KIM HOWELLS TELLS BRITISH PARLIAMENT LTTE FUND RAISING
WILL BE STOPPED AND THEIR BAN WILL NOT BE LIFTED FOR PEACE

By Walter Jayawardhana

British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells told the House of Commons that the illegal fund raising activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will be definitely terminated as the funds continues to prolong the civil strife in the island nation.

He assured the parliament that there would not be a lifting of the ban on the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group.

The law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom are proceeding into “counter the bullying, threats and acts of fraud that are used regularly to extract money from the Tamil population and others in the country,'' said the Minister addressing the British parliament on May 2.

He told British parliamentarians that fraudulently obtained money might be making its way to the coffers of the LTTE to fuel an ongoing insurgency in the Indian Ocean republic.

He told the parliament that intelligence officials have revealed to the government that “widespread fraud scams” are prevailing to raise funds for the terrorist group in Britain.

The Sri Lankan High Commission (embassy) in London , last month alleged that LTTE appointed gasoline station owners have cloned credit cards of thousands of British citizens to rob money from their bank accounts running into few millions of pounds to procure arms for the Tamil terrorist group. The LTTE’s political head S. Thamilchelvan denied the charges.

The insurgency of the LTTE has caused nearly 600,000 Tamils to seek refugee status mostly in Britain and Canada. They are also spread in Europe and Australia. Allegations have been brought up in many countries that the LTTE or Tamil Tigers as they are popularly called, extort money from the Tamil Diaspora to raise funds when they are not engaged in other fraudulent methods like credit card scams.

Some also voluntarily support them. According to the parliamentary records of the Hansard office in London, Howells said, “The ability of the LTTE to raise funds oversees helps to sustain its ability to carry out violent acts and reduces the incentive to move away from the path of violence.”
Howells said not only the LTTE but even Tamil paramilitary groups supporting the Sri Lanka government are also responsible for some violence.

On the day of the debate the parliament also formed an all-party committee to examine how to resolve the conflict in Sri Lanka.

The parliamentary group has said they would summon a summit in London with the representatives of the Sri Lanka government, the Tamil Tigers and the Norwegian brokers with the intention of resolving the conflict.