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Tamil Tiger 'war taxes' outlawed |
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By Anton Edwards » Canada
has officially outlawed the Tamil Tigers and made it a criminal offence
for any of its front organizations to collect "war taxes" from the Sri
Lankan immigrant population in the country.
The decision means it is now against the law to participate in the activities of the Tamil Tigers, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, a Sri Lankan separatist group responsible for more than 160 suicide bombings.
Anyone convicted of financially supporting the Tigers could be imprisoned for up to 10 years.
The Tigers and its front groups have long been accused of making Tamil-Canadians pay "war taxes" - often through threat of violence - to fund the separatist movement in Sri Lanka.
Canada is home to the world's largest Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, estimated at 250,000.
A classified CSIS report circulated in 2000 estimated that between one and two million dollars are raised annually in Canada through the use of fronts groups.
Human Rights Watch recently reported that LTTE supporters had been going door to door in Toronto since late 2005 extorting money from Tamil-Canadians to finance a "final war" for independence.
Although the Tigers are one of the most active pro-violence groups in Canada, the former Liberal government had refused to outlaw their activities, claiming it would hurt the peace process. Critics countered the party was afraid of angering Tamil-Canadian voters in Toronto.
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