TORONTO — Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans living in Canada have been funding the Tamil Tigers' terrorism campaign through a secret strategy of profiling carried out using Canada's electoral database, the RCMP allege.
In what amounts to the most detailed examination of alleged terrorist fundraising ever filed in a federal court, the national police force claims as much as $50,000 a month was being drawn from bank accounts in Toronto and funnelled to the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
The Tigers' operation in Canada, responsible for providing 15 per cent of global funds for the secession movement, identified potential donors by postal code and used a "sales team" of locals to extract the cash, alleges the 400-page police affidavit unsealed in the Federal Court of Canada this week.
The affidavit suggests the Toronto offices of the World Tamil Movement - a non-profit organization - may have been generating funds for the Tigers. The RCMP says it has also obtained a significant letter sent to Toronto from the head of the Tamil Tigers. Velupillai Prabhakaran, one of the world's most sought-after fugitives, is said to have urged that Canadian Tamils commit about 15 per cent of the global contribution to his cause.
Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels, is shown delivering his annual speech from an undisclosed location in north Sri Lanka in 2006. (AP)
Internet Links
- Click here to read the full text of a letter that the RCMP says that that the leader the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka allegedly sent to the 'Canadian Office' in 2002, asking for the equivalent of $3-million in six months.
- Click here to read what the RCMP says are a series of directives that the Tamil Tigers sent to its foreign agents, in order to raise funds and popular support.
"I request the Canadian office take responsibility of contributing [$3.3-million]," reads his letter, according to the filings. The 2002 letter was sent in December and the money was to arrive by June. "Timing is very essential," it reads.
In 2006, the RCMP raided the Montreal and Toronto
offices of the World Tamil Movement, just days after the Conservative government
declared the Tamil Tigers
a banned terrorist entity.
The Mounties have yet to lay charges, but they did file a comprehensive affidavit to court this spring explaining why they recently moved to seize the WTM's offices, two years after the properties were first raided.
The Toronto-area affidavit, written by RCMP Corporal Deanna Hill on April 1, 2008, but unsealed and filed in open court this week, shows why the Mounties believe the World Tamil Movement amounts to a front. The RCMP say they've unearthed evidence indicating the local leaders were straw men and figureheads who got their direction from Sri Lanka.
The Mounties' raids uncovered databases and spreadsheets that suggest Toronto-area fundraising was highly organized. World Tamil Movement officials allegedly broke down local activities into "Toronto," "Markham" and "Peel," and from there by postal code into municipal subgroupings and sub-subgroupings. Among the recovered items was a 14-page "contact list of area sales co-ordinators," containing home, work and mobile phone numbers for individuals whom the Mounties believe to be fundraising captains.
Payment is said to have been made easy - and almost impossible to avoid. Tamils were allegedly encouraged to enter into pre-authorized payment schemes, so transfers to the World Tamil Movement would be no harder than paying a credit card. Lists of who paid - and who didn't - were so meticulously kept, the Mounties say, that Canadian Tamils who returned to Sri Lanka for visits risked being questioned by local Tamil Tiger henchmen who knew whether visitors had made contributions in Canada.
Sensitive government materials were also allegedly leaked into the wrong hands.
"Most disturbingly, investigators have found sets of voters lists issued by Elections Canada that held the names of persons residing on given streets in various areas of Scarborough," reads the affidavit. "Furthermore the lists had yellow highlighter placed on names of Tamil heritages. These lists were confirmed to be periodic lists distributed to candidates and Ministers during elections years."
Precise fundraising instructions from Sri Lanka were allegedly circulated to the alleged front group. The Tigers' leadership is said to have circulated manuals urging foreign supporters to set up newspapers, as well as federations for students, women, art and children, in order to enhance the overall fundraising drive.
The Federal Court filings show the Mounties attended gatherings where the Canadian flag was frequently raised alongside the Tamil Tigers' logo, which consists of a screaming tiger jumping through crossed Kalashnikov rifles and a hoop of bullets. The RCMP alleges World Tamil Movement officials told outsiders they organized ethno-cultural gatherings, whereas the real purpose of the get-togethers was often to raise funds and celebrate terrorism.
For example, the Mounties say a 2006 event billed as a "Hindu festival" actually honoured a Tamil sea commander who killed himself rather than be taken alive. Others allegedly celebrated the sacrifices of "martyrs," including suicide bombers.
"These events expose the inextricable link between the World Tamil Movement and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam," the RCMP affidavit says.
The Mounties further allege the WTM's logo derives from the Tamil Tigers - that the Canadian group merely replaced the screaming tiger with a pair of shaking hands. "I believe the logo of the World Tamil Movement was modelled after that of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam," the affidavit says.
