FORMER Toronto gang member Sanjeev Kuhendrarajah is heavily
tattooed, has a criminal record for death threats and
firearms possession that got him deported from Canada six
years ago, and is now, perhaps improbably, the articulate
and thoughtful spokesman for a boatload of Tamil
asylum-seekers trying to get to Christmas Island.Toronto gang member Sanjeev Kuhendrarajah
with criminal record, deported from Canada, is
now, spokesman for boatload of Tamil Refugees
Let's think: ''will ordinary innocent Lankan Tamils select a criminal to speak
unless they too are criminals''.
When will we Lankan Tamils select a leader without crimnal record or penchant for gun and violence
We Lankan Tamils are ''ignorant fools'' in the eyes of the International Community as we had such a leader in the recent past
==========================================================
On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 11:09 AM, Mal Spencer <
mcspencer44@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> FORMER Toronto gang member Sanjeev Kuhendrarajah is heavily
> tattooed, has a criminal record for death threats and
> firearms possession that got him deported from Canada six
> years ago, and is now, perhaps improbably, the articulate
> and thoughtful spokesman for a boatload of Tamil
> asylum-seekers trying to get to Christmas Island.
> A Canadian immigration department assessment refers to
> chronic alcohol and drug abuse in his youth, persistent
> anger management issues and a "love-hate relationship" with
> his mother.
> But the 27-year-old adamantly denies he is a
> people-smuggler.
> Kuhendrarajah, otherwise known as Alex - a pseudonym he
> said he had used for years and which he goes by on the
> social networking site Facebook - has finally spoken about
> his past after the Sri Lankan government accused him and a
> brother of being involved in the human trafficking business.
> Because of his excellent English, Kuhendrarajah became the
> voice of the boatload of nearly 250 Sri Lankan refugees tied
> up at Merak dock, in western Java, after it was intercepted
> by the Indonesian navy on an Australian intelligence tip-off
> early last month.
> But now, fearful for the safety in Sri Lanka of his wife
> and three young children, who are trying desperately to also
> escape the country after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
> Eelam rebellion was put down several months ago, he says he
> regrets having taken such a prominent role in the affair.
> He has also admitted concealing facts about his life.
> Kuhendrarajah agreed to speak out on the condition that his
> immediate family not be identified. The Australian has,
> however, spoken to Kuhendrarajah's wife in Sri Lanka , where
> she is awaiting travel documents she hopes will be organised
> within days.
> "The Sri Lankan government is out to get me, they are going
> to try to crucify me, and they will do that by any means
> necessary," he said.
> "The reason I'm speaking up against these allegations is to
> prove to the world that this government is cruel, that it
> has no mercy. They will do anything to try to discredit me
> and to ruin my family. If anything happens to my wife, if
> anything happens to my children, I will hold the Australian
> government and the Indonesian government responsible for
> their murders."
> Kuhendrarajah said he grew up in Canada , after his family
> fled Sri Lanka following anti-Tamil riots in 1983. Arriving
> in Toronto via London - where his father remained after
> separating from Kuhendrarajah's mother, and is now a
> prosperous gold trader - the family joined relatives who had
> been in the multicultural city for more than two decades.
> By his own admission, Kuhendrarajah's life went off the
> rails early, and at the age of 12 he became a ward of the
> state after running away from home and accusing his mother
> of abuse.
> He says he eventually fell in with a Tamil street gang at
> the height of a Toronto turf war that left several people
> dead.
> "The criminal conviction that had me deported was because
> as a child I made some very bad mistakes, and those mistakes
> cost me my entire life," he said.
> Kuhendrarajah was, for about three years until his arrest
> in September 2000, a member of the A.K. Kannan gang, one of
> two major Tamil criminal organisations responsible for a
> reign of terror on Toronto 's streets. An uncle was also a
> senior leader of the gang.
> "There were many fights, and these fights got bigger with
> each year," he said. "First people started fighting with
> their hands, and then people started fighting with small
> knives and then larger knives. It just escalated."
> A.K. Kannan had started out as a small heroin-trading
> franchise but the conflict quickly exploded with its main
> rival, the VVT gang, named for the town of Valvettithurai in
> northern Sri Lanka where its leader originated.
> Reports have linked VVT to funding for the Tamil Tigers,
> although Kuhendrarajah was adamant the battles, while
> originating in homeland discontents, were mainly about local
> issues.
