Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: MYS33843 Country: Malaysia Date: 15 October 2008 Keywords: Malaysia - Recruiting practices - Tamil Tigers - “Shoot to kill” policy – Treatment - Ethnic Indians This response was prepared by the Research & Information Services Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. This research response may not, under any circumstance, be cited in a decision or any other document. Anyone wishing to use this information may only cite the primary source material contained herein. Questions 1. Please provide information on the current recruiting practices of Tamil Tigers in Malaysia for money and personnel. 2. Do the authorities have a “Shoot to kill” policy that results in average fortnightly deaths? 3. Does the government target ethnic Indian Malays? RESPONSE 1. Please provide information on the current recruiting practices of Tamil Tigers in Malaysia for money and personnel. No definitive information has been located on the current recruiting practices of Tamil Tigers in Malaysia for money and personnel. However, sources indicate that the LTTE has used Malaysia for its campaign for the establishment of a separate homeland in Sri Lanka and found a fertile land for its cause among the Tamil diasporas long frustrated over the Malaysian government’s policy for preferential treatment of the native Malays. The South Asia Terrorism Portal comments that: The LTTE has been proscribed, designated or banned as a terrorist group by a number of governments - India, Malaysia, USA, Canada, UK, Australia - countries where the LTTE has significant terrorist infrastructure for disseminating propaganda, raising funds, procuring and shipping supplies to support their terrorist campaign in Sri Lanka (‘Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)’ (undated), satp website http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/shrilanka/terroristoutfits/LTTE.HTM - Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 1). Reporting on an interview by the Sri Lankan foreign minister, The Lanka Newspaper states that: Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera suspects Malaysia and Singapore may be `clearing houses` for funds raised around the world by the LTTE to finance its struggle for a separate homeland in Sri Lanka (‘Malaysia, Singapore `clearing houses` for LTTE? - Mangala Samaraweera’ 2006, The Lanka Newspaper, 1 June http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2006/5/7138.html - Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 2). In November 2005, Natasha Robinson of The Australian commented that: Melbourne TAFE lecturer Thillai Jeyakumar sparked the interest of ASIO officers when he ordered hang-gliders from a NSW business and then shipped them to Malaysia. Mr Jeyakumar, also known as Jay Jeyakumar, is a member of the Melbourne-based charity the Tamil Co-ordinating Committee, whose members were raided by Australian Federal Police last week. An annual statement that the TCC provided to Consumer Affairs Victoria and obtained by The Australian shows that in 2003 more than half of the donations forwarded by the charity were sent to a fund in Malaysia described by security sources as "the leading Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) front organisation in Malaysia". The annual statement said TCC's total income in the year to June 2003 was $269,838. Of that, $183,290 was sent directly to orphanages and hospitals in LTTE-controlled northeast Sri Lanka but most of that amount - $95,000 - went to the World Tamil Relief Fund in Malaysia (Robinson, Natasha 2005, ‘Tamil-link lecturer in ASIO probe’, The Australian, 30 November http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,17410944-2702,00.html - Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 3). Referring to the suspicion held by the governments of Malaysia and Sri Lanka on the activities of the LTTE in Malaysia, lankanewspapers.com comments that: Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama met his Malaysian counterpart Dr. Rayes Yatim for bilateral talks at the Asia-Middle East Ministerial Summit, held here over the weekend, where he reminded him of Sri Lanka’s request. `We have reason to believe that the LTTE are raising and channeling these funds to procure arms through Malaysia's banking system. In the UK we found that the LTTE had been extorting money from the Tamil Diaspora to the tune of five million sterling pounds a month while in France it amounted to seven million sterling pounds. In addition to this, the outfit’s narcotics, human trafficking and smuggling operations generated up to US $ 300 million` Bogollagama said (‘Sri Lanka reminds Malaysia of its request on LTTE’ 2008, lankanewspapers.com website, 9 April http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2008/4/26579.html - Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 4). Commenting on the Tamil rebels’ heavy reliance on contributions from expatriate Tamils living in North America and Europe, and the role played by Malaysia as an conduit for the funds, The Lanka Academic reported in 2006 that: … Tamil Tiger rebels funnel contributions through Malaysia and