AFFIDAVIT of Kagusthan Ariaratnam (a.k.a Murali)

Kagusthan Ariaratnam (Plaintiff)

and

Rohan Gunaratna (Defendant)

***amended and unclassified***

I, Kagusthan Ariaratnam (also known as Murali) of the city of Ottawa, in the province of Ontario, MAKE OATH AND SAY AS FOLLOWS:

1. Kagusthan Ariaratnam (the undersigned and the “subject” hereafter) is a Canadian citizen of Tamil nationality. He is married and has three children who were born in Canada. Canadian authorities thoroughly knew his background before the “subject” became a Canadian citizen.
2. Professor Rohan Gunaratna, who is currently the Director General of the Institute of National Security in Sri Lanka, first met the “subject” in the summer of 1996 in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, when Gunaratna was doing his Master of Arts at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame University. The “subject” was held as a prisoner of war, even though he had defected from the ranks of the Tamil rebel movement, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), better known as the Tamil Tigers. During this period, Gunaratna interviewed the “subject” for his book entitled International & Regional Security Implications of the Sri Lankan Tamil Insurgency (Sri Lanka: Alumni Association of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, 1997).
3. Gunaratna initially recruited the “subject” to act as a source of intelligence on the inner workings of the LTTE and the Tamil Diaspora for post-graduate studies Gunaratna was working on from the period of 1997 to 2003. During this period, Gunaratna held multiple meetings with the “subject.”
4. In 2001, upon being questioned, the “subject” exposed the activities of  Gunaratna to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)—the nation’s primary intelligence agency—and Gunaratna soon became aware of this. Gunaratna, upon discovering this, sent an e-mail to the “subject” asking him to move his family into a house chosen by Gunaratna. The “subject” interpreted the e-mail as a veiled threat that if he engages in acts of non-compliance, his family will face reprisals.
5. After completing his Ph.D., Gunaratna became a Fellow at the University of St Andrews’ Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. Between 2000 and 2002, the “subject” was requested to work with Gunaratna as a terrorism analyst, writing periodically on the Tamil Tigers’ ORBAT, organizational structures, domestic and international operations, procurements, formations, divisions, personnel profiles, tactics, and strategies. Gunaratna requested the “subject” to fax or email the work the “subject” had done for him. These include writing detailed articles about the history of the Tamil Tigers and its wings, translating Tamil newspapers, magazines, calendars, pamphlets published by the Tamil Tiger front, and sympathetic and cover organizations in Canada. 
6. In September 2001, the “subject” was formally diagnosed with depression for the first time at a hospital. The “subject” said his mental illness began when he was entrapped by Sri Lankan intelligence—at the direction of Rohan Gunaratna—to work for them. He feared what they might do to his Sri Lankan family and that they might tell Canadian authorities that he was an LTTE cadre. The “subject” takes fifteen different anti-depressants and anti-psychotic medications daily.
7.  In August 2003, the McGill University Health Centre, based in Quebec, Canada, diagnosed the “subject” with “paranoid psychosis.” The psychiatrists reported the “subject,” expressing views that people are out to harm him. The “subject” informed the psychiatrists countless times about the emotional and mental abuse that Gunaratna had subjected him to. Consequently, the “subject” partly attributes the deterioration of his mental health to the blackmail and emotional manipulation inflicted by Gunaratna.
8. After relocating as a Singapore-based “international terrorism expert” at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS), Gunaratna became an Associate Professor and is the head of its International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR). In October 2003, Gunaratna invited the “subject” to his center and requested the “subject” to brief the staff at IDSS for three consecutive days about international terrorism, using the Tamil Tigers as a case study, and honored the “subject” with a token of appreciation.
9. On this occasion, Gunaratna introduced Malinda Moragoda, currently the Sri Lankan High Commissioner for India, to the “subject,” who requested the subject to corporate with the Sri Lankan officials to obliterate the LTTE. Moragoda and Gunaratna promised the “subject that once LTTE is obliterated, they will offer a federal political solution, such as Canada’s, to the Tamil grievances in Sri Lanka. The “subject” had no choice but fully cooperate with the Sri Lankan officials to win the war against the LTTE because his family was kept as collateral in Colombo.
10. In the same meeting, Gunaratna and Moragoda informed the “subject” that the directorate of military intelligence was engineering a split within the LTTE and convinced the “subject” to write the profiles of top-notch LTTE leaders. The “subject” wrote the profiles of around 20 icons of the LTTE leadership, including Colonel Karuna, who defected from the LTTE in March 2004 with some 6000 cadres, and the renegades played a crucial role in wiping out the entire LTTE organization by May 2009.
11.  Due to being coerced to having to provide intelligence work for Gunaratna, the “subject” suffered social isolation in Canada at the hands of his Tamil peers. In August 2001, while working at Peerless Clothing Inc in Montreal, the subject became aware that some of his coworkers were members of the World Tamil Movement, an overseas LTTE fundraising organization. The coworkers told the foreman that the “subject” was collecting information about Tamils at the company. In retaliation, the co-workers fabricated false accusations that the “subject” was stealing from the company and forced him to quit his job. Subsequently, the “subject” sued Peerless and received a one-year salary.
