rapa
11-23-2006, 05:31 PM
VIGIL Intelligence Report Overview (London Unit)
Using the LTTE as a case study to show that UK banning legislation is an appalling failure in its current format.
The LTTE infiltration 2006
Report dated: October 2006
Background:
LTTE was banned in the UK February 28th 2001.
The annual publication of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) London "Military Balance 2005/2006" referred to emerging links between the LTTE and the Al-Qaeda movement. It was later revealed confidentially by the editors to diplomatic sources that these links were in terms of commercial transactions including trafficking for financial gain and acquisition of technology rather than any ideological linkage. Experts are studying with interest links between the LTTE and Al-Qaeda in its financial, commercial and arms dealings. It is also believed that such links also exist in maritime transactions.
The LTTE, better known as the Tamil Tigers, which is engaged in an armed confrontation with the Sri Lankan Government, was the first terrorist organisation to use suicide bombers against civilian and military targets. It has in the last 23 years assassinated the political leadership in Sri Lanka, killed a former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and been involved in the loss of nearly 60,000 lives of mostly innocent civilians.
On August 21, 2006 a British NHS GP at Forest Primary Care Centre, Hertford Road in Edmonton, Dr Murugesu Vineyagamoorthy and his wife Dr Pushpam were arrested in New York by the FBI for attempting to bribe a US Justice Dept official with $1 million to try to get the LTTE off the list of banned terrorist organisations in the USA. He was further charged with facilitating the purchase of American made missiles and British submarine technology for the LTTE. This arrest according to many observers was an eye-opener to the huge volume of money that is raised through extortion and intimidation from the Tamil diaspora in the UK that is either smuggled into Sri Lanka through human carriers or in the form of weapons purchased in third countries.
Fundraising in UK: method case studies
i) Extortion
The US based organisation Human Rights Watch earlier this year published a study entitled "Funding the final war -- LTTE intimidation and extortion in the Tamil diaspora (a case study of UK and Canada)". According to this study many individual families and businesses have been approached to pay sums of money ranging from œ2000 to œ100,000. The LTTE's de-facto headquarters in London masquerading under the name "British Tamil Association" has even arranged direct debit arrangements to its account at the Natwest Bank. They have now progressed to getting members of the Tamil community to fill out a questionnaire detailing family address, income, details of family in Sri Lanka etc. Any refusal to meet with payments would result in one of the following steps.
Next of kin living in Sri Lanka would be abducted and later killed
The person refusing to pay, himself would be killed
This can be illustrated as follows.
On January 5, 2006 Mr Subramaniam Sivakumar, a Tamil businessman who operated a grocery shop called Apna Bazaar on Willesden Lane in North West London was killed in mysterious circumstances. Police later found in his journals that he had been making regular payments of œ10 -- œ20,000 to "LTTE boys". Family members believe his failure to make one of these "regular payments" sealed his fate. Police investigations are continuing.
ii) Open Public Events In Spite of Ban
Each year the LTTE holds 2 (regularly annual) events in London. On 27 November 2005, notwithstanding the fact that the LTTE is banned both in the UK and the European Union, nearly 5000 Sri Lankan Tamils gathered at the Wembley Arena to commemorate the 50th birthday of the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran who incidentally is wanted by Interpol after having been charged by the Supreme court of India for assassinating their Prime Minister. The event took the form of drama and dances performed in his honour and candles were lit to honour the name of the notorious "black tigers" (LTTE suicide bombers). Entrance to the event cost œ35 per head which entitled attendees to a 2006 calendar with colour illustrations of Prabhakaran's military prowess. Incidentally the principal speaker at this event was Mr Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's theoretician and chief negotiator at all the LTTE's talks with the Sri Lanka Government. Mr Balasingham is a British citizen who lives comfortably in Greenford, London from where he proclaims the LTTE ideology to the western world. His operations in the UK have been ignored by the authorities citing various reasons.
