President Rajpakshe of Srilanka is on a roll.

This again shows the power of China which is backing the country to its hilt.

Why worry about US, Europe, UK and Canada, when you have China as your backer.

NDP leader Jack Layton is next in line.


http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/648432

Sri Lanka turns Bob Rae away

MICHAEL STUPARYK/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

OTTAWA – A prominent Liberal MP with a long history working for peace in Sri Lanka was expelled from the country, apparently for his sympathetic views toward the Tamil Tigers rebel group.

Bob Rae, the party's foreign affairs critic, arrived in Colombo Tuesday and was denied entry by local officials \"on the grounds of national intelligence,\" he said in a statement distributed by the Liberal party.

The Associated Press quoted Sri Lanka's Immigration Commissioner, P.B. Abeykoon, saying that after receiving information from the country's intelligence services, Rae's visit was deemed \"not suitable.\"

A Sri Lankan army official referred to Rae, a former Ontario premier who has worked for years to broker a peace deal to the recently concluded civil war, as a \"supporter\" of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The Toronto MP called the accusation \"a lie, pure and simple.\"

Rae said he was granted a visa by the Sri Lankan High Commission in Ottawa, had made the country's representative to Canada and Canadian officials in Colombo aware of his travel plans and was met at the airport by two Canadians from the High Commission.

\"Since that time I have spent over twelve hours at the airport trying to find a reason for this decision,\" Rae said in the statement.

\"My many trips to Sri Lanka, and my work in Canada as well as the peace process post-2001, were intended to work to a peaceful solution. To that end I have met with people of all views. I have never in any way felt that the violent tactics of the (Tamil Tigers) were in any way the right course and I have made that view known on many occasions, including debates in Parliament.\"

The 25-year Tamil insurgency to create a separate homeland in the north and east of the country has led to the Tigers being branded a terrorist organization in many countries around the world, including Canada. The civil war ended last month with the surrender of the Tigers and the death of its revered leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, on May 18. Still, the Sri Lankan government has faced criticism for failing to protect innocent civilians caught up in the fighting.

\"The Sri Lankan government has made this decision because they have apparently reached some ill-conceived and defamatory conclusions about me. But ... I have to say this decision reflects on them and not on me. I have fought against violence and extremism all my life. Everyone knows that,\" Rae said.

\"What they now also know is that the government of Sri Lanka is afraid of dialogue, afraid of discussion, afraid of engagement. All I can say is shame on them. If this is how they treat me, imagine how they treat people who can't speak out and who can't make public statements.\"

Refusing prominent public officials from a country on national security grounds is not without precedent. Earlier this spring, Canada refused to allow muckraking British MP George Galloway entry to Canada where he was scheduled to deliver a number of speeches. The Canada Border Services Agency deemed Galloway a threat to national security, allegedly for his expressed support of the elected Hamas government in the Palestinian territories. Several months prior to the decision being taken, Galloway had led a humanitarian convoy into the Gaza Strip delivering what he said was medicine, food aid and a fire truck to the Hamas government.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney backed the border agency's decision and condemned Galloway's \"odious\" support of terrorism. But he said the British lawmaker's ban was the result not of his opinions or speeches, but his material and financial support of an illegal terror group.

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Sunny Leone a true Canadian DESI now back in India !.