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LTTE behind people smuggling to Aussie - GL

22 Jun 2013 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

While claiming that remnants of the defeated Tamil terrorist organisation - the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, are involved in the people-smuggling business of bringing Sri Lankan boat people to Australia, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Professor G. L. Peiris says it is absolutely clear that the people leaving Sri Lanka are not genuine refugees but economic migrants.

“These people have now been shown that they have nothing to gain by endangering their lives and using up their life savings, since they are not genuine refugees. If they were genuine refugees, why would they not go to India? It’s so much closer. . .” he had questioned.

While expressing these views during a long interview in Sydney this week, he had also requested Australia to proscribe the LTTE as a terrorist organisation, making any support to the terrorist organisation from Australia illegal. The LTTE is a proscribed terrorist organisation in Europe and North America but, perversely, not in Australia.

In the interview, Prof. Peiris had stated although the war between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE is over, Tamil Tiger networks still intimidate Tamil families in the diaspora and extort money from them, while also engaging in a range of other criminal activities. He had also said that people-smuggling has long been a key revenue raiser for the Tamil Tigers. “People-smuggling should not be seen in isolation. . . It is connected with other forms of criminal activity such as money laundering and narcotics.” (The Australian)

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LTTE behind people smuggling to Aussie - GL

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