On 25 July 2006 the LTTE organised the black July rally at Hyde Park with a 20 ft cut-out of the LTTE leader on the stage. The event was supposedly held to commemorate an incident which had occurred 30 years ago where some tamil civilians had been killed by a Sinhalese mob. The event was organised by a LTTE front calling themselves Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO, UK). The event had the likes of Labour party Harrow Councillor Thaya Idaikaddar delivering a homily extolling the virtues of the LTTE leader. Incidentally permission to hold the rally was obtained from the Royal Parks' Police by 2 other Labour councillors -- one from Harrow, Ms Sashikala, and the other Ms Eliza Packiadevi Mann from Southwark. These councillors have now formed another LTTE front called British Tamil Councillors and Associates. Although they are supposedly elected to represent the people of Harrow, Southwark, East Ham, etc., they claim that they have been elected to safeguard the well-being of the Tamil people. Seem to be unable to integrate into British society and are contributing their might to strengthen the Tamil "ghettos" in North and East London (Ealing Road, Wembley, East Ham, Croydon, Walthamstow, Tooting, etc.). Mr Idaikaddar is closely associated with DFID Minister Gareth Thomas who usually is an active participant in these events in his electorate. Mr Robert Evans -- another Labour member who is a member of the European Parliament (PSE group) -- is another active supporter.
iii) Hindu Temples
The Human Rights Watch report has also thrown light on the role of British Hindu temples which have come under the control of the LTTE and have become a source of huge revenue to the LTTE's war chest. The report refers to the detention of two British nationals of Sri Lankan Tamil origin in the north of Sri Lanka (whilst they were visiting relatives) -- Mr Rajasingham Jayadevan and Mr Arumugam Kandiah Vivekanandan, proprietors of a private Hindu temple located on Ealing road in Wembley by the LTTE. They were detained for several weeks in February 2005 until they agreed to hand over control of the temple to a group aligned with the LTTE. Mr Jayadevan subsequently initiated an application to the UK High court and on April 7, 2005 the High court ruled that the transfer of the temple was not valid and returned control of the temple to its original trustees. However the group aligned to the LTTE continues to operate the Sivayogam Hindu temple in Tooting. The UK Charity Commission has continued to drag its feet on this investigation for several years citing the usual bureaucratic delays. This is despite evidence available of how during the tsunami disaster in December 2004 the Sivayogam Trust sent a container load of "tsunami relief goods" which contained among other things aluminium kitchen pots inside which were cleverly concealed ball bearings and other items required for assembling explosives. The Sivayogam also sponsored the construction of a boat yard in Sampoor in the East of Sri Lanka purportedly for fishermen affected by the tsunami but which later turned out to be a boat yard for the LTTE's sea tiger suicide squad.
iv) Charities
Another LTTE front organisation, White Pigeon, currently under investigation by the UK Charity Commission for its links with the LTTE in 2005, transferred approx. œ500,000 (SL Rs 98.64 million) from its account at the National Westminster Bank, Sutton branch. This organisation also regularly transmits funds to the Bumiputhra Commerce Bank in Kuala Lumpur which is the bank account of the World Tamil Relief Fund for procurement of military hardware for the LTTE.
Note that in August 2005 the UK Charity Commission de-listed the charity Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (UK) from its list of charities for its links with the LTTE. At the time of its being de-listed it had œ1.3 million but the trustees made a mockery of British legislation by in September 2005 registering the same organisation under the name "International Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (ITRO)" as a company with Companies House UK. It was recently uncovered that TRO (UK) had collected a staggering sum of SL Rs 56.3 million for tsunami work in the north of Sri Lanka which was supposedly to construct 639 housing units in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The entire sum of money has been drawn by the LTTE but only approx 100 housing units have been completed.
Synopsis
The banning of the LTTE in the UK in 2001 resulted in only one change in their course of action. They changed the name of their secretariat and fronts -- and now continue to operate "business as usual".
Today they are at the centre of everything from credit card frauds to money laundering, drug trafficking and the international narcotics trade and they operate a commercially viable shipping network. The LTTE continues to destabilise Sri Lanka with funds mainly collected from the UK and Canada. Annual remittances from the UK alone both from extortion and their business activities is in the range of œ10 million.
According to the Counter Terrorism Command of the UK Metropolitan Police they are aware of these activities but are faced with staffing constraints, as they are preoccupied with handling "Islamic terrorism". It is regrettable that terrorist groups that the UK, EU, USA, Canada, India, Australia and many other countries have chosen to ban continues to operate at large in the UK due to this "differentiation" between Islamic terror groups posing a threat to UK's domestic security and "other terrorist groups" which pose a threat to the domestic and regional security of other regions in the world, in this instance South Asia.
