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Sunday, 16 August 2009

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Diaspora misused civilian issue to raise funds:

Hunt on for all LTTE funds

Following the explosive revelations of Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP), the LTTE’s new leader who is now in Government custody, all LTTE assets and funds handled by him are now under the microscope.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told the Sunday Observer that the Government, while continuing its hunt for the remaining LTTEers abroad, will go after LTTE’s assets and all monetary collections handled by him.

He said that though there was no concrete estimate on the wealth of the LTTE yet, the Government was now pursuing these aspects. Minister Bogollagama, who announced the Government’s plans to hunt KP and the LTTE’s funds three months ago, said that the wealth he possessed was illegally collected and stolen.

“Investigations are going on and some of the facts he revealed cannot be discussed in public”, he said, adding KP’s arrest will break the LTTE’s international network.

Appreciating the international support gained to fish out KP, Minister Bogollagama said that the notorious arms dealer of the LTTE would be dealt with under domestic laws first and if necessary they will consider other requests.

It was earlier reported that prominent international investigating agencies including the CIA and the FBI have requested the government to interrogate KP, who is an important member of the global network procuring arms and ammunition.

But the Foreign Minister said that there was no such formal request from any of those agencies so far.

Outlining the steps taken by the Foreign Ministry to get the whereabouts of the remaining LTTEers and their supporters overseas, Minister Bogollagama said that his Ministry was now pursuing international support to destroy all LTTE links abroad.

Even before the LTTE was completely defeated on May 19 after killing the LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran, the government planned and targeted to destroy the terrorist outfit internationally. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who had an hour long discussion with KP last week, has stated that the government would go after other LTTEers following clues given by KP.

He has said that if there were some LTTEers overseas, they would be taken into custody with the help of intelligence units of the respective countries.According to reliable sources, the questioning of KP has yielded useful information on how the Tamil diaspora had behaved during the last months of the LTTE.

A large amount of money has been raised from the Tamil diaspora by raising the issue of civilians in Puthumathalan.

According to sources, the huge sum of money raised by the Tamil diaspora during this period was not handled by KP but some others in the Tamil diaspora had misused the money.

The sources said that KP’s wings were clipped for six years since 2002 and Prabhakaran had appointed ‘Castro’ to play KPs’s role. He never underwent military training but was instrumental in opening several front organisations for the LTTE while being the livewire in all secret deals to purchase weaponry, illegal businesses like drugs and also the secret shipping business of the terrorist organisation.

Although he was based in Malaysia, he had over 13 passports under different fake identities and travelled to over 48 countries in his secret missions for the LTTE. Sources added that the LTTE acquired a huge amount of arms, explosives and ammunition through KP’s smuggling operations and also he is the man who provided the LTTE most of the sophisticated fighting weapons and machines like anti-tank weapons, advanced defence systems, sniper rifles, mortars, RPGs, night vision devices, and modern communication equipment and the LTTE’s first aircraft.

 

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