Many International and Canadian news media reported about the recent arrests by the FBI and RCMP and try to brand entire Tamils as terrorists. FBI alleged that some Tamils tried to acquire anti-air craft missiles from US undercover. The FBI, RCMP, and news media went one step further and brand the Tamils as LTTE agents, and then degraded to LTTE supporters.

The US in 1997 and Canada in 2006 listed LTTE as foreign terrorist organization, and still have very friendly relationship with Srilankan government that many Tamils call as state terrorists. The Canadian based news paper reported that “Two more Canadians have been arrested amid a widening RCMP-FBI probe into allegations that Tamil Tigers sympathizers in North America tried to buy missiles and move terror cash. Meanwhile, the Toronto Sun has also learned that more Canadian-based Tigers operatives -- all of whom came to light during the FBI probe -- face arrest, perhaps as early as next week.”.

Nowadays, it is very easy to brand someone as terrorist, and the terrorist label prohibit any suspect to tell his / her story to the public. The media and government intelligent agencies sometimes made mistakes, and these mistakes cause thousands of lives. The US lead coalition forces invaded Iraq based on WMD (Weapon for Mass Destruction), four years past, but still no one seems to worry about the initial allegations. So far more than 40,000 people killed in Iraq, US still says it keep killing terrorists in Iraq. Same story is in Afghanistan. After getting bore with the “war on terror” in Muslim world, the US seems to turn its cannons against Tamils now. After Muslims were branded as terrorist, the recent media publicity and allegations made it seems like now its Tamils turn. Tamil struggle is very simple and it is not based on any believes, what Tamils want is rights to manage their homeland that is called Tamileelam, located north and east of Srilanka. Tamils simply want to get away from Sinhala dominated state evils.

Tamils do not have any problem with any other ethnic group, religion, race, or countries. Almost all of the analysts accept that Tamils are not a thread to any other countries. But US, Pakistan, Israel, China, and India keep selling weapons of destructions to Srilanka. These countries fully aware about the Srilankan human right records and they know the Sinhala dominated Srilankan government use these weapons to kill and destroy Tamils and their properties. Sinhala dominated Srilankan government used these weapons to kill more than 70, 000 Tamils, almost completely destroyed Tamil inhabitants, and chased many Tamils away from their homeland.

In fact, most Tamils are angry with Sinhala dominated Srilankan government because of the Srinakan government atrocities against Tamils. US openly stated that it support Tamils grievance and full autonomy for Tamils in Srilanka. However, it didn’t take any actions against Srilankan government or condemn mass killings of Tamils by the Srilankan state military that many Tamils call as Sinhala state terrorist since it has 99% of Sinhalese. The US took punitive action against Tamils by branding Tamil leadership that is LTTE as terrorists. Anyone, who has first hand knowledge of the Srilankan crisis easily understand that most of the crime was committed by Srilankan government forces and it’s paramilitary. In theory, if Srilankan government is not considered as state terrorist, LTTE is also not considered as terrorist. The world is normally not ruled by justice, but by powers. Therefore, LTTE branded as terrorists, but Srilankan government still roam around even it committed more terrorism in Tamil homeland.

Tamil struggle in Srilanka has 55 years of history, and it started as non-violent protests against Sinhala oppressions. Sinhala dominated Srilankan government used violence to oppress the Tamil community. Tamils were forced to use violence to oppose the Sinhala oppressors. In 1977, Tamils decided to form a separate state Tamileelam via an election, and this is the mandate given by the Tamils to the former moderate Tamil leadership, and then it passed to LTTE. A separate state for Tamils is not a LTTE invention or decision.

Instead of using only political means, LTTE uses military and politics to achieve the Tamils goal. Some Tamils didn’t agree with the use of violence, but they still oppose to Sinhala domination and its use of violence against Tamils. None of the foreign nations pressured the Srilankan state to share the power with Tamils, and stop the atrocities. Because of this lack of trust, most of the Tamils support LTTE because they feel LTTE is the only force that can protect Tamils from Sinhala atrocities. Due to the two decades of civil war, some Tamils decided to escape, some Tamils decided to fight against Sinhala oppression, and rest were continue to stay as spectators. In reality, all the Tamils are angry with Srilankan government. If they were given a chance, they will certainly use it to fight against Srilankan terror state.