Singapore to buy weapons in Thailand and Cambodia … Mangala Pinsiri Samaraweera told The New Straits Times in Kuala Lumpur that his government has asked for help from those countries to curb fundraising and weapons purchases by the separatist rebels. The rebels are believed to rely heavily on contributions from expatriate Tamils living in North America and Europe. “The process of channelling funds raised in European Union nations and the United States to Malaysia and Singapore is rather complicated. That is why we are seeking the cooperation of countries like Malaysia,” Samaraweera said in an interview with the Times (‘Report: Tamil Tigers use Malaysia, Singapore to channel rebel funds, Sri Lankan FM says’ 2006, The Lanka Academic, 1 June http://www.ipcs.org/Jun_06_SAsrilanka.pdf – Accessed 7 October 2008 – Attachment 5). In the wake of the November 2007 demonstration organized by the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) in Kuala Lumpur, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi ordered the arrest of five leaders linking them, among other things, to Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ('Detained ethnic Indians a threat to Malaysia's security' 2008, Times of India, 3 April – Attachment 6) although no definitive information has been located to link them to the LTTE. However, a 2007 article quotes P. Ramasamy, former professor of history at University Kebangsaan Malaysia who was appointed by the LTTE on its Constitutional Affairs Committee in 2003, as saying that Tamils in Malaysia are active contributors to the Tamil Eelam cause (Vembu, Venkatesan 2007, ‘Malaysian Indians look at LTTE’, Daily News & Analysis, 29 November http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1136140&pageid=0 - Accessed 14 October 2008 – Attachment 7). It continues further that: Angry ethnic Indians who marched in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday [25 November 2007] to protest race-based discrimination in Malaysia carried portraits of Mahatma Gandhi as a symbol of their non-violent struggle. “But if their genuine grievances continue to be ignored, (Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers leader) Velupillai Prabakaran could soon replace Gandhi as their inspiration,” warns P. Ramasamy... In an interview to DNA from Singapore, Ramasamy …connected the dots that link the Tamil diaspora in Malaysia (which accounts for most of the Indian population there) to the Tamil Eelam movement in Sri Lanka (Vembu, Venkatesan 2007, ‘Malaysian Indians look at LTTE’, Daily News & Analysis, 29 November http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1136140&pageid=0 - Accessed 14 October 2008 – Attachment 7). In contrast to the dearth of recent information on the LTTE’s activities in Malaysia, a 2001 RRT Research Response lists several earlier reports covering the period up to 1996 (RRT Country Research 2001, Research Response MYS14552, 7 March – Attachment 8). For a recent investigation into the LTTE’s fund raising activities in Canada, see Bell, Stewart 2008, ‘Toronto non-profit raised millions for Tamil Tigers’, National Post, 18 August http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=732309 - Accessed 8 October 2008 – Attachment 9). 2. Do the authorities have a “Shoot to kill” policy that results in average fortnightly deaths? 3. Does the government target ethnic Indian Malays? No information has been found to indicate that the authorities have a “Shoot to kill” policy that results in average fortnightly deaths or target ethnic Indian Malays. However, the government’s preferential programs designed to boost the position of bumiputras have resulted in minorities lacking opportunities in higher education, government employment, business permits and licenses, and ownership of land. As a result, they perceive that they are discriminated against and marginalized. In his 2000 article, ‘Decades of official discrimination have turned Malaysia's ethnic Indians into a disgruntled underclass’, Anthony Spaeth describes the Indian Malays’ view as: follows: ... Race is the big divide in Malaysia, as it has been ever since the watershed race riots of 1969. In his 20 years in power, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has tried to uplift the Malays, who make up 55% of the 22 million population, and guarantee them a large percentage of available business opportunities. The second-largest group, the Chinese, were supposed to lose their disproportionate grip on the country's economy. But it may be the Indians who were the real losers. Most were imported a century ago to work the rubber plantations and tin mines, and they still dominate the bottom rungs of the social ladder. "Indians have neither the political nor the economic leverage to break out of their vicious cycle of poverty," says Selvakumaran Ramachandran, an Indian-Malaysian academic who works for the United Nations Development Program. "If their problems are not arrested and reversed, it is almost certain they will emerge as an underclass." Already, Indians have the lowest share of the nation's corporate wealth: 1.5%, compared to 19.4% for the Malays and 38.5% for the Chinese.