CANADA SHIP FOR LTTE REVIVAL

Tamil Tigers in fact smuggled 492 passengers aboard asylum ship Sun Sea on a major fund raising drive to revive the defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The LTTE has made around 20 million Canadian dollars from this trip, a terrorism expert said.Prof Rohan Gunaratna of the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, who was first to reveal details of the mystery voyage of Sun Sea, the former Thai Cargo ship ‘Harin Panich 19’ as way back as May this year, told Lakbimanews that LTTE had smuggled its leaders and Tamil civilians aboard Sun Sea to Canada in a multi million dollar venture.Referring to Canadian estimates that the ship load of asylum seekers had paid to the tune of 20 million Canadian Dollars, Prof Gunaratna says the profit would be spent to revive the LTTE by lobbying politicians and international orgnizations, filing litiginous action against the Sri Lankan state, and redeeming LTTE’s image as a political organization.He says the Malaysian-Thai region has become a haven for LTTE activities as Tiger cadres who fled Sri Lanka regroup in those environs. Sun Sea set sail from Thailand, carrying a human cargo of Tamils, many of whom visited Thailand on tourist visas just before the ship disappeared into sea. Gunaratna said two more ships are preparing for similar journeys and are collecting the passengers, and he echoed remarks by Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews that Sun Sea was a ‘test boat.’ Navy spokesman Captain Athula Senarath said the Navy had stepped up surveillance and sea patrols to check human smuggling.“Last week, on a tip off by the Naval intelligence, Police arrested five persons from a guest house in Marawila awaiting a boat to go to Australia. They have paid an agent to smuggle them to Australia,” he said.Earlier in November, last year, Navy arrested 160 people aboard four boats off Galle coast. Investigations revealed that the would be illegal migrants had paid 600,000 rupees each to a smuggler to leave for Australia.(News-Lakbima)