12. In the following years, Gunaratna requested the “subject” to write an undergraduate thesis on the Tiger Organization Security Intelligence Service (TOSIS), which the “subject” completed during the winter of 2005, but the “subject” was never granted the undergraduate degree that Gunaratna’s center promised. Nonetheless, the “subject” continued to work with Gunaratna until the LTTE was militarily obliterated in May 2009.
13. After the defeat of the LTTE in October 2009, the “subject” learned that a joint Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian Border Service Agency operation in Vancouver had captured a ship carrying 76 Tamils. All the ship’s passengers were seeking asylum. This was not the usual mix of “boat people” because this was a group of Tamil men, all between the ages of 18 and 30.
14. One evening in October 2009, the “subject” was startled to see the face of Gunaratna, whom the then-Canadian conservative government had hired as an ‘expert witness’ on the Tamil migrant ship issue. Gunaratna declared with absolute certainty that the 76 Tamils were all LTTE cadres. He argued that the refugee claimants threatened Canadian and Sri Lankan security and should be sent directly home to be ‘dealt with’ there (CBC News, 2009). The lawyers for the 76 arrivals and the spokesman for the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), a non-profit Tamil community organization, were also featured in the news, arguing that it was impossible to make such a sweeping statement and that each refugee claim should be investigated on an individual basis whether the arrivals were LTTE cadres or not (Youssef, 2010).
15. The “subject” had an immediate and robust gut reaction. Gunaratna had no moral right to give evidence on this matter. The “subject” also felt that there should be an internal investigation by Canadian authorities. If the men were found to be a threat to the national security of Canada, then they should be sent back. But Gunaratna had been instrumental in sending the “subject” – an LTTE intelligence wing cadre – to Canada. Then, once the “subject” was here, Gunaratna blackmailed him into working as an informant for the Sri Lankan government. Gunaratna had once said to the “subject,” ‘When I say jump, you should ask, ‘How high?’ Now Gunaratna wanted to send these other men back?  LTTE cadres were acceptable in foreign countries if he approved them; first, it seemed.
16. Since his arrival in Canada, the “subject” worked with Canadian authorities to help identify those who might be importing violence to this land. The “subject” believes resolutely in peaceful means to peaceful ends. He was so deeply touched that the Canadian government and its agencies had enough faith in granting him Canadian citizenship even though the “subject” was a former member of the LTTE organization. He had done whatever he could to be worthy of that trust.
17. Under these circumstances, the “subject” had decided to submit an affidavit against Gunaratna’s testimony and felt, by doing this, he needed to prevent his Tamil brethren’s being sent back to Sri Lanka. The purpose of the affidavit was to show that Gunaratna was not a credible witness. He is a Sri Lankan government operative.  
18. In January 2010, all 76 migrants were ordered released by a judge from the Immigration and Refugee Board since the Canadian agencies could not find any evidence against them or links to the rebels. The “subject” was relieved that they were not sent back to Sri Lanka to their possible deaths. The first lesson the “subject” learned was that one person could make a difference. By giving his testimony through the affidavit, he was able to have Gunaratna removed as an expert witness from the Tamil migrant’s investigation.
19. Even though the “subject” no longer has any association with Gunaratna, the emotional and mental distress inflicted by Gunaratna has left the “subject” with permanent lifelong problems.
20. The antipsychotic drugs prescribed to the “subject,” partly due to the distress inflicted by Gunaratna, significantly impacted his physical and mental health. Due to the antipsychotic drugs and chemical imbalance in his body, the “subject” suffers from many side effects, such as obesity, hyper-cholesterol, hyper-thyroid, extreme fatigue, short-term memory loss, loss of focus, and loss of concentration. One thing led to another, and he finds himself today, after more than twenty years of ongoing treatment, he has been conditioned and dependent on these drugs. If he ever stops taking the prescribed medications, he will relapse.
21. The Sri Lankan war wounds and scenes from the past haunt him to date—a reel of death, genocide, and war claw at his heart and mind. After being kidnapped from school and forced to fight as a child soldier, the “subject” had to choose where he placed his loyalties. While his people were being torn away from everything dear to them during the bloodbath of Sri Lanka, he abandoned his family and fled to Canada. Not to betray them but to protect them. Yet, the “subject” and his coerced association with Gunaratna filled him with remorse and shame. He prays that God will forgive him.
22. In annihilating the Tamil Tigers, many innocent people—youth, elderly, women, and children—had been killed as collateral. And some of those deaths happened because of the subject’s actions. But he knows that doing the unthinkable was his only choice back then. His survival, and that of his family, depended on it.
23. The “subject” swears this statement to be accurate and made for no improper purpose.

Sincerely,

Kagusthan Ariaratnam

Featured image: Merriam-Webster’s Words of the Year 2018