Tigers get mauling on many fronts abroad

UNTRUSTWORTHINESS: With all the angst about the apparent support shown to the LTTE in the recent moves by some British MPs and even Labour Government in the post-twilight of Tony Blair’s New Labour, we seem to have missed a series of moves that have been taken against the LTTE internationally, which puts them at a considerable disadvantage, whatever a motley group of current MPs of the Old Raj may say.

Why worry about them so much when the latest polls show that MPs in the UK are trusted even less than used car salesman by the British public? And all the while one thought that a used car salesman was the epitome of untrustworthiness!

From the United States to Australia, France, Norway and India the LTTE and its terrorism is getting a beating the likes of which have not been seen before. It is a drubbing that if continued, would make the flying arm of the LTTE seem a mere bagatelle.

There are signs that suddenly the pieces of the LTTE’s jigsaw of terror are being fitted and the larger picture of the international ramifications of its operations is coming to light.

All the efforts by Sri Lanka, from the time of the late Lakshman Kadirgamar, are suddenly showing results, generating its own momentum of exposure of the LTTE and action against it.

Australia

On May 1 the Australian Federal Police arrested two suspected LTTE terrorists in Melbourne for financing the LTTE.

As the Aussie media reported it, this was the first time that Australian law enforcement authorities took direct action against the widespread fund-raising activities by the terror outfit on Australian soil.

What has shocked both the Australian Media and public is that the two accused are charged with using tsunami donations to fund their activities.

After lengthy investigation the Federal Police in Australia have unearthed a massive fraud and criminal operation that duped the Australian public into parting with donations for tsunami relief in Sri Lanka, which saw its way to the coffers of the LTTE.

Federal police counter terrorism spokesman Frank Prendergast has said the court will be told that the two accused are members of an organisation engaging in terror activities overseas, and they have been providing active, material support to that group. The latest news is that they have been refused bail by the court.

Interestingly, the Sri Lankan authorities have been stating for some time that the LTTE has been using tsunami relief for its terror operations, when many of its apologists both here and abroad were complaining about how the Government was trying to prevent tsunami relief reaching the needy in the North and East.

France

Also this month France’s television authority - CSA, instructed GlobeCast, a satellite broadcasting company, to suspend the relaying of Tamil Television Network (TTN) with immediate effect.

TTN with a viewership of around 20,000, mainly consisting of Sri Lanka Tamils in Europe, was one of the biggest propaganda arms of the LTTE used for their misinformation and disinformation campaign against Sri Lanka.

It is reported that this suspension came as a big blow to the LTTE which has recently suffered huge losses on the ground and relies heavily of the Tamil Diaspora for funding of its terror campaign against Sri Lanka.

The suspension ordered by the French TV authority came after representations were made by the Government of Sri Lanka.

It is reported that the LTTE operatives in France are already trying to use another channel to beam its programs to French and other European viewers, but the French authorities are aware of the moves and follow up action is most likely in view of the LTTE’s ban in the European Union.

United States

LTTE’s terrorist propaganda came for another blow in the United States. Since its launch in 2005, the LTTE’s so-called official TV channel, ‘National Television of Tamil Eelam’ (NTT) originating from an undisclosed location in northern Sri Lanka, was up linked using Intelsat12, owned by Intelsat Ltd. based in the USA, and beamed across Europe using TTN based in Paris.

In April this year, within days of representations made by the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington, Intelsat 12 satellite removed the bandwidth used for the LTTE’s National Television of Tamil Eelam (NTT) and the “Pulikalin Kural” radio broadcast.

Intelsat issued a press release titled “Intelsat works with Sri Lankan authorities to halt unauthorized use of its satellite.”

The press release said: “Intelsat, the leading provider of global satellite communications, today issued a statement with regard to the unauthorised use of one of its satellites by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a Sri Lanka-based terrorist group. The U.S. State Department lists the LTTE as a foreign terrorist organisation.

“Intelsat does not tolerate terrorists or others operating illegally on its satellites. Since we first learned of the LTTE’s signal piracy, we have been actively pursuing a number of technical alternatives to halt the transmissions. We are clear in our resolve to ending this terrorist organisation’s unauthorized use of our satellite.”

