Miliband bracing for parliamentary elections:

Global Tamil Forum latest LTTE front - Prof. Rohan Gunaratna

by Manjula Fernando

President of GTF Fr. Emmanuel making his speech at the meeting.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband addressing the GTF inaugural meeting at the British Parliament.

Although Britain defended its decision to patronize the inaugural conference of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) as part of its effort to promote peaceful reconciliation in Sri Lanka in line with its stance to engage with all communities, International Terrorism Expert Prof. Rohan Gunaratna says the GTF is the premier front organization of the LTTE, a designated terrorist organization in Britain.

“The LTTE is a designated terrorism organization in the UK. They cannot operate in the UK as the LTTE. Their latest front is the London based GTF,” Prof. Gunaratna said adding that GTF was effectively backed by the pro-LTTE British Tamil Association (BTA) whose chief was arrested by the UK law enforcement authorities in 2007 for aiding the LTTE.

He said although most people were not aware, the connection between the GTF and the LTTE remnants is known among the intelligence community. Thus it could not be assumed that Britain was all oblivious to this piece of information.

President of GTF, Fr. S.J. Emmanuel former Vicar General of Jaffna was Prabhakaran’s designated ambassador to Europe. He now lives in Germany helping the cause of Eelam. In a newspaper interview he once compared Prabhakaran, a ruthless terrorist who was responsible for mass scale massacres and training human bombs, to Jesus Christ.

Prof. Gunaratna said British Tamil Association head Shanthan was the mastermind behind the GTF and the London conference held on Wednesday, February 24 at the Gladstone Room in British Parliament.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) a world’s leading independent analysis and advice body which is recognized by the UN in its February bulletin issued on 23 described the GTF as follows: “It is a conglomerate of elite personality driven pro-LTTE organisations from fourteen countries that all claim to speak on behalf of their respective Tamil populations.

The GTF aims to be a quasi-advocacy and humanitarian organisation based in London. It is a markedly less ambitious effort than the LTTE, but equally equivocates on separatism in public. The GTF personalities say the organisation will focus Western government attention on the immediate humanitarian concerns of Tamils in Sri Lanka, such as closure of the internment camps, rather than get bogged down in larger political questions.

However, hardliners in the GTF, such as the British Tamil Forum (BTF), have reportedly forced out the GTF president, Dr. Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam, for moderating his stance on separatism. Months after its formation in July 2009, the GTF has yet to announce its board members or establish an office.” Britain has opted not to take notice of these independent views as well.

Ignoring strong protests by Sri Lanka, aired by Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, that their action will lend credibility to a LTTE front, British Foreign Secretary David Milliband, Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague and Liberal Democrats Shadow Foreign Secretary Ed Davey attended and addressed the inaugural pro-LTTE meeting.

Miliband in his opening speech was quoted as saying “I also want to say that the foundation of the Global Tamil Forum, the inauguration of its international work, is an important moment for politics and above all politics in Sri Lanka, because there is no substitute for political voice in asserting political rights.

“Perhaps I should say why I’m here. It’s not just that London is the venue for this important meeting. It’s that the importance of establishing a lasting peace in Sri Lanka matters. It matters because of the deep links that exist between Britain and Sri Lanka, the deep links that exist between British people and Sri Lankans of all kinds, and it’s also that the future of Sri Lanka is important for the future of South Asia more generally. And I think that any Foreign Secretary would want to be here to listen, but also to support about the way ahead.

He, however added,”It’s also important to say as Tamils lived in fear, some expelled from their country, that they, you also lived in the shadow of the LTTE, a terrorist organisation which committed countless atrocities itself, which refused to tolerate dissent, which forcibly recruited children as soldiers and which again refused to allow Tamil civilians to escape from the fighting.

I think it’s important to say those things as well. (source:Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

Sri Lanka summoned the Acting High Commissioner in Colombo on February 24 and warned that “the GTF brings together under one umbrella, several LTTE front organizations based mostly in the western countries, and that its objective is to create a separate state of Tamil Eelam.

