LTTE attempts to raise funds in Greece fail

Dinesh Weerawansa in Greece

GREECE: The LTTE activists have made several unsuccessful attempts to collect funds from Sri Lankan expatriates in Greece.

Though Greece comes under the European Union, which has already declared the LTTE as a terrorist organisation, there have been several attempts by Tiger agents to collect funds from the Tamil community living here.

But a member of the Sri-Lanka Greek Friendship Association here said it is hard for the LTTE to collect funds in Greece.

“Unlike in other European countries such as Britain, France, Norway and Switzerland, the LTTE can not do their fundraising here,” he said.

The domiciled Lankan, who wished to remain anonymous, said there were a few instances the LTTE tried to collect funds for the terrorists. “But there is no real support for the LTTE here. That could be attributed to two reasons.

One is there are only a few Tamil origins here, compared to the large number of Sri Lankan expatriates. Unlike in other European cities, both the Sinhalese and the Tamils in Athens are united,” he said.

He said the Greek Police has particularly been vigilant and the Asian expatriates and their activities are closely monitored.

“The Police here are keeping a close eye on illegal immigrants. Even those who have resident visas, carry their papers along with them. Hence, there is less room for LTTE activities here. Even then, the Tiger agents have been unsuccessful impressing the Tamil Diaspora here,” he said.

The Greek Government has assured that action will be taken to ban the LTTE. Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dora Bakoyannis met his visiting Sri Lankan counterpart Rohitha Bogollagama in Athens last month.

Due to its expanded shipping and relatively low population, human smugglers have been using Greece as a transit point in job seekers to cities like Rome, Paris and Zurich. Hence, the LTTE has been eyeing to gain support from the Lankan expatriates without any success.

However, with the recent banning of Tamil satellite television telecasts from the US and Europe, the LTTE is making use of a few other Television feeds telecast here from Rome. Athens, Thursday.