riding of Scarborough – Guildwood, to stop playing politics with Sri Lanka and the innocent people living there, purely to obtain votes in Canada. Outsiders who try to present action plans on Sri Lanka should instead look within themselves. Sri Lanka has suffered long enough due to the terrorist activities of the LTTE one of the most ruthless terrorist outfits in the world today. LTTE and its sympathisers have been raising funds in Canada and other countries to support their terrorist activities. While we thank Prime Minister Stephen Harper ( Harper did not play politics with the Sri Lankan issue at the time) for listing the LTTE as a terrorist organisation , some politicians are still misled by the LTTE and their front groups”

Konkel or let me say Reverend Konkel who later met me at a function extended his hand to me and apologised for his utterances. I was happy he did.

In an Editorial Page COUNTERPOINT in the National Post I counted one of the ardent supporters of the LTTE in Toronto , Manjula Selvarajah under the heading . ‘ Let’s be clear- Tamil Tigers are the terrorists in Sri Lanka’

” I read with both amusement and sadness the column by Manjula Selvarajah in yesterday’s National Post “(Sri Lanka has failed to protect all its citizens”) Ms Selvarajah is a misguided Sri Lankan living in Canada. One cannot compare the democratically elected government of Sri Lanka to a ruthless organisation such as the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) which has killed thousands of innocent Sri Lankan Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims, Malays and Burghers. The Tigers are also responsible for murdering democratically elected Sri Lankan Tamil leaders such as foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, deputy secretary general of the peace secretariat Ketheesh Loganathan, Jaffna mayor Sarojini Yogeswaran and minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle.

More than 60 % of Sri Lankan Tamils today live peacefully among the Sri Lankan Sinhalese. Democratic Tamil United Liberation Front leader V.Anandasangaree cannot even go to his constituency office since the Tigers threatened his life. Another Sri Lankan Tamil minister, Douglas Devananda, has escaped nearly 13 assassination attempts by the LTTE. It is not the Sri Lankan government that poses a threat to Sri Lankan Tamils, but terrorists who claim to speak for them and then resort to brutal violence when Sri Lankan Tamils dare to say otherwise.

I totally and categorically deny Ms. Selvarajah`s allegation that the government of Sri Lanka is responsible for widespread abductions and disappearances in the country. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is a campaigner for human rights. It is the LTTE which is trying to do such things in the face of defeat and to discredit not only the government of Sri Lanka but the people of Sri Lanka as well.

Sri Lanka will always stand by its people and will protect its citizens against all odds. The world must realize that Sri Lanka is fighting the most ruthless separatist group, one that pioneered suicide bombings and has used pregnant women to carry out such terrorist acts.

In her column, Ms. Selvarajah does not mention the killing of Tamils. She does not explain why the LTTE was occupying the 400-year-old sacred Madhu shrine, sacred for all Catholics in Sri Lanka.

I would ask Ms. Selvarajah and the Canadian Tamil Congress to join together with all Sri Lankans and pressure the LTTE to end its terrorist war and to help the government of Sri Lanka liberate thousands of innocent Tamils from the clutches of the LTTE. Misleading the people in Canada and the rest of the world about the nature of the Tamil Tigers and their ruthless quest for power while sitting comfortably in Canada helps no one. Ms. Selvarajah would serve Canada and Tamils living here better by being honest and working to ensure Tamil Canadians are not harassed and threatened by Tiger supporters trying to extort money out of them to finance terrorism by the LTTE in Sri Lanka”

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