Tamil Diaspora that escaped from the civil war still supports their friends and family at back home. Tamil Diaspora still angry with Srilankan government and its atrocities against Tamils. Tamil Diaspora still supports the 1977 mandate that states a separate state for Tamils is the only possible solution. The last 30 years of history doesn’t change any of this, and the problem is still unresolved. The Norwegian facilitated peace process gave some initial hope, but Sinahala chauvinistic politicians, and biased foreign state policies cause the peace process stalled. The ceasefire agreement was reached based on a balance of military power between LTTE and Srilankan government. This balance of power was nullified by the recent ban on LTTE by EU and Canada. Currently, a disaster war is on the way in Srilanka, and the Sinhala dominated Srilankan government used all its resources to build up military machine to destroy Tamils. Srilankan state shop around the world and buy as much as weapons it wants while the Tamil leadership prohibited from buying weapons. The Sinhala leadership took this as an advantage and pushes the LTTE towards a new war. The foreign nations who advocate peace only by lib service do nothing to bring pressure on Srilankan state.

Kfir is the one of the arsenal used by the Srilankan government to bomb Tamil villages. It has been used by Srilakan government since 1998, and it caused several Tamils to lose their lives. Two weeks ago these bombers killed 55 Tamil school children. Interestingly, Kfir is used by only five nations that are Israel, US, Ecuador, Colombia, and Srilanka. Srilankan government is well known for its human right violations, but still US approved Israel to sell this disaster weapon to Srilanka. It is obvious that Srilankan government use these killer machines to kill Tamils. Tamils naturally have a feeling to fight against these killer machines. In the FBI allegation, FBI stated that the Tamil suspects requested some missiles that can shoot the Kefir.

The most possible scenario in the latest allegation is that the FBI used the Tamils angry feeling against the Srilankan government to trap few Tamils into their case. The arrested people might fell prey to this FBI well planned trap. Since most Tamils are against Srilankan government atrocities, and especially the Kfir bomber attacks, if a chance given to some Tamils to neutralize the killer bombing machine and save their family and friends in back home, they probably use it. By law it is illegal to buy weapons and support an organization that is listed as terrorist in Canada and US. The other allegations are questionable. Do Computer and some other material listed in this case can be considered as weapon? Is it prohibited by law to help Tamils in back home? Does the Scientific magazine a prohibited item? Only a fair trial will provide more details on this case. The other question is that do these students and young people have enough money or chance to hire a lawyer? Since this case is filled under terrorism laws, the respective government agents have very upper hand, and potentially will succeed with their allegations.

Even before the case brought to courts, some media decided to go against Tamils as much as it can. This behavior brought some suspicious among Tamils. There were mass protests against Srilankan government held by Tamils in Canada and other countries, but none of this protest attracts any major news media. The media seems to be very enthusiastic about branding fast growing Tamil community as terrorists, and play with their feelings. Because it simply gives more fascinating stories and there is no major powers will oppose or sue these media and government agents on behalf of Tamils, the terrorist branding task goes in full scale.

The consequence of this terrorist brand will prevent future Tamils youths from getting higher studies and jobs in avionics, space, communication, military, nuclear and biotech areas. It also affects Tamil business endeavors as well. It is very critical time for the Tamil community. Whether it wants to distance it self and allow the government agents to brand them as terrorists or place its case against western powers is a question. There is two ways to resolve a problem; finding a workaround or eliminating the root cause. Tamil Diaspora decided to chose the workaround option when it escapes from Srilanka at the first time. But now, the initial problem seems to come back with different face. The root cause of the problem that is a separate state or full autonomy for Tamils in Srilanka is still unresolved. For the Tamil Diaspora, it is better if it decided to resolve the root problem at back home first. Otherwise, Tamil Diaspora will continue to face several different flavors of this problem.

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