Blow to Tiger network

6 August 2010 03:12 am

The international network of the LTTE likely suffered a serious blow by the arrest of Selvarajah Patmanathan (aka KP), the LTTE’s principle financier and arms supplier last year, the US State Department said.

In the Department of State’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2009 which was presented to the US Congress yesterday, the US noted that the network continued to collect contributions from the Tamil diaspora in North America, Europe, and Australia, where there were reports that some of these contributions were coerced by locally-based LTTE sympathizers.

The LTTE also used Tamil charitable organizations as fronts for fundraising, the US State Department said in the report.

The Sri Lankan government effectively dismantled much of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), after cornering remaining LTTE fighters and several hundred thousand civilians in the northeast of the island.

Though the government declared victory on May 18, in completing this military campaign, both sides suffered heavy losses, the report further added. (Daily Mirror online)