Canadian MP slams Tigers

A senior Canadian Member of Parliament has told Canadian Parliament that the terrorist group preys "upon the very Tamil population it claims to represent."

Deepak Obhrai, Member of Parliament for Calgary East and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, on Friday told Parliament that the LTTE has done little to promote peace in Sri Lanka.

"The Tamil Tigers are listed by countries around the world as a terrorist organization and have done little to promote peace in Sri Lanka. Not only did they invent suicide bombing but they in fact prey upon the very Tamil population they claim to represent," said Obhrai, the senior most Indo-Canadian in Canada’s Conservative government.

Canada’s Conservative Party has won praise from many Sri Lankans living in Canada for its strong anti-terrorist stance. The Conservatives listed the LTTE as a terrorist organization and banned several of its front organizations operating in Canada shortly after coming to power in 2006.

Obhrai and his Conservative Party have accused the main opposition Liberal Party for pandering to LTTE supporters. This week a Liberal MP attended a rally held in the Canadian capital organised by supporters of the LTTE and made a speech supporting the LTTE, with dozens of LTTE flags flowing in the background.

Conservative MP and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Peter Kent also criticised the opposition Liberals for hobnobbing under a terrorist flag.

"I am sickened by the pandering of a Liberal member on the front lawn of Parliament to a flagrant display of the symbols of a listed terrorist organization. The Government of Canada would hope that all members of the House would abhor terrorism," Kent told Parliament.

Liberal MP Gubrax Singh Malhi, who spoke at the LTTE support rally, later told Canada’s National Post "I have nothing to do with anybody. I don’t know anybody who was there."

Source: Island