Fate of ship steered by two forces – Ottawa and Tamil diaspora
by Anthony Reinhart
Almost as soon as the Sun Sea set sail, two Canadas scrambled to respond – and how they get along could decide the fate of hundreds of asylum seekers, present and future.
There was Official Canada – immigration agents, the Navy, politicians – who weighed what to do about the ship that left Thailand in May with up to 500 Sri Lankan Tamils aboard.
And there was Tamil Canada, an obscure but robust public-within-a-public with its own elected officials, social agencies, media and financial outlets – a parallel society built over decades into the largest Tamil diaspora in the Western world.
As Canadian officials kept watch on the British Columbia coast amid fears the defeated Tamil Tigers have chosen this country to revive their separatist cause, Tamil Canada dispatched refugee lawyers and leaders from Toronto, its de facto capital, to handle refugee claims and steer the media to the humanitarian angle.
Tamil Canadians have even enlisted the new Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, elected in April to push from outside for a sovereign Tamil state in Sri Lanka. The TGTE’s two B.C. members have been organizing medical and legal help, children’s aid, counselling, clergy and charitable support, and have consulted Sikh and Chinese immigrant groups for expertise.
As these parallel publics jockey to direct an undeniable human drama, observers worry Official Canada will exploit fears of terrorism to justify a draconian rewrite of refugee policy. Even worse, they fear it will miss the boat on why Tamil Canada came to be in the first place: Sri Lanka’s failure to reconcile with its largest minority.
“The numbers of Tamils leaving Sri Lanka over the last 25 years have ebbed and flowed directly in relation to the human-rights circumstances in the country,” said Sharryn Aiken, associate dean of law at Queen’s University in Kingston and an expert in refugee issues. “When there was a hope for peace, people didn’t leave in the numbers we see right now.”
It’s been more than a year since the Sri Lankan government defeated the Tigers and brought a decisive end to 26 bloody years of civil war. But amid what passes for peace, reports of Tamil mistreatment continue, and the government, despite claims to social democratic principles, has repeatedly rebuffed calls for an independent probe of war crimes alleged on both sides during the conflict.
Instead, Sri Lanka has framed its victory over the Tigers in the post-9/11 vernacular – as a key win in the global war on terror, which brought peace and liberated Tamils, in Sri Lanka and abroad, from the Tigers’ terrorist clutches. By that reckoning, Tamils who still see the need to board a boat and flee, or who lob criticisms from abroad, are equated with terrorists or sympathizers.
As the Sun Sea drifted closer to shore, where the Tigers were banned as a terrorist group by the Conservative government four years ago, there were signs this message was getting some traction in Official Canada.
On Thursday, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said, “While our government believes in offering protection to genuine refugees, it is imperative that we prevent supporters and members of a criminal or terrorist organization from abusing Canada’s refugee system.”
That system, Ms. Aiken said, is already equipped to examine claims and reject them if a person is unsuitable, and “if that boat was used by the Tigers, Canada will figure that out.” Better to focus, she said, on what would push someone to pay a smuggler $45,000 (U.S.) to spend three months at sea for an uncertain shot at a refugee claim.
“If Sri Lanka was making genuine attempts to address the human-rights problems within its borders, I would agree with the cynics,” she said. “But to the extent that it hasn’t, and there’s ongoing, very serious problems in the country, I think we should hold our cynicism in abeyance for the moment.”
Those problems have been documented by respected independent observers, including the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based conflict-prevention body led by retired Canadian jurist Louise Arbour; the United Nations; Human Rights Watch; and most recently by The Elders, a 12-member group of ex-leaders including Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter.
“There has been a deafening global silence in response to Sri Lanka’s actions, especially from its most influential friends,” Mr. Annan said in the group’s Aug. 3 statement. “The international community cannot be selective in its approach to upholding the rule of law and respect for human rights.”
A chronic problem for Tamil Canada is the frequent conflation of its members, most of whom support some form of Tamil independence in Sri Lanka, with the blunt and bloody methods of the Tigers. The now-defeated paramilitary juggernaut took up the separatist cause by force, coerced support from Tamils and even killed moderates who advocated peaceful means.
