‘Some terrorists found safe haven in Canada’: Why Sri Lanka has backed India

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry has now said in a September 25 interview with ANI, “Some of the terrorists have found safe haven in Canada. The Canadian PM has this way of just coming out with some outrageous allegations without any supporting proof. The same thing they did for Sri Lanka, a terrible, total lie about saying that Sri Lanka had a genocide. Everybody knows there was no genocide in our country.”

Also, outgoing Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda said on the same day, “I think India’s response has been unequivocal and also firm and direct. I think as far as we are concerned, we support India on that…40 years of my life, have been spent facing various forms of terrorism in Sri Lanka…Our position on this matter is very clear because we have endured and we have suffered…the tolerance for terrorism is zero.”

Canada’s history with Sri Lankans and the LTTE

This is not the first time that Sri Lanka has criticised Canada. Its recent objections have revolved around the Canadian government’s policy on the Sri Lankan civil war. The war began in 1983 with rising ethnic tensions between the majority Sinhala-speaking community and the minority Sri Lankan Tamils over issues of policy, politics, governance, representation and so on.

It went on until 2009, ending after the killing of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the chief of Liberation of Tamil Tigers Eelam (LTTE) – a group that demanded a separate state for Tamils in northeastern Sri Lanka. It wanted to achieve its goals through violent means and was in constant conflict with the Sri Lankan government.

This period saw the immigration of Sri Lankans, mainly Tamils looking to escape violence, to countries such as Canada, Australia and the UK. According to the Canadian government’s website, “Canada is home to approximately 200,000 individuals of Sri Lankan descent, living primarily in the Greater Toronto area, the majority being of Tamil origin. Canada’s Sri Lankan Tamil population is thought to constitute the largest such diaspora in the world outside of India.”

An article on the subject titled ‘Forced remittances in Canada’s Tamil enclaves’, published in ‘Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice’, said that this immigration was a result of Canada relaxing its policies for non-white ethnicities beginning in the 1960s. Refugees would also be granted a right to stay in the country and receive benefits until their determination proceedings were completed, making it a favoured destination.

However, some of these Sri Lankan immigrants’ activities also received scrutiny. The article added that pro-LTTE “operatives” would demand funds of thousands of dollars from moderate Tamils living in Canada for funding LTTE operations in Sri Lanka. “When appeals for donations are refused, LTTE operatives commonly resort to underhand tactics such as rhetorically questioning the safety of a reluctant donor’s relatives in Sri Lanka,” it said.

Why Sri Lanka has a problem with Canada’s recent actions

Sri Lanka has often raised objections to how Canada refers to the civil war, particularly the violence against Tamils during the war. Canada, in turn, calls itself a “global leader” in the adoption of the UN Human Rights Commission’s resolutions on freedom of religion, belief, and pluralism in Sri Lanka. Given the significant immigrant population within the country, its stand is also dictated by domestic politics.

This year, Sri Lanka rejected a statement issued by Trudeau on Canada marking the “first Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day” on May 18, saying it contained “outrageous claims” of genocide relating to the past conflict. It said in July, “Canada’s continued reference to a false, distorted narrative of the past conflict in Sri Lanka is aimed solely at achieving local vote-bank electoral gains, and is not conducive to broader goals of communal harmony.”

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, commemorates the War Heroes Day on May 19, marking the war’s end. It also disputes the figures of Tamils killed in the war, and the process of trying people for the crimes committed in that period has been fraught.

Also this year in an unprecedented move, the Canadian government placed two former Sri Lankan Presidents – Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa – under economic sanctions. The Canadian government said: “Gross and systematic human rights violations occurred during Sri Lanka’s civil conflict (1983-2009). Systemic impunity for human rights abusers in Sri Lanka continues to jeopardize the safeguarding of fundamental human rights…

…Due to political interference, particularly during the terms of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, numerous current and former state officials credibly implicated in war crimes have had charges against them arbitrarily dropped or convictions overturned.” Sri Lanka termed these as “unsubstantiated allegations”.

Foreign Affairs Minister Sabry also said the Canadian PM should not interfere in the internal matters of a sovereign country. “I don’t think anyone should poke their nose into other countries and tell as to how we should govern our country… We are not very happy about that statement at all. Indian Ocean identity is very important and we need to strengthen the regional architecture. We have to look after our region. We need to work together… We should not be dictated by anyone else as to how we should conduct our affairs”, he added.