Canada, France LTTE stamps,a ruse to raise funds

By Manjula FERNANDO

The 'personalised' stamps fiasco in France was not the only similar attempt by the LTTE. They have duped the 'Canadian Post' on an earlier occasion to print a stamp to mark the May 2009 defeat of the LTTE, depicting an image of the Eelam map on fire.

Our mission in Toronto confirmed that they brought to the notice of the Canadian authorities late last year a similar ploy in Canada by the LTTE fronts.

These fronts have got the unsuspecting Canadian postal authorities to print 300 'personalised' stamps with a single graphic image. The stamps depicted the LTTE's Eelam map engulfed in flames with a misleading slogan - 'I remember Tamil Genocide'.

Their stamp campaign was partly a ploy to grab media attention and also an illegal fund-raising stunt. It has also been used as a means to keep the memories of its lost past afresh in the minds of the disheartened Diaspora members whom they still 'milk' for sustenance.

The organisation behind the devious manoeuvring was the National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) and the Tamil Youth Organisation, both known LTTE fronts openly trumpeting the LTTE cause.

Sri Lanka's Consul General in Toronto Karunaratna Paranavithana told the Sunday Observer, the LTTE fronts have forced the Tamil community members in Canada to buy these stamps at higher denominations, at C$ 100 a stamp and sometimes even higher.

"They did all this in Canada secretly. But when the stamp was posted in a website, one of our offices picked it up. That is how we came to know of this fund-raising campaign," the Consul General said.

The Sri Lankan community leaders and the Sri Lankan mission in Canada have taken up the issue with the postal authorities and Minister of Public Works and Government Services of the House of Commons Rona Ambrose.

"The authorities have assured us that there will be an investigation. We hope in the future Canada will seriously scrutinise the issuance of personal stamps," Paranavithana said.

The Tamil Coordinating Committee, another known front of the LTTE, is reportedly behind the printing of LTTE stamps in France.

An official from the anti terrorism desk of the Ministry of External Affairs said they have to be vigilant 24 hours about these matters given that the LTTE residues, which still pursue the ideology of the terror group and struggle to revive the fallen outfit, are present in many Western States.

"Issuance of personalised stamps is a way of earning money for postal departments in certain countries. Any individual can pay a certain amount and get a limited set of personalised stamps printed," the official said.

"But there are strict criteria. For instance pictures that bear guns will not be sanctioned for postal stamps. However, in the instance of printing LTTE stamps this particular condition has been overlooked. "

The set of four stamps in France depicted LTTE flag, their Eelam map, Niyangala (Glory Lily) flower (so-called national flower of Eelam) and Prabhakaran's photograph.

The particular stamp carrying the blood red LTTE flag sported a ferocious Tiger head and two assault rifles which is the Tiger insignia.

It has been confirmed that a total of 360 stamps have been printed by La Poste. A report posted in an LTTE website requested the Diaspora members to buy and use these stamps when sending letters and parcels to their loved ones.

The 'La Poste' - French Postal Service was quick to apologise for the mishap on their part when the incident was reported in the local press. When External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris called the French Ambassador Christine Robichon in Colombo on Tuesday to express Sri Lanka's 'acute concern', she conveyed a message by her Government apologising that 'these stamps are neither a part of the official philatelic program of France nor on sale in the French Post Office'.

She explained that individuals had used the online service offered by 'La Poste' through which customers could order limited quantities of personalised stamps under their responsibility and specific conditions.

The French Government regretted that the postal service had failed to detect the violations of the conditions and had printed the stamps by mistake.

The communique from the Government said the 'La Poste' had assured that no such stamps will be printed further since the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed that the LTTE is a terrorist group listed by the EU in 2006.

The French Postal service is reported to be receiving about 2000 requests per week to its three designated agents to print personalised stamps.

These agents are required to put in place the necessary means for the verification of the images sent to their service by the customers.

The External Affairs Ministry official here said the rump LTTE will not stop trying such propaganda stunts in the future as long as their offensive work is tolerated by the host countries.

International counter terrorism Expert Prof. Rohan Gunaratna said The LTTE front organisations in Canada and France have successfully duped the Canadian and French postal authorities to issue stamps in support of their cause despite the fact they have been a designated terrorist organisation in both the countries.

"Unless the authorities investigate and charge those responsible for promoting terrorist propaganda," he said "the next time a stamp of Osama Bin Laden will be issued by the Canadian or French Postal service".

He added this was additional proof that the LTTE has re-emerged as a propaganda and a criminal group in the West.

"The fronts are becoming bold because our diplomatic offensive on their campaign is not strong enough."