The Foreign Minister emphasized that Foreign Secretary Miliband, by participating at today’s GTF Meeting in London, would unfortunately lend credibility to an organization which is propagating the separatist agenda of the LTTE, and would be acting in a manner inimical to the national interest of Sri Lanka and its legitimate government.” The Foreign Minister further noted that the GTF was formed in order to launch the so called “Provisional Trans-National Government of Tamil Eelam”, and hence poses a ‘direct threat’ to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.

The GTF conference was attended by 40 delegates from 14 Tamil diaspora host countries. Some delegates were invited for a private meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the House of Commons.

According to a press release issued by the GTF after the conference, amongst the other UK dignitaries who addressed the conference were Joan Ryan MP, Andrew Dismore MP, Virendra Sharma MP - of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T), Lee Scott MP, Sadiq Khan MP - Minister of State for Transport, Andy Love MP, and Susan Kramer MP

Ven. Madampagama Assaji Mahanayake Thera representing the Sinhala Buddhist community and a civil society leader Abdul Majeed Mohammed Casim from the Muslim community in Sri Lanka were flown to attend the conference. Prof. Gunaratne attributed Miliband’s GTF undertaking to ‘electoral convulsions’. British politicians are bracing themselves for parliamentary elections in a few months.

The 300,000 Tamil community in Britain represents a considerable share of the country’s vote base. This has been used as bait to entrap politicians by the LTTE fronts.

Prof. Gunaratna said the LTTE was able to pledge British politicians several tens of thousands of votes in the coming polls. Their financial reserves too are intact and yet to be dismantled.

He cautioned that with the LTTE overseas network still intact the future threat to Sri Lanka will be primarily from overseas. Even though the internal war was completed by the Government successfully the external war is yet to begin seriously.

This was going to be a losing battle unless a concerted effort is launched to counter the propaganda war of the LTTE fronts. The mastermind of the GTF, the head of British Tamil Association A.C.Shanthan was arrested by the Metropolitan police in 2007 and convicted in June 2009 for procuring material for LTTE. Shanthan was released from a British jail recently after serving his two year term.

The term he spent in custody during the trial was also considered in executing his sentence.Following is an Indian agency report of his trial last year, London, April 18 (IANS) A Sri Lankan-origin activist who has become the first person in Britain to be convicted for aiding the Tamil Tigers was buying bomb-making equipment while holding regular meetings with security agencies, according to evidence given in a British court.

Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar, known as A.C. Shanthan, was convicted Friday of conspiracy to receive property to be used for the purposes of terrorism and possessing military manuals for terrorist purposes.

During the trial, the court in Kingston heard that Shanthan not only procured bomb-making equipment for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) but also maintained contacts with Special Branch officers.

LTTE representatives had frequent meetings with foreign ministry officials while Shanthan regularly met Special Branch officers.

He was contacted by MI5 spies as part of efforts to monitor the 300,000 Tamils living in Britain, the court was told.

Although Shanthan told the court that the British Tamil Association, of which he was head, was not connected to the LTTE, prosecution lawyer Jonathan Laidlaw said he was effectively the head of the LTTE in London.

“He was coordinator of the procurement exercise. He was in contact with senior LTTE figures in Sri Lanka, receiving orders and requests, and on occasions buying equipment himself,” Laidlaw said.

Britain has resolved to ignore the fact that the Global Tamil Forum in its self introduction has also publicly admitted its separatist agenda. Their official website read.“This Forum will evolve as an independent, international organisation which adheres to the principles of democracy and non-violence and derives its strength from existing grass roots organisations of the Tamil Diaspora.

Working in solidarity with the Tamils in Eelam and other communities in Sri Lanka, this Forum will strive to restore Tamil People’s right to self-determination and democratic self rule in their traditional homeland in the island of Sri Lanka.”

When contacted by the Sunday Observer the British High Commission spokesperson said they would refrain from making further comment on the Foreign Secretary’s participation at the Global Tamil Forum.