Canadian authorities tell Immigration Board:

LTTE ship had traces of high explosives

Walter JAYAWARDHANA

Canadian authorities found high traces of potentcy plastic explosives like RDX in the LTTE gun running ship Princess Easwary masquerading as Ocean Lady that brought 76 illegal immigrants to Canada, the Immigration and Refugee Board was told as evidence. The suspected immigrant smuggling ship, which was formerly smuggling for the LTTE was intercepted with 76 Tamils off the coast of Vancouver Island, October 17.

A Border Service Agency officer told the Immigration and Refugee Board traces of three kinds of explosives had been found on the ship. One kind is the high explosives generally used by the military, RDX also called cyclonite or hexogen.

Two other explosives were also found on two items of clothing seized when Canadian authorities boarded the ship and took the migrants into custody. The immigration investigation has been informed that the border officers who scoured and swabbed the ship came up with 10 positive results for traces of explosives.

It was revealed that the terrorism expert advising the Canadian government on this case has said that at least two of the men found on the ship are members of the LTTE. The lawyers for about 20 Tamils argued why so little amount of RDX and other explosives were found on the ship if it was an arms smuggling ship.

CBSA officer Chantal Lee who analyzed swabs from the ship was grilled by the defense lawyers. Waldman, a lawyer asked Lee whether being close to the conflict zones couldn’t give the traces of explosives to the clothing. But Lee said she could not answer that question. All I know is that I took the samples and the results were positive, she testified.

Last week Waldman cross examined Professor Rohan Gunaratne , who is advising the Canadian government on the background of the men detained.

Lee testifying said she found three times of the explosive RDX from swabs taken from the ship. She said later from further tests they found out the tests proved positive for the explosive, pentaerythritol tetranitrate or Petin. Petin is also used for heart medication, she said.