Sunday, February 26, 2006

Tamil Tigers

A lengthy, but curiously unsigned article in the Toronto Star on the intimidation and extortion by the Tamil Tigers in the Sri-Lankan community in Toronto.

Canada does not consider the Tigers a terrorist organization, at least officially. But that might change in the next few months. In the meanwhile, human rights groups continue to document the abduction of children by the terrorist group.

The timeline of "Sri-Lankan Conflict" notes that in 2004 that the government of Sri Lanka agreed to share tsunami relief. It does not, however, remind anyone that the Sri Lankan governnment was pressured to do so by Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was the official UN envoy for relief.
The Clinton Foundation last month also launched a $45 million appeal with the U.N. Children's Fund, UNICEF, to provide clean water and sanitation in tsunami-ravaged areas. UNICEF took a leading role in coordinating foreign aid for children shortly after the disaster.
But, apparently, the relief for children does not include relief from being forceably inducted into the Tamil Tiger army although Human Rights Watch has pushed for UNICEF and the UN to act.

And the word "Marxist" doesn't appear in any of the Toronto Star's reporting.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thus have I heard: Once a prominent member (X) of the Tamil community approached a PR firm in Ottawa run by a former MP.

X wanted to counter the string of articles written against the Tamil Tigers in the Canadian media after the Sri Lankan government had hired a UK based PR firm.

The founder of the Ottawa based PR firm offered that for $25K Canadian, he can make Globe & Mail write an editorial titled "Tamil people of Sri Lanka diserve a separate state."

X did not take the offer as $25K was a lot of money for a new community of recent refugees in those days.

So much for the credibility of Canadian papers. And the poor us take them so seriously.