Are Tamil Tigers still roaring for liberation of Tamil?

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake

COLOMBO: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE)'s sudden military successes which has trapped a reported 40,000 government troops in northern Sri Lanka and brought the rebels to within 25 miles of the town of Jaffna is a hollow victory for the so-called Tamil Tigers.

The military thrust came as European governments, including the UK, France and Germany, considered returning Tamils seeking refugee status because Sri Lanka was no longer considered to be at war. The LTTE's efforts were designed to persuade the world at large -- and the Tamils they purport to represent -- that they are fighting a credible cause.

In fact, the LTTE today is a far cry from its beginnings, in 1976, as a militant group campaigning for a separate state in Sri Lanka, for the island's oppressed Tamil minority. There are doubts as to whether the LTTE is really interested in the problems of the Tamil people at all.

The war of separation that the LTTE is waging has brought untold hardship, mostly to the Tamils and especially to those still living in LTTE held territory.

It imposes its own taxes on the Tamil people, restricts their movement, takes over the food, medicine and other essentials supplied to these areas by the government, and controls their distribution. It forcibly recruits Tamil children, some as young as ten, for training in the use of arms, and does not hesitate to send them into battle.

It functions today more as a drug cartel, than as an organization engaged in a struggle for liberation. There is strong evidence that it is involved in gunrunning, heroin smuggling, people smuggling into Europe, and training terrorist groups in other Asian countries.

It owns shipping companies which, as well as operating legitimate commercial work, are fronts for its illegal activities.

Lloyd's List, the shipping publication, last month claimed that LTTE vessels facilitate heroin smuggling and illegal immigration rackets.

It says vessels registered in Panama, Honduras, Liberia and San Lorento, engaged in legitimate commercial shipping, also carry explosives and arms to Sri Lanka.

There have been other reports that the LTTE has helped arm and train rebels in Nagaland, in the North of India, and has supplied weapons training to militants in Nepal.

The LTTE is also widely believed to be responsible for heroin arriving on the streets of France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The heroin comes from Afghanistan, through Pakistan and Mumbai, to the Indian Ocean where it is picked up by the LTTE vessels.

There have been many reports of LTTE involvement in people smuggling to the West, particularly Italy, Germany, Canada and the US.

Some of these illegal immigrants would have paid the LTTE large sums of money, up to US$3,000 to $4,000 per person, for forged passports and the passage.

The police believe at least 17,000 people have been sent to 11 countries through forged papers, earning the LTTE in the last two years, $340,000.

British intelligence and Interpol know the LTTE now controls much of the distribution of Indian-made Tamil films in the UK. It also controls Indian and Sri Lankan restaurant chains in the UK, France, Germany and Italy.

It takes contributions from Tamils living in the West for "relief work" in Sri Lanka, though there is no evidence of relief funds reaching the Tamils here, even in areas held by the LTTE.

This record of the LTTE has caused a huge dent in the trust that large sections of the Tamils in Sri Lanka put in the LTTE. Hopes that a separate Tamil speaking state named Eelam would be established in the North & East of the country have faded.

Last month in Jaffna, once the stronghold of the LTTE, more than 4,000 Tamils demonstrated against continuing the war and calling for peace.

One member of the Tamil diaspora, now living in London and working as a lawyer, said the war continued merely so that more Tamils could be brought out as refugees.

"The war has become a necessity for the very existence of the Tamil diaspora. It is a tragic and vicious circle," he said.

A spokesman for the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna branch) -- a body which operates clandestinely since some of its members were murdered after criticizing the LTTE -- said the Tamil people had made it clear at elections to local government bodies in Jaffna, two years ago, that they did not want LTTE-backed local bodies.

The LTTE has since murdered several of those elected, including two mayors of Jaffna, three chairmen of urban councils and several councillors.

"The LTTE gave up its hope of establishing a separate state many years ago and now exists for its own purposes. The war is a convenient cover for its criminal activities," he said.

S. Manoranjan, an LTTE cadre who defected in 1986 and now edits Amudu, the largest circulation Tamil language magazine in Jaffna, said: "Today the LTTE trains terrorist insurgents from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Burma. It is involved heavily in drug smuggling, people smuggling, and has a large network of business interests."

"Its members own valuable real estate in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Switzerland and similar places. These are not examples of a liberation movement acting seriously for its declared cause. I would call it a dangerous, emerging South Asian mafia."

Suren Raghavan, a political analyst in Colombo, said: "The Tamils now have to liberate themselves from these liberators because they are drawing Tamil youth into a life of crime from drugs, breaking immigration laws, smuggling of contraband, gunrunning, and today even training terrorists from Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma, Pakistan and some states of India.

"They are a force that is drifting away from the interests of the Tamils to serve their own interests through money laundering and contract killing."

A journalist from Virakesari, the largest circulation Tamil daily, said: "The Tamils have today realized that the LTTE does not fight for them. But they are helpless to oppose it. All evidence we receive from Tamils living abroad indicates that the LTTE is a power unto itself, and engaged in crime for its own purposes and profit and not to help in the so-called liberation of the Tamil people."

-- Observer News Service