LTTE fronts pumping funds to revive terror outfit:

Canada should take serious note of US State Dept report – Arun Thambimuttu

by Manjula Fernando

The SLFP Batticaloa district organiser Arun Thambimuttu said that Canada should take serious note of the US State Department’s report which acknowledges what Sri Lanka had been trying to convince the international community that LTTE fronts are pumping funds to revive the terror outfit in Sri Lanka. Thambimuttu, the son of the late MP Sam Thambimuttu who was brutally killed by the LTTE along with his wife said, “I know the price you have to pay when these people are blindly taken into your confidence.”

His parents had been on their way to collect the Canadian visa when they were brutally murdered by LTTE assassins in May 1990. A caller, an alleged LTTE infiltrator in the Canadian High Commission invited his parents to collect the visa when actually they were supposed to receive it the next day.

“The US report has clearly identified that the LTTE network is very much alive and they have not given up violence. It said these organisations are still creating further disturbances in Sri Lanka.”

Thambimuttu said that in the light of this, Canada’s response that they will not recognise the Sri Lankan ban on the 16 LTTE ‘front organisations’, is unfortunate and stands to contradict the US State Department’s report.

Canada is ignoring the increasing threat of terrorist activity on its soil, blind by a few vocal diaspora minority echoing the LTTE voice.

“It does not need to be that way because many Tamils living in these countries are not supportive of the LTTE agenda,” he said.

He cautioned the Canadian Government to conduct a thorough background check of the so-called humanitarian organisations, including those which have emerged after the LTTE ceased to exist in Sri Lanka.

“They (Canada) should realise that these organisations did not have any prior history of proper audited international non governmental activity - political or otherwise.”

“For instance, the Global Tamil Forum came into existence after the collapse of the LTTE. It consists of LTTE members who played a significant role within the outfit. They continue to propagate the same separatist ideology under the TETG.”

“It is a fallacy to claim that the LTTE international network also died when the LTTE local leadership was eliminated.” Thambimuttu said that the TETG V. Rudrakumaran was very much part of the then LTTE central committee.

He was responsible for a lot of planning and executing these plans for the LTTE.

“The Tamil community in Sri Lanka are highly worried about these elements trying to revive the past terror."

"We saw what happened in the North of the country recently. The danger is, you don’t need to regroup as such, all you need is three to four individuals trying to breach the peace, the people are enjoying today,” Thambimuttu said.