British tolerance feeding terrorism
Tamil gang violence continues unabated throughout London and its suburbs. On 16 February 2006 a Sri Lankan was stabbed to death at McDonalds in Tooting, London. The attack was carried out apparently in revenge for a sword attack against another Sri Lankan man which took place outside the Tooting police station four days earlier. According to police grudges based on the 23-year rebellion by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka have spilled into Britain and led to some horrific attacks. In 2005 alone, 16 killings have taken place involving the Sri Lankan Tamil community in the UK. The Specialist Crime Unit of the UK Metropolitan Police launched two operations (Operation Enver and Operation Quadrant) but sadly these operations which led to the arrest of hundreds of LTTE gangsters in the suburbs of London has been abandoned due to lack of funds apparently the priority is "Islamic terrorism".
It is interesting to note that Mr Charles Anthony, son of the internationally hunted criminal Velupillai Prabhakaran is now a student at the University of Belfast. His entry was secured with the help of the IRA's Martin McGuinness as a "confidence building measure" to contribute towards bringing peace to Sri Lanka!
Worse still
Since 1995, three LTTE British charities and the Tamil Housing Association has raised over 8 million pounds. Most of the funds have been attracted as grants from local and central government because of the legitimacy these organisations have derived from being registered charities and a Housing Association in the UK. The Tamil Refugee Action Group has even got a British National Lottery grant of œ78,450 pounds awarded on 2nd December 1998. Tamil Refugee Education and Training Centre where the LTTE official spokesman Anton Rajah works, has also attracted a British National Lottery grant of œ155,484 pounds, awarded on 4th March 1999. It is a grant covering a period of 3 years.
The TRO has declared to the British authorities that since 1995 approximately 2.5 million pounds have gone from Britain to LTTE control, tax free, via the charity under the guise of "rehabilitation work". Although TRO has raised approximately 3 million pounds since 1995 and have no staff costs, most of those who canvass for the TRO are working for the other two charities and the Housing Association and are receiving salaries courtesy of the British tax payer. The total salary costs since 1995 of the Housing Association and the two charities (excluding TRO which has no salary costs) is approximately 1.5 million pounds.
By raising over œ3 million pounds in the UK, without paying Value Added Tax on turnover and transferring over œ2.5 million pounds out of Britain since 1995, exploiting the "charity status" it has gained by deception to avoid the payment of corporation tax, the LTTE may have defrauded the British Treasury, Her Majesty's Inland Revenue and Her Majesty's Customs and Excise of over a million pounds.
There is no doubt that these groups are doing some degree of charity work and no doubt that the TRO does carry out refugee relief work in the Vanni jungles, but in the words of Charles Somasundram, the LTTE activist who wrote in the "Hot Spring" magazine, these charities are the brainchild of the LTTE leader Prabakaran. The charity work they carry out in the Vanni jungles is minuscule, (a fraction of the œ2.5 million pounds that has been sent from Britain) compared to the other organisations such as UNHCR, ICRC, OXFAM etc. who are active in the conflict areas and refuse to have anything to do with the TRO, as they are all aware of TRO's LTTE connections. In its propaganda the TRO claims that it "works with" organisations such as CARE, MSF, UNHCR and UNICEF in order to gain credibility and legitimacy.
The charity work of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation is a facade to cover up its primary purpose, which is to raise funds to purchase weapons as commented by Don Gracey, security specialist to the Canadian Senate Committee on Security and Intelligence. The little work the TRO does in the Vanni jungles is given massive publicity in the LTTE controlled media in order to create a distorted perception among expatriate Tamils, that they are the largest NGO operating in the Vanni jungles, so as to emotionally target them and raise more funds to finance terrorism.
While UNHCR, ICRC, OXFAM and other international organisations move about freely all over Sri Lanka, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (British charity number 1010029), only operates in terrorist held areas of Sri Lanka, because as a terrorist outfit, it has no legitimacy in parts of Sri Lanka where democracy prevails.
...>>
Using the LTTE as a case study to show that UK banning legislation is an appalling failure in its current format.
The LTTE infiltration 2006
Report dated: October 2006
Background:
LTTE was banned in the UK February 28th 2001.
