Hey guys,
This is an interesting article relating to yesterday’s topic. Just last week two men in the U.S. were convicted of trying to move $900,000 in American arms to Sri Lanka intended for use by the Tamil Tigers. That’s a lot of arms!
I think the situation in Sri Lanka parallels some of the other cases we have looked at in the sense that you have government vs. “rebel groups” both of which have been committing acts of violence for some time now and one of the results has been difficulty in distinguishing victim from perpetrator. I think one of the differences between Sri Lanka and Uganda, for example, is that in the case of the former the rebel group is mainly pursuing liberation whereas the latter rebel groups motives seem somewhat unclear and even corrupt. I think this distinction may possibly lead us to be able to feel some sympathy for a group like the LTTE. Although with that being said, an article like this really demonstrates the LTTE’s demand for significant amounts of weapons and ability to procure those arms abroad in places like the U.S.
Although Canada’s potential to indirectly contribute to LTTE violence in terms of arms smuggling is probably insignificant compared to the U.S., I would say that there is the potential for other types of support, for example funding, through a diaspora.
Here’s the article if you’d like to check it out:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/18/maryland.tamil.tigers.terror/index.html?iref=allsearch
Cheers