> More than a dozen tit-for-tat fatal shootings in the late
> 1990s forced authorities to act, rounding up for deportation
> several dozen gang members in late 2001.
> By that time Kuhendrarajah, one of those identified for
> forced removal under a special organised crime section of
> the country's immigration act, had already spent a year in
> jail on the firearms and death-threat convictions, and was
> due for release.
> "And that is the point where I learnt I wasn't a citizen,"
> Kuhendrarajah said, revealing as he has done so many times
> in his short life a combination of acute intelligence and
> blind naivety.
> "Growing up from the age of five, singing the national
> anthem every day of my life, at that point, at the age of
> 19, I thought I was a (Canadian) citizen. I just totally
> couldn't believe I wasn't - because my grandmother was a
> citizen, and my mother is a citizen, my uncles, my aunts are
> citizens, my grandfather was a citizen. And I just didn't
> understand how I could not be a citizen. But my mother had
> applied for citizenship while I was under the care of the
> Children's Aid Society, when I was 14, because I had run
> away from home, so I didn't receive it."
> Canadian immigration department documents obtained by The
> Australian cite the view of a department panel in 2002 that
> it was "not persuaded the prospect (of rehabilitation) are
> good or even fair", after the incident for which he was
> arrested, and confirming his deportation order.
> The documents show Kuhendrarajah was seized by police with
> a sawn-off .22 calibre semi-automatic handgun loaded with
> seven rounds, after having threatened to kill an opponent.
> Kuhendrarajah described himself and his former gangmates
> yesterday as "spoilt brats who didn't have a mind to think
> for themselves", and claimed they were "used" by the gang
> leaders to wage power struggles in the city.
> The court documents, however, describe him as living in a
> basement squat with other friends who were linked to
> kidnappings and assaults, and contain Kuhendrarajah's own
> admission that he had been involved in "petty crimes with
> friends" and fights in bars.
> Kuhendrarajah was deported in 2003 to Sri Lanka , where he
> had no family but plenty of money from his wealthy relatives
> in Canada and London.
> There he met his wife, with whom he moved in 2006 to
> Chennai in India , fearful of ongoing anti-Tamil violence in
> Sri Lanka .
> "Eventually I did start a small business (in Chennai), and
> I think this is where the Sri Lankan government got the idea
> that I'm a people-smuggler," he said.
> "I did not have an office, but I started a small business
> where for tours, or anybody that needed a vehicle to rent, I
> just rented out mine. And whilst doing this I started
> working in a call centre, because of my good command of
> English and my knowledge of American lifestyle and American
> culture. In the call centre in Chennai they loved me, and
> they were willing to pay me a lot of money. So as time went
> by I became very well off in India and I had a good life
> there."
> On the understanding that his removal order from Canada
> lasted only five years, Kuhendrarajah began making plans
> last year to obtain Sri Lankan passports for his children -
> his wife gave birth to their third daughter just weeks ago,
> while he was hiding in Malaysia waiting to board the Lestari
> Jaya 5, the ill-fated boat that brought him to Australia's
> attention - and try again to make a North American home.
> On their return from India to organise the passports,
> however, he said he was arrested by Sri Lankan authorities
> on suspicion of being a Tigers supporter and detained
> without charge for months.
> After being released, he said, and brimming with
> frustration, he leapt at the opportunity a friend was
> offering to sail from Malaysia to Australia .
> "The plan was for me to get out of the country immediately,
> and then as soon as my child was born, for them to follow
> however they could," he said. "I was determined that if I
> was able to get on to Christmas Island, that I would be able
> to tell the truth to the UNHCR, and they would be able to
> understand my situation, understand that I made mistakes
> when I was young, and it has been years since I left
> (Canada). My life has changed a lot since then.
> "But I am not a Tiger, and I am not a people smuggler. I
> want to put these people (people smugglers) away as much as
> anyone does. They may now have cost me my family and my
> life."
> COURTESY:THE AUSTRALIAN
> Posted by transCurrents on November 9, 2009 06:07 AM |
> Permalink transCurrents.comContact Email:
editor@transcurrents.com>
> 3 Comments
> All the criminals are flocking to your land that had been
> an "open prison" for the British Empire. Why don't you
> accept all these "fake" asylum seekers, who are searching a
> greener pasture like their ancestors.
