Politics makes West tolerant towards LTTE: study

TORONTO: The Western world is tolerant towards the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in spite of "its ruthlessness" purely because of domestic political reasons, according to a top researcher associated with the Washington-based Rand Corporation, a leading think tank.

In countries like Canada, Britain and Australia, the politicians' interest is the strength of the ethnic Tamil votes and so they are willing to tolerate LTTE extremists in their constituencies, allowing offshoots of the Tamil Tigers to fund wars in their homeland, alleges Peter Chalk of the Queensland University in Australia.

In a 14-page report prepared for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Chalk says Canadian and other Western politicians have been tolerant of LTTE's activities "because the Tamils have been able to run effective propaganda campaigns, which have successfully mobilised significant sectors of the overseas Tamil diaspora in their favour.

Politicians have become increasingly reluctant to support tougher actions against the LTTE for fear that this would impinge on their local electoral support base."

Canadian politicians "believe that it is the ethnic or the minority vote that makes the difference in an election," Chalk argues. "As such, they tend to sympathise with the political aspirations and grievances of minorities and ethnic groups living in their constituencies."

Around 200,000 Sri Lankan Tamils have been allowed to settle in Canada. They were allowed to immigrate as refugees running away from persecution in their homeland.

The report warns Canada and other Western nations that by appeasing groups such as the LTTE they "are helping to undermine not only the viability of their own border but also the integrity of the global system that they claim to represent."

LTTE's external activities are organised along a two-tier structure: a military wing and a subordinate political wing, the report says. Velupillai Prabhakaran, LTTE's supreme leader, heads the organisation's central governing committee which in turn directs and controls several sub-divisions.

The sub-divisions include an amphibious group called the Sea Tigers, an airborne group known as Air Tigers, a fighting wing called the Charles Anthony Regiment and a suicide commando unit called the Black Tigers, the report says. The figure does not include the assassination bid on Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga by an LTTE suicide bomber late last year.

The LTTE's international fundraising campaign reaches out to the large Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in Canada, Australia, Britain, the U.S., the Scandinavian nations and Switzerland, the report says. "The LTTE is believed to be 'petitioning' (members of the diaspora)...to contribute up to U.S.$1,000 per family in support of the group's military campaign" in Sri Lanka's Jaffna peninsula, Chalk says. "It is estimated that as much as 80 to 90 per cent of the group's war chest comes from overseas," his report adds.

The study, which calls the LTTE "one of the most proficient and dangerous guerrilla/terrorist groups in the world," says the organisation has offices in 54 countries, including Canada. "As long as the group is permitted to conduct propaganda, raise funds, procure weapons and ship supplies to Sri Lanka, its guerrilla and terrorist campaign will continue," Chalk warns. (IANS)