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Expat Tamils urged to boycott airline
Canadian Tamils are being urged to join a global boycott of Sri Lankan Airlines in protest at the Colombo government’s decision to end its six-year ceasefire with rebels.
At the same time, Canada has joined Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom and Russia to update their travel warnings in the backdrop of back-to-back bomb blasts and other sporadic violence-related incidents occurring in almost all parts of the country.
Canada advised against non-essential travel to Sri Lanka unless the visitors had critical business or family reasons to do so.
The Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada noted that incidents of violence could occur without notice throughout the entire country and were not restricted to the north and east of Sri Lanka.
“Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada advises against all travel to areas in the east and north of the country, including Kilinochchi, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara Districts, the Jaffna peninsula, Mannar and Vavuniya. Canadians currently in these regions should leave if it is safe to do so,” the warning said.
Announcing the boycott of Sri Lankan Airlines, the London-based British Tamils Forum claimed that millions in foreign currency earned annually by the airline was being used to reinforce the government’s war chest.
Sri Lankan Airlines is, in fact, partially privatised with 43% of the shares owned by the Dubai-base Emirates Airline.
As many as 300,000 Tamils from Sri Lanka live in the UK. There are an estimated 350,000 in Canada and around 100,000 each in the United States and South Africa.
“The Sri Lankan government has abandoned all pretence of observing a ceasefire while resorting to an escalating war on the Tamils corralled into an ever tightening military cordon in their traditional homeland,” said Ivan Pedropillai, of the British Tamils Forum.
“We appeal to our fellow Tamils ... to understand that travelling with Sri Lankan Airlines is tantamount to paying the government of Sri Lanka to buy the weaponry with which to kill our own people in their homeland in Sri Lanka.
“We appreciate that flying with other airlines to Colombo may involve some delay in transit stopovers.”
Sri Lankan Airlines declined to comment on the boycott threat.
More than 70,000 people have been killed since 1983 when the Tamil Tiger rebel group began its paramilitary campaign for a separate homeland for the minority Tamil population.
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