> Posted by: SLFireBall | November 9, 2009 11:44 AM
>
> It is men like this who gave the Tamil resistance movement
> a bad name. Their handlers were more bent on making money
> off extortion, intimidation and all unholy features that
> ruined the future of thousands of otherwise talented youth.
> It's not over entirely. The falsehood that VP is alive is
> being "sold" purely to keep whatever is left of the income
> coming in and to battle it out to take the loot that Palitha
> Kohona, the former Foreign Secy estimates at US$1.6
> billion.
> The diaspora must now come together and work towards a new
> leadership of learned, professionals with influence over
> GoSL, India and the world community to build the North East
> to stand on its own.
> There is still room to come together in the island and
> regain the "ruined past" for a bright future. In spite of
> all its faults, the future leadership should centre around
> democratic features where the life of each and everyone
> should be held sacred.
> The gun culture should be buried for good once and for all.
> There is more support for the Tamils of Sri Lanka today than
> ever before.
> ISS
> Posted by: Ilaya Seran Senguttuvan | November 9, 2009 09:43
> PM
>
>
>
> This article has changed my perception /suspicion I had
> after reading these colums and other reports in the past
> that 'Ltte was responsible for the gun and other violence
> involving Tamils in the streets of Canada/Toranto'. I can
> understand why Srilankan Gov is now Steriotyping him as
> Ltter in order to try and save their face and discredit
> Tamils.
> To ISS, I live in the UK and also have been reading and
> listining various media's( English & Tamil),and people
> but I can't find any one saying that VP is alive in person (
> they are claiming that he (His legacy) is alive in their
> (Tamil's)Hearts and minds only, like Mohandas Ghandhi ,
> Subhas chandra boss, Jesus,Buddha etc.
> Posted by: Pandara Vannian | November 10, 2009 05:08 AM
>
> When a migrant smuggling ship bound for Australia was
> seized in Indonesian waters last month, a 27-year-old with a
> thick beard stepped forward to speak for the boat people.
> He said he was Alex and that the more than 200 asylum
> seekers aboard the wooden cargo ship were ethnic Tamils
> fleeing Sri Lanka, but it was the way he said it that stood
> out: He spoke in a distinctly Canadian accent.
> In Toronto, police watched the news footage coming out of
> Indonesia on YouTube and instantly recognized "Alex." He was
> Sanjeev Kuhendrarajah. And he wasn't a businessman with an
> MBA degree, as he had told reporters, he was a Toronto gang
> member.
> Yesterday, Kuhendrarajah admitted he had been deported from
> Canada in 2003 for violent crimes but denied allegations he
> was a human smuggler and asked to be brought to Australia.
> "The fact that I lived in Canada for a period of time and
> was removed from Canada has no bearing whatsoever on my
> claim or the claim of the other 250 people for asylum," he
> said in a statement.
> While the Canadian government has been investigating the
> identities of 76 Sri Lankans who arrived in British Columbia
> waters on Oct. 17 (one of whom is wanted by Sri Lanka for
> terrorism), Australia has been trying to figure out how to
> handle similar migrant ships headed its way. At Australia's
> request, the Indonesian Navy intercepted a boatload of 255
> Sri Lankans early last month and brought them to Merak, in
> western Java. Australia is reluctant to admit the asylum
> seekers, and the discovery that a convicted Toronto gang
> member is on board may only make matters worse.
> Making the case for the boat people, Kuhendrarajah has been
> a passionate spokesman for the cause of Sri Lanka's ethnic
> Tamil minority, saying they face "genocide in Sri Lanka.
> Just the fact that you are Tamil, you will face genocide
> sooner or later. There will be an annihilation of Tamils in
> Sri Lanka. It will happen."
> But during his 16 years in Canada, Kuhendrarajah likewise
> participated in a campaign of violence against ethnic Tamils
> as a member of AK Kannan, a Tamil street gang behind a rash
> of drive-by shootings in Toronto.
> Named after its weapon of choice, the AK-47 assault rifle,
> AK Kannan was formed by Sri Lankans who came to Canada in
> the 1980s, according to an RCMP report. AK Kannan and a
> rival Tamil gang called the VVT fought a violent turf war in
> Toronto in the 1990s.
> AK Kannan was known for its heavy firepower. In January,
> 1998, Toronto police raided an AK Kannan weapons cache in a
> snowbank behind a Scarborough gas station and found a
> submachine gun and two sawed-off 12-gauge shotguns.
