25 LTTE cadres arrived in B.C. by boat – Candian Govt. report

At least 25 of the 76 men who arrived in British Columbia aboard the Ocean Lady migrant ship last October were members of the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist group outlawed in Canada, an internal government report says.

The Canada Border Services Agency report, marked “secret,” raises the possibility the ship’s entire journey to Canada might have been financed and organized by the terrorist group to help settle surviving militants abroad after its military defeat by the Sri Lankan government last year.

“Movement of a large number of high-value combatants and intelligence officers aboard Ocean Lady may be part of an effort ... to reconstitute from a base of operations overseas in order to renew resistance to ... Sri Lanka,” said the report, obtained by the Vancouver Sun through the Access to Information Act.

But Vancouver lawyer Douglas Cannon, who represents one of the migrants, asked why, if so many of the men really are dangerous terrorists, border officials agreed to release all of them from detention.

“These are serious allegations, but they don’t seem to have been dealt with very seriously by the authorities,” said Cannon. “If you’re going to cry wolf, you better be prepared to prove it.”

The Ocean Lady -a name spray-painted on a ship registered as the Easwary -arrived in B.C. on Oct. 16. All 76 aboard claimed refugee status.

News reports at the time suggested at least one or two of the migrants aboard might have been members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. But the border report said that the former militants, most of them middle-ranked fighters, could use Canadaas a major base of operations in the future.

“If these men chose to work in unison, they could easily form a formidable LTTE presence in Canada,” it said. “If the overseas wing’s intention is to regroup what is left of its Sri Lanka-based operation in Canada... these men clearly have the requisite abilities and experience required to move that process along.”

Officials from the Canada Border Services Agency refused to comment on the report.

^{Canwest News Service}