North American Tamil Tigers are at sixes and sevens

“Who is what and what is who? There was a Tamils for Justice organization in the US and now at its throats is Justice for Thamils and both advocate Tiger terrorism, and so do many other North American Tamil Diaspora organizations. What all of them want to covet, obviously for selfish reasons, the millions they can raise in the name of the LTTE. Now a US mercenary lawyer has joined the bandwagon and begun to milk the fear-struck Tamil Diaspora most of whom are indifferent to whatever happens to their folks in Sri Lanka.”
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by Jacinta Cruz in Los Angeles, Renuka Sharma in Colombo and Satchi Sithanandan in Frankfurt
(July 17, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardain) The funding for Tiger terrorism in Sri Lanka has its roots in California for that’s where it began led by a group of Tamil doctors, followed by an elite group in Australia, likewise then in the United Kingdom. The crooked and corrupt Canadian chapter of utter fraudsters followed the 1983 riots. Although it was begun well, soon it was seen as a lucrative means to make fortunes.

The Tamil Eelam Society founded to help Tamil immigrants from Sri Lanka funded by the Ontario Provincial Government and the Federal Government became the nursery of LTTE and other fraudsters. It also gave birth to several supporting organizations and soon became a federation of association of Ceylon Tamils – The FACT.

FACT it was till it ceased to function, a harsh LTTE structure that exploited the Tamil community to the hilt because it was not allowed to have a vision of what the consequence would be for the Tamils in Sri Lanka. They were forced and even threatened to support the LTTE that did not want a solution to the ethnic problem. The LTTE had created an industry akin to the Sicilian mafia that could be sustained only by keeping the ethnic flames alive in Sri Lanka. In this Norway played a key role and this country had its own selfish agenda too until it was checkmated by India.

Almost on the heels of the Tamil Diaspora expressing their concerns and took some action to impress on Colombo the need to seek a political solution, the LTTE identified a major asset in organizations like the Tamil Eelam Society to develop its own conspiratorial plans and became its “official” jockey. It was the LTTE that managed the Tamil Eelam Society through its proxies. It didn’t take much effort for the LTTE to bring under its wings the various Tamil organizations that were being founded in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland and Australia and some other countries too.

Further support came from a large number of Tamil tabloids that sprung up like mushrooms and were only, or forced to give voice to the LTTE and the World Tamil Movement (WTM), identical twins in every way. At the height of their arrogant wielding of power, fund raisers and many of them without links to the LTTE and the WTM appeared on the scene and large number of families and individuals were subjected to threats and humiliating demands for what came to be known as “The Final War” as they said in Tamil “Iruthip Por” and that they were collectors for the “Iyakkam,” the movement.

The concept of the “Final War” has been continuing for several years and the irony is that, all along the Tamil community has lost considerable numbers of our seeds needed for generations to be sprouted so much so, our folks in Sri Lanka have become the endangered species and will soon be gone if this menace continues. However, none of the Tamil Diaspora families or youth opted to take LTTE arms but by suing that identity, many have made their fortunes.

The LTTE, under cover of liberation for the Tamils, was focused on the industry it was developing with the obvious aim of creating a smuggler network in South Asia and beyond. In order to realize this aim, either the LTTE should have total dominion over a territory in Sri Lanka or the ethnic crisis should prevail indefinitely. In this, the Tamil Diaspora therefore was a bonanza to the LTTE.

But what is really the truth?

While there is a tiny percentage of the Tamil Diaspora that supports the LTTE in the mistaken belief that they are committed to the creation of the State of Eelam, a large majority of them and nearly all their people in Sri Lanka have become totally apprehensive of the LTTE and their motives. They are the helpless onlookers more so because the Government of Sri Lanka has to date not come with the right kind of an offer for a solution.

During the last three weeks a team of journalists from the Sri Lanka Guardian have been visiting various towns and villages in Sri Lanka and four others have been visiting Australia, US and Canada, and England, Germany and Denmark and their initial impressions are beyond belief. A very large majority of the Diaspora wants a political solution, all ethnic communities to have equal rights and the current obsessions and fascinations with weapons buried once and for all on the Fair Isle.

The LTTE support has come from the guilt feelings some have because they are not in Sri Lanka with their people, but largely because they are only concerned about their own interests and mostly due to the high-handed way the LTTE organizers conduct their business with the people. Fear is the key and indifference is the bed on which it has been cultivated. The faithful who believed in an armed liberation struggle are a mere handful and they themselves have begun to feel that the LTTE has become a danger to the Tamils.

This view has now emerged and even in Wanni, people there are waiting for the day when they could chase Prabhakaran and his gang out of their territory. The signs are highly potent if what is happening in North America is a pointer. Just like in Australia and the United Kingdom, even in France, Germany and Switzerland, the LTTE and the WTM are getting exposed and some have even begun to fight with each other openly and unashamedly. What is involved here is a threat to their personal fortunes and the possibility this source may dry up, final war or not in Sri Lanka.

Amidst this, an American lawyer has come into the scene retained by a US organization, Tamils for Justice who demand that only the LTTE has the right to speak for the Tamils; none other. But this lawyer seems to have seen the grass greener across the border in Canada and is reported to be behaving strangely against his own client who has paid him a heavy retainer. He is now in the company of the Toronto LTTE fraudsters and the latest is that they have even formed an organization called Justice for Thamils as against Tamils for Justice that retained this Ronald Reagan era mercenary.

It appears before the LTTE collapses in Wanni, as it soon will, all the North American fund fraudsters want to make as much as possible because they have developed a lifestyle that demands heavy inputs especially mortgages for their mansions and their ostentatious pretense and flamboyance. The forming of Justice for Thamils indicates the possible canine consequence of dogs eating dogs.

In the history of the Tamils that go back to antiquity and a people who have achieved frontier honours in several fields of human expertise and enterprise including possibly as the people of the Indus Valley Civilization, the LTTE era is bound to be its shame.
- Sri Lanka Guardian