Fixating on suspicions of Tiger connections to the ship’s passengers, and to the Canadian Tamils waiting to greet them, misses the point that “the Tigers were defeated,” Ms. Aiken said. “They exist, but they’re marginalized, splintered and there have been a whole bunch of new groups emerging,” none of whom have called for a return to armed struggle – yet.
Whether they do, or whether the Tigers die a natural death, depends less on Canada turning back the boats and more on its ability, along with other countries, to press Sri Lanka to address its problems, Ms. Aiken said.
If that happens, “there’s every reason to hope that the Tigers will indeed have bitten the dust,” she said. If not, she predicts rough seas ahead.
“A future generation of militants will be spawned,” Ms. Aiken said, “radicalized by the experience of seeing the international community sit back and do nothing.” - courtesy: The Globe and Mail -
22 Comments
A Man fleeing for his life does not have the Luxury to pick and choose the country he wishes to escape to...
Its AMAZING to see this BOAT full of TERRORISTS try to make port in AUSTRALIA, then failing that they go all the way to CANADA! LOL! why not Indonesia, or Malaysia, or some other Country that is much nearer than Canada??? Why not for that matter TAMIL NADU??? is it because they are so DESPERATE to go to a WHITE COUNTRY that has a better way of life because the reality is they are not fleeing for their lives but using the War to DUPE Western countries into believing they are in DANGER if they stay in Sri Lanka.
Canada is a British Commonwealth country. It has obligations and responsibilities, to fellow citizens of British Commonwealth.
The entire world knows that the Government of Sri Lanka(SL) killed any person from the LTTE barbarously, as they wished, with no respect for any law anywhere.
But according to humanitarian law, the UN charter and International law, the captured LTTE combatants, should have been handed over to the ICRC, as both the GOSL and LTTE admitted the combat as "war".
The passengers in "Sun Sea" should be treated with responsibility by the government of Canada as a UN member and a member of the British Commonwealth.
Canada should allow genuine refugees to be in Canada and be refugees.
If any person is identified as LTTE ex-combatant, the government of Canada should hand them over rightly to the ICRC, to be put in UN refugee camps in countries of their choice.
Canada should responsibly without allowing the evil GOSL to influence it in its decision.
Hi My country man Devinda Fernando
Yes Are DESPERATE to go to a WHITE COUNTRY , where they treat as a human not in your recamadation countries Indonesia, or Malaysia, or some other Country even in Tamil Nadhu ( you how many tamil people taking risk ( SL navy )to return to sri lanka from Tamil nadhu regugees camp).
Yes My Country man We are desparate !!! But We both believe in KARMA !!! as Bhuddha belivers ! We will get our life circle back !!!
Justin
Australia is also a member of the Commonwealth. What's your point ? They saw fit to refuse entry. Why should Canada be compelled to act according to your dictates ?
These "refugess" have paids thousands of $ to smugglers. If they are as oppressed and kept in such poor and barbarous conditions in Sri Lanka, how they can afford such money ?
If their relatives outside are sponsoring them by paying the Human Smugglers then they are circumventing the normal migration process (sponsorship etc) AND contravening the laws of the host country as well as International Law (which you seem so concerned about)
Which is it to be ?
LTTE combatants should be deported back to Sri Lanka to face justice.
Under conditions of "war" then the ICRC may get involved but now it is a case of criminal or war crimes charges for the LTTE combatants since there is no more "war"
You cannot have it both ways. You want GOSL to face war crimes charges but LTTE should not ????
.
It's funny to see when FERNANDO's talking about going by ship to another country far away and about WHITE countries.
First look where you came from?????
:-)
They are not refugees but LTTE hardcores or LTTE operatives stationed in Thailand, Malaysia or in the Far East.
How many people are afford to pay 45,000 dollars and come to Canada from the war torn North and East?
Arrest of Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP made panic of these LTTE operatives and flee Far East in order to avoid the same fate of Kumaran Pathmanathan. KP is now on a PEACE mission and these people afraid to loose the amassed wealth in the name of the Tamil.