The annual publication of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) London "Military Balance 2005/2006" referred to emerging links between the LTTE and the Al-Qaeda movement. It was later revealed confidentially by the editors to diplomatic sources that these links were in terms of commercial transactions including trafficking for financial gain and acquisition of technology rather than any ideological linkage. Experts are studying with interest links between the LTTE and Al-Qaeda in its financial, commercial and arms dealings. It is also believed that such links also exist in maritime transactions.
The LTTE, better known as the Tamil Tigers, which is engaged in an armed confrontation with the Sri Lankan Government, was the first terrorist organisation to use suicide bombers against civilian and military targets. It has in the last 23 years assassinated the political leadership in Sri Lanka, killed a former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and been involved in the loss of nearly 60,000 lives of mostly innocent civilians.
On August 21, 2006 a British NHS GP at Forest Primary Care Centre, Hertford Road in Edmonton, Dr Murugesu Vineyagamoorthy and his wife Dr Pushpam were arrested in New York by the FBI for attempting to bribe a US Justice Dept official with $1 million to try to get the LTTE off the list of banned terrorist organisations in the USA. He was further charged with facilitating the purchase of American made missiles and British submarine technology for the LTTE. This arrest according to many observers was an eye-opener to the huge volume of money that is raised through extortion and intimidation from the Tamil diaspora in the UK that is either smuggled into Sri Lanka through human carriers or in the form of weapons purchased in third countries.
Fundraising in UK: method case studies
i) Extortion
The US based organisation Human Rights Watch earlier this year published a study entitled "Funding the final war -- LTTE intimidation and extortion in the Tamil diaspora (a case study of UK and Canada)". According to this study many individual families and businesses have been approached to pay sums of money ranging from œ2000 to œ100,000. The LTTE's de-facto headquarters in London masquerading under the name "British Tamil Association" has even arranged direct debit arrangements to its account at the Natwest Bank. They have now progressed to getting members of the Tamil community to fill out a questionnaire detailing family address, income, details of family in Sri Lanka etc. Any refusal to meet with payments would result in one of the following steps.
Next of kin living in Sri Lanka would be abducted and later killed
The person refusing to pay, himself would be killed
This can be illustrated as follows.
On January 5, 2006 Mr Subramaniam Sivakumar, a Tamil businessman who operated a grocery shop called Apna Bazaar on Willesden Lane in North West London was killed in mysterious circumstances. Police later found in his journals that he had been making regular payments of œ10 -- œ20,000 to "LTTE boys". Family members believe his failure to make one of these "regular payments" sealed his fate. Police investigations are continuing.
ii) Open Public Events In Spite of Ban
Each year the LTTE holds 2 (regularly annual) events in London. On 27 November 2005, notwithstanding the fact that the LTTE is banned both in the UK and the European Union, nearly 5000 Sri Lankan Tamils gathered at the Wembley Arena to commemorate the 50th birthday of the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran who incidentally is wanted by Interpol after having been charged by the Supreme court of India for assassinating their Prime Minister. The event took the form of drama and dances performed in his honour and candles were lit to honour the name of the notorious "black tigers" (LTTE suicide bombers). Entrance to the event cost œ35 per head which entitled attendees to a 2006 calendar with colour illustrations of Prabhakaran's military prowess. Incidentally the principal speaker at this event was Mr Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's theoretician and chief negotiator at all the LTTE's talks with the Sri Lanka Government. Mr Balasingham is a British citizen who lives comfortably in Greenford, London from where he proclaims the LTTE ideology to the western world. His operations in the UK have been ignored by the authorities citing various reasons.
On 25 July 2006 the LTTE organised the black July rally at Hyde Park with a 20 ft cut-out of the LTTE leader on the stage. The event was supposedly held to commemorate an incident which had occurred 30 years ago where some tamil civilians had been killed by a Sinhalese mob. The event was organised by a LTTE front calling themselves Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO, UK). The event had the likes of Labour party Harrow Councillor Thaya Idaikaddar delivering a homily extolling the virtues of the LTTE leader. Incidentally permission to hold the rally was obtained from the Royal Parks' Police by 2 other Labour councillors -- one from Harrow, Ms Sashikala, and the other Ms Eliza Packiadevi Mann from Southwark. These councillors have now formed another LTTE front called British Tamil Councillors and Associates. Although they are supposedly elected to represent the people of Harrow, Southwark, East Ham, etc., they claim that they have been elected to safeguard the well-being of the Tamil people. Seem to be unable to integrate into British society and are contributing their might to strengthen the Tamil "ghettos" in North and East London (Ealing Road, Wembley, East Ham, Croydon, Walthamstow, Tooting, etc.). Mr Idaikaddar is closely associated with DFID Minister Gareth Thomas who usually is an active participant in these events in his electorate. Mr Robert Evans -- another Labour member who is a member of the European Parliament (PSE group) -- is another active supporter.
