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2 Global hunt for Tigers'
assets By Ajit Kumar Singh
A global onslaught against the
international network of front organizations of
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
coincides with the domestic reverses the rebels
have suffered within Sri Lanka.
On
Wednesday, the LTTE claimed it had killed 100 Sri
Lankan soldiers in the nation's bloodiest battle
in 18 months, while the military claimed more than
100 rebels died in the fighting, following
pre-dawn fighting in the northern peninsula of
Jaffna.
Australia, the United Kingdom,
Canada, France and the United States, which
account for the major chunk of the roughly
750,000-strong Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, and from
where the outfit
accrues its greatest
financial and propaganda support, have taken stern
action against LTTE proxies, severely affecting
the Tigers' capacities in their "final war of
liberation".
The LTTE, which opened its
first overseas office in London in 1984, has front
organizations in India, Botswana, Myanmar,
Cambodia, Denmark, Germany, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Qatar, South Africa, Switzerland and
Thailand, to name a few. The Washington Times on
April 7 reported that the LTTE's political wing
had established its branches in at least 12
countries, including the US. Veerakathy Manivannam
aka Castro is the head of the LTTE's
"international secretariat", the body which
ensures the smooth functioning of the group's
global network.
The LTTE's global
activities can broadly be summarized into three
principal categories: fundraising, arms
procurement and shipping, and publicity and
propaganda. Though each of these tasks invariably
overlaps, there is a significant autonomy of
operation in each.
The LTTE has created
front organizations in about 50 countries across
the globe, and most significant among these
organizations include the Australasian Federation
of Tamil Associations; the Swiss Federation of
Tamil Associations; the French Federation of Tamil
Associations; the Federation of Associations of
Canadian Tamils; the Illankai Tamil Sangam in the
US; the Tamil Coordinating Committee in Norway and
the International Federation of Tamils in Britain.
These fronts also form sympathetic
pressure groups and media units to harness
political and economic support for the outfit from
the politicians and human-rights activists in the
respective countries. They bring out or operate
numerous magazines, radio and TV stations; carry
out public demonstrations, display LTTE flags and
emblems as well as photographs of its leader
Velupillai Prabhakaran and other leaders, sell and
distribute literature glorifying the LTTE struggle
and suicide attacks, and engage in publicity and
propaganda among Tamil diaspora to harness support
and contributions.
As the LTTE came under
tremendous pressure at home, pro-LTTE Tamil groups
in Britain launched a campaign to highlight the
suffering of Tamils in Sri Lanka, with a protest
outside the prime minister's residence and office
at 20 Downing Street in London on February 24.
On January 16, Britain's leading Tamil
organization, the British Tamils Forum, called for
a boycott of Sri Lankan Airlines in a move to
target the Sri Lankan economy, as part of their
campaign for a separate Tamil homeland. On January
1, a calendar apparently depicting the logo of the
LTTE and the map of a separate state of "Tamil
Eelam" was sold outside Hindu temples in London.
According to an August 22, 2007, report, Tamil
broadcasters in Australia glorify the LTTE and its
chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran, and also engage in
fundraising.
The LTTE has secured the
support of several non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) working in these countries through its
persistent publicity and propaganda campaigns.
Prominent NGOs who have extended support include
the Canadian Relief Organization for Peace in Sri
Lanka, International Educational Development Inc,
the World Council of Churches, the Australian
Human Rights Foundation, the International Human
Rights Group, the International Federation of
Journalists (Pax Romana), the International Peace
Bureau, the International Human Rights Law Group
and the Robert F Kennedy Memorial Center for Human
Rights.
These activities are, of course,
subordinate to the principal objective of the
"International Secretariat": to generate maximum
financial resources to support the LTTE's "final
war" in Sri Lanka. The LTTE is estimated to
harvest between an estimated US$10 million to $30
million a month through organizations such as the
Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils,
Human Rights for Tamils, Melrose Publishers, the
Tamil Center for Human Rights, the Tamil
Coordinating Committee, the Tamil Eelam Economic
Development Organization, the Tamil Relief
Organization (TRO), the Tamil Youth Organization,
the United Tamil Organization, the White Pigeon,
the World Tamil Movement, and the World Tamil
Association, to name a few of the fronts engaged
in these tasks.
These organizations
collect funds from individuals and businesses; by
managing Hindu temples principally serving Tamil
diaspora communities; engaging in businesses
including the Internet, community-based Tamil
radio stations and subscription satellite TV,
shipping lines, travel agencies; as well as
fixed-income generation methods, such as the
"registration" of the Tamil diaspora. According to
a May 6, 2007, report, the Armulmihu Hindu temple
in Tooting in south London, which reportedly
raises nearly $1 million each year, may have
possible links to the LTTE in Sri Lanka.
Through these global financial operations,
the LTTE runs its arms network, headed by
Tharmalingam Shanmugham aka Kumaran Pathmanathan
aka KP, which acquire weaponry and munitions from
countries like Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Myanmar,
Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Greece, Hong Kong,
Lebanon, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, South
Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Vietnam and
Zimbabwe.
KP is said to have bases in
Bangkok, Yangon, Singapore and, more recently, in
Johannesburg, South Africa, and is alleged to have
held various bank accounts in Australia, Frankfurt
and London. According to the August 29, 2007, US
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Report, the
government of Eritrea is providing direct military
assistance to the LTTE. There is cumulative
corroborative evidence confirming the fact that
the arms network has spread across the globe.
Reports also indicate that the Tigers
receive military training in some of these
countries as well. One surprising source of such
training was uncovered in August 2007, when the
Sri Lankan government launched an investigation
into claims that LTTE cadres received "police"
training in Britain after the 2002 ceasefire
agreement (CFA). The probe was ordered after
revelations by a 29-year-old LTTE cadre, Kalimuttu
Vinodkumar, who was arrested at a police roadblock
in Trincomalee in Sri Lanka, who told
interrogators he was among 12 LTTE cadres sent on
a three-month training program to Northern
Ireland, shortly after the CFA was signed. The
course had been conducted by foreign instructors
with the help of Tamil translators.
Over
the years, the LTTE's international support
network has ensured that the Tigers became the
only officially listed terrorist organization with
its own military - an army, navy and air force -
and clear control over a large swathe of land.
Things, however, started to change after
the declaration of the "war on terror" in the wake
of the September 11, 2001, incidents in the US,
with international attitudes hardening against the
LTTE. Despite this, the 25-nation European Union
only banned the LTTE in May 2006. Earlier, Canada
proscribed the outfit on April 10, 2006. India was
the first country to ban the LTTE in 1992. The
LTTE is also on a list of proscribed terrorist
organizations in the US, and is currently banned
in as many as 31 countries.
The US Federal
Bureau of Investigation went to the extent of
describing the organization as one of the most
dangerous and deadly extremist outfits in the
world, as they had "inspired" networks worldwide,
including al-Qaeda in Iraq. Corroborating linkages
with al-Qaeda, a March 25, 2007, report indicated
that the LTTE had supplied forged passports to
Ramzi Yousef, who bombed the World Trade Center.
On March 10, 2007, Falk Rovik, chief
spokesperson of Norwegians Against Terrorism,
stated in Toronto that the LTTE had stolen
hundreds of Norwegian passports and sold them to
al-Qaeda to earn money. According to a July 7,
2007, report, Britain
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