Lankan diaspora warns:

LTTE propaganda machine worming into Aussie Parliament

Manjula Fernando

The Sri Lankan diaspora in Australia warned the shrewed LTTE propaganda machine was worming its way into the Australian Parliament through local sympathisers to distort the country’s image and push for a human rights case against the Lankan Government.

Society for Peace Unity and Human Rights in Sri Lanka (SPUR), said the LTTE which was pushed under ground after its ‘hard to swallow’ military defeat, was very much active in its vicious propaganda campaign in Australia as well as elsewhere.

SPUR is a Victoria based LTTE counter propaganda group comprising Sinhala and Tamil diaspora.

SPUR President Jeanne Jayasinghe said: “These propaganda campaigns have taken the shape of seminars and conferences.” Most of these conferences are held in the meeting rooms of the Parliament House where parliamentarians can drop in and listen. These meeting rooms can be rented out for private conferences.

“The ultimate goal of these invisible operatives are to take the Sri Lanka leaders before International Criminal Court demeaning the country’s victory against one of the most ruthless terror outfits in the world.”

The US Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) in its website identified the LTTE as one of the most dangerous terrorist organisations in the world which has pioneered the use of females as human bombs, perfected the suicide bombers, an act it has drawn credit for, more than the Al Qida, Hezbollah or Hamas.

Speaking to the Daily News in Colombo during a recent visit, Jayasinghe said LTTE operatives there went under ground soon after the military operations wiped out all its top rung leaders. But she said, despite their low profile the Tiger lobbying arm was still ‘very destructive.’

“It’s a shame that now they are using the IDPs as a cover to further their evil intentions.”

These conferences, sometimes organised through prestigious universities, are intentionally blocked for moderates or for those who hold opposite views.

She said the propaganda rallies, protest marches which were very rampant during the last stages of the Eelam war IV, have almost died down now, but in its place there is the outcry for human rights violations in IDP camps. These are orchestrated through certain Parliamentarians, bias media institutions and known social figures.

“They operate like a cancer, invading every nook and corner.”

The SPUR President said the former TRO head in Australia who was a economic adviser to the LTTE and who represented LTTE in the 2002 Geneva peace talks was a paid worker in the Australian state broadcasting service.

Some of the operatives run their own community radio programs in Tamil language, brainwashing the moderate Tamil community but there was very little being done on an official level to redeem the country’s good name.