Washington: Over a year after Sri Lanka
won the war against LTTE, the US still suspects that the
international financial support network of the Tamil Tigers
remains largely intact.
However, the State Department, noted that the network
likely suffered a serious blow with the arrest of Kumaran
Padmanathan, who is alleged to have controlled the arms
network of the now vanquished terror outfit.
In its Congressionally-mandated `Country Reports
on Terrorism for the year 2009`, the State Department said:
"In spite of losing the war on the ground in Sri Lanka, the
LTTE`s international network of financial support was
suspected to have survived largely intact."
"However, the international network likely suffered
a serious blow by the August arrest in Southeast Asia and
rendition to Sri Lanka of Selvarajah Patmanathan (aka KP), the
LTTE`s principle financier and arms supplier," it said.
The international 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
sympathisers.
"The LTTE also used Tamil charitable organizations as
fronts for fundraising," the State Department said in the
report.
The report noted that the Sri Lankan government was
criticised for using former LTTE paramilitary organisations
that relied on abduction, extra-judicial killings and other
illegal tactics to combat the LTTE and their suspected
sympathisers.
"As the military recaptured the remainder of the
LTTE-held territory, the LTTE reverted increasingly to more
asymmetrical tactics, including suicide bombers and other
terrorist attacks, some of which caused serious civilian
casualties," it said.
The report said the Sri Lankan government effectively
dismantled much of the 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," it said adding that earlier in the year, the
LTTE carried out a number of attacks, including suicide
bombings and an air raid on Colombo, but no further attacks
occurred following the end of the war.
On a number of occasions after May, the government
announced the capture of suspected LTTE forces, often stating
that those captured were intending to carry out violent
attacks, it said.
Military and Sri Lankan Police Service personnel
discovered large caches of weapons, ammunition, and military
grade explosives that had been abandoned and left uncontrolled
throughout the country, the report said.
-PTI
