Arms Purchase: Poopalapillai disowns his predecessor in the CTC

August 24, 2006 @Subidcham.de

Those enthusiastic about the LTTE should seek Wanni “citizenship” and give their shoulders to their terrorist leaders instead of being a bad example to a new generation of young Sri Lankan Canadians. They could seek help from Canada Immigration to deport them.

Siva Sunderam in Toronto and Raja Segaran in New York

The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) spokesperson David Poopalapillai, said that he did not know Sahilal Sabaratnam who was listed in 2005 in a press release as the director of communications of CTC. Sabaratnam was one of the three Canadians of Sri Lankan origin who were arrested in the US three days ago on charges related to purchase of arms for the LTTE and bribing US bureaucrats for certain favours that involved illegal activities. Poopalapillai who lent vociferous objections to Canada’s ban of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam along with his CTC colleagues, went to the extent of saying that he didn’t think any Sri Lankans in Canada would knowingly contribute support to the rebel group meaning the LTTE.

His assertion is strange indeed. He belongs to a small group of people heading the CTC who are exceptionally enthusiastic – or perhaps who were until two days ago – actively supportive of the LTTE in Canada. If ever a caterpillar gets close to a fire it wriggles in agony and in view of the arrests made in the US and Canada, David Poopalapillai’s predicament is understandable. A person like him who was on the forefront of promoting LTTE interests in Canada should have the guts to stand up to his commitment.

They say cowards die a thousand times.

Poopalapillai chose to run away from his native Batticaloa in the east of Sri Lanka just like thousands of Tamils for reasons of atrocities not only by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces but also the LTTE; may be more because of the latter. Poopalapillai may have had his own reasons for fleeing from Sri Lanka but now that the LTTE is becoming exposed as a terrorist risk in any country, an outfit that he and his CTC colleagues support so vigorously, where will he seek his refuge now?

In the days and weeks to come many like Poopalapillai will disown the LTTE and even claim that they were always against this terror group. Some if not many of the Tamil tabloids that unashamedly supported the LTTE may even fold up for good and that goes for CMR/TVI, Geetavani, AM1430 and the CTR as well.

The CMR/TVI even if it continues to exist will have to send to the meadows its political analyst S Thiruchelvam and his colleagues who have been experts at misinformation and therefore mischief. The Mullakkam tabloid will have to accept the reality that the world was not created on the day Prabhakaran was born.

As far as the 84-paged advertising trash Uthayan and others are concerned, the least said is better because already they are consigned to the garbage before they are read. Strangely during the last few days Tamils in Toronto were only reading the English dailies The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The National Post and The Sun which indicates their hunger for reliable news. Unfortunately a good number of Canadian Tamils do not have the skill to read English and they remain victims of hyenas that Tamil tabloids are!

It is a well known fact that Canada has been the largest source of funds for the LTTE and these were raised mainly through dubious means, threats and extortion. The Human Rights Watch Report which David Poopalapillai bitterly denounced along with his CTC colleagues Nehru Guna, Gukan Sriskantharajah President Sitha Sithampalam of the World Tamil Movement, Harini Sivalingam and others indicated the extent to which the LTTE, its agents and several other organizations raised massive funds.

Commenting on the efforts to obtain arms, FBI special agent Leslie G. Wiser Jr. said that the attempted buy was considerable. "They tried to purchase ten SA-18 shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and at least 500 AK-47 assault weapons."

Some of the accused also face charges of attempting to bribe U.S. federal officials into getting the Tigers removed from the government's list of terrorist organizations, and with trying to obtain classified information.

The three Canadians of Sri Lankan origin who were arrested in the U.S. last week have been identified as Sathajhan Sarachandran, Sahilal Sabaratnam and Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam; they range in age from 26 to 37.

Several Tamil establishments have been registered as non-profit organizations in Canada only to raise funds for the LTTE. Reports following the arrests made in the US and Canada reveal how funds collected in Canada are used in the purchase of arms for the LTTE.

One could observe how foolish Poopalapillai is when he asks as to who will give money to something illegal and added: “I don’t think any Tamil would do that and break the law.” This man is evidently talking for all the Tamils in Canada and yet is unaware the evils and cancerous bursts the society suffers and in this respect, the personnel of the CTC itself have a great deal to answer.

After all they are the successors of the infamous Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils (FACT) which even tried to inveigle in former Prime Minister Paul Martin and caused him a great deal of embarrassment. Did they not raise thousands of dollars for the LTTE aware that most of it would be used for the purchase of arms?

These arrests made in the US and Canada are just the beginning, a mere trickle. This activity has gone for some years and there are many culprits out there and one by one, they are going to be called up to answer charges. We suggest to David Poopalapillai to prepare a good press statement and make several copies of it so that he can hand over to the press every time arrests are made. Naturally, he would deny them like the Ostrich that pokes its head into the sand but exposes all its obvious behind.

Maybe Poopalapillai never had the chance or did not want to read what John Thompson who has studied the Tigers for the Mackenzie Institute, a political think tank, said about the LTTE and its arms purchase methods and sources of finances. Thompson told CIBC: "I'd say most of the money for this attempted arms purchase in the U.S. came from Canada, probably from Toronto."

Thompson also said the Tigers rely upon support from the Diaspora of Tamil refugees in Western Europe, North America and Australia, many of whom the LTTE helped to smuggle to countries around the world. Alien smuggling is a part of LTTE underworld activities, evidently its biggest source of revenue. The LTTE has its own alien smuggling agents posted in many countries and in Bangkok, Thailand they have an arms purchase mission.

While the arrests were being made in the US and Canada, authorities in Thailand arrested three Sri Lankans, two of them Tamils and the other a Sinhalese who were procuring arms for the LTTE. They were arrested while trying to ship a quantity of arms and ammunition to Mullaitivu, which consisted of a variety of pistols and 45,000 rounds of ammunition.

Thai authorities have informed Sri Lanka. The three have been identified as Asirvatham Sathyapalan of Jaffna, Thevarajah Sashiharan of Nedunkerny and U. G. Gunapala. The three were recently released from prison after serving a three-year term.

People like Poopalapillai who are so very enthusiastic about the LTTE should seek Wanni “citizenship” and give their shoulders to their terrorist leaders instead of being a bad example to a new generation of young Sri Lankan Canadians. May be they could seek help from Canada Immigration to deport them.

The news about the arms purchase attempt in the US and the exposure that this is part of a big time network with centres even in some South Asian countries is causing considerable concern in India particularly in Tamilnadu.

There have been reports about clandestine meetings of LTTE personnel with Tamilnadu politicians in Singapore and later in Bangkok and recently, Thirumavalavan was a guest of several Tiger supporters in Toronto. Such are apparent signs of collusions that must be watched with great care.

(Thank you: LankaLibrary.com)