LTTE becoming a global threat - Foreign Minister

The activities of the LTTE are no longer confined to Sri Lanka as the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) publication Military Balance 2007 has pointed out there are now emerging commercial links between the LTTE and the al-Qaeda movement, said Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama in his keynote address on "Sri Lanka's Foreign and Security Policy: the challenge of terrorism" at the (IISS) in London.

Minister Bogollagama referred to the emerging links between the LTTE and the Mujahiddins in Afghanistan and visits by the LTTE delegations to Kabul shortly before 9/11. The Minister said that the LTTE's fleet of merchant vessels has established a presence in the arms black market and being providing mercenary services to several other terrorist groups around the world.

Its presence is now well established in the narcotics trade internationally as well. He pointed out that the LTTE is engaged in money laundering activities and credit card fraud on a large-scale and added that there is a clear relationship between collection of funds in foreign countries and the promotion by the LTTE of the outflow of asylum seekers into western countries.

He indicated that the LTTE and its front organisations were registered as companies and charities mainly in western countries. He appealed to the developed countries not to view the LTTE as freedom fighters when they are contributing to instability in other countries and are interlinked to terrorism at the international level.

Minister Bogollagama, in his address to a gathering of diplomats, terrorism experts, academics and international media personnel said that since the problem of terrorism was global any measures to effectively counter required inter-state bilateral cooperation.