Female Tamil Tiger guerillas

The move has been blasted by Canadian Tamils while the Sri Lankan community said the ban will help “staunch the flow” of blood money.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, better known by the acronym LTTE, is already proscribed as a terrorist organization by the United States, Britain, India, Australia and Malaysia.

The LTTE is the 39th group to be proscribed since Canada passed its Anti-Terrorism Act in the wake of the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said that the ruling was partly motivated by reports of the LTTE allegedly raising funds in the 300,000-strong Canadian Tamil community through coercion.

Day told journalists: “Human Rights Watch and other groups have reported very clearly that there has been intimidation going on within the Tamil community in Canada.

“The decision to list the LTTE is long overdue and something the previous government did not take seriously enough to act upon. Our government is clearly determined to take decisive steps to ensure the safety of Canadians against terrorism.”

The previous Liberal government barred the LTTE from fundraising in Canada in the aftermath of Sept 11 but did not ban membership in the LTTE.

Since the LTTE launched its separatist campaign 23 years ago more than 64,000 Sri Lankans have died in the ensuing violence.

“We welcome the initiative of the Conservative government to outlaw the LTTE,” said Mahinda Gunasekera, president of the Sri Lanka United National Association of Canada. “This will loosen the grip the LTTE front has on the Canadian Tamil community living in Canada and let them live free from extortion ... free from fear.”

According to the Sri Lankan organization, almost one-third of the Tamil Tigers’ war chest -- estimated at up to $40 million (C$46 million) -- is raised in Canada each year through front organizations, coercion and the drug trade.

David Poopalapillai, spokesman for the Canadian Tamil Congress, said the ban will do nothing more than derail fragile peace talks that are in progress between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE.

In Colombo, the state-run Daily News crowed that the Canadian ban will “place the Government delegation” at coming peace talks on “a sounder-footing” knowing “that at last the world community is gradually coming to its assistance vis-a-vis the LTTE.”

The Island, a right-wing and aggressively communal newspaper, urged the European Union to follow the lead of Canada’s Conservative government: “Canada has realized the danger of giving a terror group a free hand and told it where to get off at long last. It is now up to EU to follow suit, without further prevarication....”

The Buddhist monk-led National Heritage party (JHU), one of the most militant voices of Sinhala chauvinism, coupled praise for the Canadian government decision with criticism of the Sri Lankan government for not taking an even more aggressive stand against the LTTE.