These people cannot go to England but can come to Canada because of the Candian "relaxed' laws on refugees. Note that Canada is the only country accept refugees among the G7 countries as part of the immigration!
But these "Holy" refugees, well trained in drug smuggling or credit card frauds, will start the same in Canada too. You cannot see them in any factory as HARD working people!
How can these people afford to pay $45,000.00 each. Is CTC funding the entire operation or have come to an arrangement with the people about paying back the loan the whole operation.
Are these people IDP's from teh barbed wire camps? How did they get out of the Camps. Were government, military officials bribed.
Is this a joint operation between between the spokespersons of the Canadian Tamils and the liberators of the Tamils.
What ever the Canadian Government finds from these desperate person,It should cause anger in the hearts and mind of Canadian to see how these people exploit the peoples desperation.
The Refugee system and the laws are in place in Canada to verify each individual application for refugee status. But what is important is once it is determined that they are not refugees what will happen to them. Will they be allowed to abuse the Canadian Immigration laws and system and be a burden on he Canadian Tax payers. How will Sri Lankan Government deal with them if they are sent back.
The Canadian Government has lots of work to do. I would say that about 90% of the Canadians of Sri Lankan origin either Tamils or Singhalese are refugees. I am a Tamil and I am a refugee. In my life in Canada I know so many Singhalese got refugee status because when these individuals came to this country they were very desperate and hey claimed that they were persecuted because of their relationship with Tamils.
We are not any other country. We are Canadians and I am very proud to be a Canadian.
V. Stanislaus
The half of the SL Tamils living in Canada today,came there as refugees. When the war is on they applied visas through Canadian embassy in SL providing bogus claims about their lives in danger from SL army or police or Discrimination,ill-treatment,media repression etc... And the mostly tamil staff in the Canadian embassy in SL readily available to help them and get the visas as soon as possible because most of them are LTTE sympathisers or in LTTE pay roll.We witness how hard to get a visa to a Sinhalese to come to Canada because of these tamil staff working there.
Now the defeated terrorists coming to Canada from ships and tamil H/R lawyers,sympathisers waiting in British Colombia shore to receive them.And these ships bought by tamil diaspora's money collected by LTTE organisations must hand over to SL authorities.
I think Canadian authorities pretty soon be ready to give one province to tamils and later Tamils can establish their own Tamil Ealam there annexing few more provinces.
Davinda
You come out as a sinhalese who is jelouse of any tamil doing well
To #2 Justin....
"The entire world knows that the Government of Sri Lanka(SL) killed any person from the LTTE barbarously, as they wished, with no respect for any law anywhere."
Justin, where do you live? Do you read other news/articles about how Sl government treat/resettle/rehabilitate LTTE members?
These are either
- terrorists who are escaping the law of the land
- economic refugees who wants to find green pastures
As Devinda says, why can't they go to the closest country, India where 60 million Tamils live?
One day, ~ 10 years down the road, Canadians will realize how their hospitality was misused and Canadian system was taken advantage of, when these Tamils folks as for a separate "homeland" right here in Toronto!
Devinda,
Do you know there are many people from your Sinhalese community has sought asylum in contries like Canada, United States, Denmark and Australia?
What type of discrimination or fear for life they faced in a country, which you proudly say thay majority Sinhalese are the owners of it?
During your war with LTTE, your so called here was declaring your forces killed most of the LTTE fighters and there were only 2,000 of them left to be killed. But at the end of the war, your forces captured 12,000 LTTE fighters and they are still in SLG custody.
How come you now suggest that these asylum seekers are LTTE terrorists?
choelan,
dont worry, devinda fernando come from tipical sinhala . he is good in singlish, thats all. singlish are the problem in srilanka.
To suggest the 500 in the ship are LTTE terrorists is akin to saying all Vietnamese fleeing in their boats years ago were all Viet Cong. There are many children, middle aged and old women and old men in this ship who had chosen to risk their lives at sea because things at home were intolerable.
