LTTE men on fund raise in London

(September 23, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Tamil shop owners are being approached for funds by unidentified men who call themselves representing the LTTE. The shop keepers are being demanded large sums of funds ranging from £2,000 to £10,000.

The fund collectors are saying they are collecting funds to strengthen the LTTE’s present war efforts.

Funds are being collected in all parts of London and some senior LTTE men are approaching individuals who had contributed in the past.

The fund raisers are telling that the LTTE will have a decisive victory in the current fighting and their efforts needs to be strengthened with funding from supporters in the diaspora.

A shop owner in Wembley said, ‘I am scared and I do not know what to do’. ‘The moment they introduced them as LTTE men, my whole body trembled’. He further said, ‘I am finding it hard to run the business. With my heavy commitments, I am unable to dip my hands anywhere to pay the £5,000 demanded by them. I am worried, if do not pay them they will turn against me and the shop’.

Sources in East London said a fund raisers meeting had taken place on 20 September 2008 at the Pillaiyar Temple, at Ley Street in Ilford.- Sri Lanka Guardian