Sangha Sammelanaya spokesman the Ven. Galagodatte Gnanasara Thera threatened to hold a fast unto death campaign opposite the Canadian embassy if the Canadian government failed to reconsider the permission granted for the Pongu-Thamil festival in Canada.
NMAT Chairman Senaka De Silva and Jathika Hela Urumaya parliamentarian the Ven. Uduwatte Nanda Thera handed over a letter of protest to Canadian High Commissioner and addressed to Canadian Premier.
They said the LTTE was engaged in ethnic cleansing of Sinhalese and Muslims in the North and East and were violating the ceasefire agreement.
"The LTTE had been avoiding coming for talks during the last 18 months demanding Interim Self governance within a unitary Sri Lanka and preparing themselves for war", the JHU MP said.
NMAT alleged that funds obtained through festivals like Pongu-Thamil was being used to kill Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people in Sri Lanka and to recruit child soldiers.
It queried as to what the Canadian stand was on the LTTE in particular and terrorism in general and called for the immediate ban of the LTTE in Canada.
NMAT spokesman, Nishantha Warnasinghe said the Canadian government while condemning terrorist attacks in the USA and Russia were giving a free hand to the LTTE to hold fund raising programmes like the Pongu-Tamil within Canada.
" If the Canadian government has this kind of a policy towards the LTTE we cannot help but consider Canada as anti-Sri Lankan, which is seeking to promote terrorism to separate this country", he said.
Meanwhile the Canadian High Commissioner had guaranteed to take up the matter with the Canadian government regarding the protest by the NMAT and Sangha Sammelanaya.