As many of them will plead "it is better to die than live like this" Both the State and the LTTE have made it so. Canada has the skill and the administrative expertise to choose between the wheat and the chaf here. The Canadian Govt has been reasonable, humane and has met her commitments to international protocols with responsibility. I am sure in this case it will be no different.
To our friends from "the other side" in the Island, let me remind them there were similar attempts by Sinhalese to feel the country as well - some of which received wide media publicity - although living and security conditions in the Western Province from which these people tried to go abroad are relatively better.
Why are our people - from both sides of the divide - risking the lives of their children, families and men to leave the country in the past few years and certainly not in the 1950s to 1980s is a question we must examine outside
racial and other prejudice. While doing so, let us also remember the more fortunate ones - with the right connections - have also found new homes in Canada, the USA, Europe, Australia and other places with their Green Cards,
PRs etc - all because we have virtually destroyed the country.
ISS
the tamil were NOT purveyors of international terror, but, merely a minority that saw itself as "abused", and attempted to achieve an independant state for themselves on the island of ceylon.. ethnicity-based struggle is pretty much a historical staple of india, since she gained independance from britain.. it seems most reasonable for refugees to flee, now that their struggle is lost, and they will undoubtedly face the same discriminations at the hands of the sinhalese majority that sparked the struggle to begin with.. i dont find the display of "tiger" flags among protesters any more disquieting than say, the fairly common display of confederate flags by locals here in south florida... sympathy for a political struggle is NOT indicative of radicalism, on its face alone
Paying $ 45k............ someone has taken them to be absolute stephen Suckers........
This 'vagrant' Diasspora contributions in private hands.
Canada..... How great thou art !!!!!!!! how great thou art !!!!!!!!!!!
Wait, there are more to come, please have patience. Thanks for accepting them. Kindly treat them well.
No attempts by Sinhalayas to sabotage.
Do you want another situation to help scores of exodus to Canada to assist them seek greener pastures???
.
Good Hygene is very important.
Canadawata.... Jayawewa.............. We'll send many more.............
Pls ladies and gentlemen let them go where ever they want to go these are trouble makers if we keep in our soil so pls keep quite and let them deal with it
During the time of UNP, both LTTE and UNP worked hand in hand to kill more Tamils for their "instructions" from the West.
Tamil areas were the theatre of the war. Many thousands Tamils fled. Some endedup in India and in other countries.
Better pastures is the goal of any one. Those LTTE operatives amassed millions from those REFUGEES. Now the WAR is over. LTTE operatives have no choice but to flee to a SAFE heaven.
Many LTTE operatives now negoatiate with SL government. How? For example former head of the World Tamil Movement of Canada, Mr. Perinpanayakam was in Colombo and praised the government.
Fleeing for life is a bogus reason at the current situation. They flee because they are afraid to face the Sri lankan authorites because the LTTE men in the custody of SL government will identify those LTTE operatives who are in Thailand or anywhere.
But Canada will recieve many ship loads of LTTE. Human smugglers are very active because this is the last chance for their "Business".
These "refugees" will be a "threat" to the Tamils already live in Canada and not to others.
*** where they treat as a human not in your recamadation countries Indonesia, or Malaysia, or some other Country even in Tamil Nadhu ***
Darling Andy,
Some INCONVENIENT FACTS for you to chew over…..
Malaysia has a decent and large population of Tamils, they are not discriminated against and enjoy the recognition of their language and religions, far more than Australia or Canada does, (yet not as much as the recognition that Sri Lanka does).
Singapore too, which has Tamil as an official language, and even right now has a Tamil Prime Minister (S.R. Nathan).
And TAMIL NADU….are you kidding me? What place could be more favorable to TAMILS than Tamil Nadu???? It is 65 Million of your people in a State that does everything possible to be as TAMIL as possible! Why would a Tamil prefer to go anywhere other than TAMIL NADU????? It should be Every Tamil’s WET DREAM to end up there,… A LAND FULL of TAMILS…. Where you are the Overwhelming Majority, and all your preferences in Religion, language and Culture are at the foremost of the agenda!