> The Tamil gangs' wild tit-for-tat shootings turned parts of
> Toronto into a war zone, as gang members opened fire on each
> other from speeding cars. They shot up not only each other,
> but also innocent bystanders, one of them a 19-year-old
> Tamil university student mistakenly gunned down in a
> Scarborough doughnut shop in 1997.
> Toronto police set up a Tamil Task Force but the gangs
> evaded prison by threatening witnesses and refusing to
> testify against each other. Meanwhile, Canada's major banks
> incurred losses "in the millions" as a result of financial
> frauds committed by the gangs, the task force wrote in a
> report.
> Residents who lived near a Scarborough basement rented by
> AK Kannan complained to police "that these hoodlums were
> yelling, shouting, urinating, throwing garbage, walking
> across peoples' lawns and disrupting the peace in the
> neighborhood," the report said.
> Kuhendrarajah lived in one such gang den. Born in Sri Lanka
> in 1982, he arrived in Canada at age five to live with his
> grandparents, but by 12 he was skipping school and received
> counselling for his anger.
> The Children's Aid Society stepped in and he lived in
> foster homes until he was 16. He returned to his mother
> briefly (his father lived in the U.K.) but would come home
> drunk and high on marijuana. He ended up moving into a
> basement apartment with gang friends. Police knew the place
> as an AK Kannan hangout and visited it often to investigate
> shootings in the area or to arrest Kuhendrarajah's friends
> for such crimes as kidnapping or assault.
> After VVT gangsters ran over an AK Kannan member named
> Kandipan Poopolasingam in a movie theatre parking lot,
> Kuhendrarajah approached a youth he thought was affiliated
> with the men responsible.
> "If you talk to them, I am going to shoot you,"
> Kuhendrarajah told him. He then raised his shirt to show the
> handle of his sawed-off .22. He was later convicted of
> illegal weapons possession and threatening. Immigration
> officials decided to deport him.
> The Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) agreed he should be
> sent back to Sri Lanka. "He has had a longstanding problem
> with anger and disregarded authority figures at home and
> school," the IRB wrote, adding his links to Canada were
> "limited."
> "I hung around with the wrong people before," Kuhendrarajah
> told an IRB hearing in March 2003. Asked why he had carried
> a weapon, he said, "I'm going to be honest with you, I
> wanted to be a bad boy."
> He said he would return to Sri Lanka willingly but first he
> wanted to spend time at home visiting his daughter, who was
> born just 12 days before his arrest. When the IRB refused,
> Kuhendrarajah lost it.
> "Do you think I give a f--k about your f--king country?" he
> said. He then threw a rubber eraser at the IRB member and
> left the hearing room. The IRB wrote that the outburst
> "indicates an individual that does not fully control
> himself."
> He was deported to Sri Lanka soon after, and that was the
> last Canadian police heard of him until he reappeared in
> Indonesia as the articulate spokesman for the Tamil boat
> people trying to reach Australia.
> In his statement yesterday, he portrayed his past in Canada
> as a non-issue. "The Sri Lankan government is trying to
> interfere with our right to have a fair hearing for our
> claims for asylum in a safe country," he said. "The Sri
> Lankan government is desperate to divert attention away from
> its role in human rights abuses, particularly against Tamils
> in Sri Lanka."
>
>
>
> Notorious Toronto gangster re-emerges as Sri Lankan asylum
> seeker
> Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Monday, November 09,
> 2009
Posted via email from What's New in Internet Today !
One Laptop per Child (OLPC) revealed the XO-3 and said it would be "available in 2012" and would cost "well below $100".
His weapon against his people is ''R A P E'' ''Interviewing a former Iranian Basij militia member'' from BBC Forum: Snowblog by Lindsey HilsumFor months now, we’ve heard horrific stories of rape and abuse from Iran’s prisons. Since the election last June 2009, hundreds, maybe thousands, of opposition protestors have been beaten and jailed. Human rights groups have documented many reports of ''RAPE'' within the police stations and prisons. Now, for the first time, we’ve spoken to a member of the Basij militia – the group said to be responsible for many of the abuses.Basiji is a paramilitary volunteer militia founded by the Ayatollah Khomeini in November 1979. 
The Rouge Leader of Iran 