“The Sri Lanka Embassy and Intelsat agree that these illegal transmissions by the LTTE are a violation of Sri Lankan and U.S. laws.

On trial

Also in the United States, the LTTE has been pushed to the wall with the person described as the leader and senior representative in the United States for the LTTE, Karunakaran Kandasamy alias Karuna being produced before the District Court in Brooklyn, New York, on charges of providing material support to a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, a federal crime that warrants 15 years in prison.

The LTTE, is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) by the U.S. Commenting on the arraignment of Karunakaran Kandasamy US Attorney Rosslynn R. Mauskopf said: “For years the LTTE has covertly operated within the United States drawing on America’s financial resources and technological advances to further its war of terror in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. “We refuse to allow this to continue.”

Ms. Mauskopf added that further investigations into the LTTE’s operations in the US are under way.

Norway

Real surprise! Erik Solheim notwithstanding, six LTTE agents operating a credit card scam were sentenced to serve prison terms on April 28 by the Norwegian courts. They were convicted of skimming more than 5.3 million Norwegian kroners.

The main criminal convicted in this credit card scam, Satrubarajah Shanamugarajah (Ruby), was sentenced to five years and six months prison. Five other defendants were sentenced to 15 to 18 months. The other defendants received sentences from 75 days to five months imprisonment.

Media reports say the LTTE credit card fraud case in Oslo is only the tip of the iceberg. Investigators have established that Norway is only one link in the chain of LTTE cells operating this scam in Canada, England, Germany and Sweden.

UK too

Just a week before the Norwegian court sentenced LTTE operatives there for a credit card scam: BBC in the UK reported that Police there have started a thorough investigation into what is considered an LTTE global credit card scam.

What happens in this credit card fraud is that when a person pays at a petrol station by either credit card or debit card the fraudsters get hold of the details in the card, put these details into a fake card which they use to obtain money elsewhere.

Apparently at least 150 petrol stations fell victim to this kind of fraud last year and there have been more incidents this year in places such as Edinburgh, Nottingham and Portsmouth. The loss to the card holders is said to be staggering.

The British Foreign Secretary has said more effective steps will be taken to prevent the flow of funds; Police investigations are in progress.

When BBC asked the First Secretary of the Sri Lanka High Commission in London what Sri Lanka would like to see the Foreign Office do, he said: “We would hope that in curbing fund-raising activities they would look at the fact that the LTTE for instance is part of a wider terrorist network.

We are now seeing emerging links between the LTTE and the Al-Qaeda movement in its commercial activities. This has been pointed out even by the International Institute of Strategic studies recently.”

And India, too

Coming atop all those blows to the LTTE in the US, Europe and Australia is the increased vigilance by India about LTTE activities both in India and the Indian Ocean.

This follows the Tamil Nadu Police concluding that contrary to the allegations made against the Sri Lanka Navy, the recent killing of five South Indian fishermen had been done by the LTTE, and also that Sea Tigers are even now holding to 12 more Indian fishermen and their boat.

There are mixed signals from Tamil Nadu as to what action is to be taken against the LTTE for the five killings and for the release of the 12 fishermen.

Speaking from the Kerala state capital of Thiruvandapuram Minister of Defence A. K. Antony categorically has stated that the LTTE would not be allowed to operate from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

“We will not allow the LTTE to function in Tamil Nadu. Indian soil will not be allowed to be used as a base by any terrorist organisation,” said Antony.

Media reports said that speaking in the backdrop of the LTTE’s nascent air wing bombing Colombo, including a petroleum facility run as a joint venture of the Indian government, the Indian Defence Minister said his country was watching the situation in Sri Lanka closely, especially in the wake of recent air strikes by LTTE.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party (Marxist) in Tamil Nadu has come out strongly against those trying to give a “clean chit” to the LTTE over the killing of the Indian fishermen and it holding of 12 more fishermen.

All this is plenty of cause for worry to the LTTE, whatever its propaganda arms and its many apologists in Sri Lanka and abroad may say. This can only be made worse if the LTTE decides to continue with its aerial activity in the Sri Lankan skies.