Face the FACTS, Tamils on that boat are not FLEEING for their LIVES as they claim, but are EXPLOITING the LAX CANADIAN REFUGEE LAWS to gain access to WHITE country that is far more economically Beneficial yet gives them nothing in terms of Political or Ethnic recognition…. Thus proving that Tamils are not really interested in their own Political or Ethnic Recognition as they claim to be fighting for since they are so willing to SELL-OUT these so called values for an opportunity to earn Hard currency.
*** First look where you came from***
Aratai, I’m from Negombo.
*** Do you know there are many people from your Sinhalese community has sought asylum in contries like Canada, United States, Denmark and Australia? ***
Yes Choelan, I am aware,… but can you please tell me what that has to do with TAMIL BOGUS ASYLUM SEEKERS pretending to be FLEEING FOR THEIR LIVES, and skipping near by countries to travel half way across the globe to reach Canada?
*** You come out as a sinhalese who is jelouse of any tamil doing well ***
Oh Shasha, please don’t get me wrong… I want these Boat Donkeys to get into Canada or wherever they chose to go… I am all for them getting into their country of choice… Lord knows we certainly don’t want them back here! The more who leave our country the merrier I say! The last thing we want is for them to return to Sri Lanka and have our Tax Payers foot the Bill for these people to be Married, Educated, and given FREE HOUSING as seems to be the STANDARD PACKAGE offered to TAMIL TERRORISTS who were unable to “Achieve Eelam” on the Battlefield last May.
I was merely pointing out the HILARITY of the fact that they are claiming to be FLEEING FOR THEIR LIVES from Sri Lanka risking Months at sea when they could have simply hoped over to Neighboring TAMIL-FRIENDLY countries within a day or two.
One has to see two pictures to see the difference between the canadian forces and the Sri Lanka forces. The Canadian officers were holding umberellas to a boy and a lady while they disembark from the ship. We all knew and sow how the fleeling Vanni Tamil folks were treated by the Sri Lanka forces. The Canadian officers were holding umberellas to non Canadians even after so much of terroist propaganda. That is the way Canadian officers were trained. On the same way the Sri Lanka Securiry forces behaved the way they were trained to treat Tamils. It is no wonder that Tamils and Sinhalese sought asylum in Canada and not a single soul sought asylum in Sri Lanka.
I was dismayed listening to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews - whose comments appeared to be directed at the officials in the line tasked to determine if these refugees should be allowed in or not. He certainly did not hold the scales even when he said "this particular situation is being watched by others who may have similar intentions..." Mr. Toews is not, one hopes, generalising a human tragedy of unprecedented proportions that pricked the conscience of almost the entire world with that of a few cases of isolated professional human smugglers, who, at any rate, get their "merchandise" past the various porous borders - sometimes with inside help. This has been been going on for much longer before Lankan Tamils went to Canada in numbers.
ISS
So Devinda Fernando is from Negombo. Nowe we understand a little more why he speaks the invective of the late KMP Rajaratne (Konar Rajaratna, that is) and Cyril Mathew - the Keralite from the tree-climbing geneology. The man (DF), who obviously has an inclination to read, must delve into the writings of Prof Stanley Tambiah (Harvard) and Jehan Perera - alumni from the same University both of whom have convincingly traced the history of many Negomba Sinhalese of today - who were in fact Tamils from the fishing littoral in the North East.
So go easy on your anti-Tamil acerbic in the future, man. It is not the done thing for a human being to work for the destruction of your own people - thambi.
ISS
Some commentators here and in other articles wonder why Tamils in Ealam prefer
to flee to western countries rather than to Tamil Nadu, where they can live free and enjoy their culture etc... The reason is Tamil Nadu is not free and
ttheir Chief is controlled by the the Centre, who aided and abetted the Sl regime in destroying Ealam Tamils, along with other powerful (but rouge) countries.
And the geneology of many of such commentators can be traced to the neighbouring country, who are now assimilated with the majority, and try to outsmart the genuine singhalese, because of their inferiority complex.
Rajan.