iii) Hindu Temples
The Human Rights Watch report has also thrown light on the role of British Hindu temples which have come under the control of the LTTE and have become a source of huge revenue to the LTTE's war chest. The report refers to the detention of two British nationals of Sri Lankan Tamil origin in the north of Sri Lanka (whilst they were visiting relatives) -- Mr Rajasingham Jayadevan and Mr Arumugam Kandiah Vivekanandan, proprietors of a private Hindu temple located on Ealing road in Wembley by the LTTE. They were detained for several weeks in February 2005 until they agreed to hand over control of the temple to a group aligned with the LTTE. Mr Jayadevan subsequently initiated an application to the UK High court and on April 7, 2005 the High court ruled that the transfer of the temple was not valid and returned control of the temple to its original trustees. However the group aligned to the LTTE continues to operate the Sivayogam Hindu temple in Tooting. The UK Charity Commission has continued to drag its feet on this investigation for several years citing the usual bureaucratic delays. This is despite evidence available of how during the tsunami disaster in December 2004 the Sivayogam Trust sent a container load of "tsunami relief goods" which contained among other things aluminium kitchen pots inside which were cleverly concealed ball bearings and other items required for assembling explosives. The Sivayogam also sponsored the construction of a boat yard in Sampoor in the East of Sri Lanka purportedly for fishermen affected by the tsunami but which later turned out to be a boat yard for the LTTE's sea tiger suicide squad.
iv) Charities
Another LTTE front organisation, White Pigeon, currently under investigation by the UK Charity Commission for its links with the LTTE in 2005, transferred approx. œ500,000 (SL Rs 98.64 million) from its account at the National Westminster Bank, Sutton branch. This organisation also regularly transmits funds to the Bumiputhra Commerce Bank in Kuala Lumpur which is the bank account of the World Tamil Relief Fund for procurement of military hardware for the LTTE.
Note that in August 2005 the UK Charity Commission de-listed the charity Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (UK) from its list of charities for its links with the LTTE. At the time of its being de-listed it had œ1.3 million but the trustees made a mockery of British legislation by in September 2005 registering the same organisation under the name "International Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (ITRO)" as a company with Companies House UK. It was recently uncovered that TRO (UK) had collected a staggering sum of SL Rs 56.3 million for tsunami work in the north of Sri Lanka which was supposedly to construct 639 housing units in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The entire sum of money has been drawn by the LTTE but only approx 100 housing units have been completed.
Synopsis
The banning of the LTTE in the UK in 2001 resulted in only one change in their course of action. They changed the name of their secretariat and fronts -- and now continue to operate "business as usual".
Today they are at the centre of everything from credit card frauds to money laundering, drug trafficking and the international narcotics trade and they operate a commercially viable shipping network. The LTTE continues to destabilise Sri Lanka with funds mainly collected from the UK and Canada. Annual remittances from the UK alone both from extortion and their business activities is in the range of œ10 million.
According to the Counter Terrorism Command of the UK Metropolitan Police they are aware of these activities but are faced with staffing constraints, as they are preoccupied with handling "Islamic terrorism". It is regrettable that terrorist groups that the UK, EU, USA, Canada, India, Australia and many other countries have chosen to ban continues to operate at large in the UK due to this "differentiation" between Islamic terror groups posing a threat to UK's domestic security and "other terrorist groups" which pose a threat to the domestic and regional security of other regions in the world, in this instance South Asia.
British tolerance feeding terrorism
Tamil gang violence continues unabated throughout London and its suburbs. On 16 February 2006 a Sri Lankan was stabbed to death at McDonalds in Tooting, London. The attack was carried out apparently in revenge for a sword attack against another Sri Lankan man which took place outside the Tooting police station four days earlier. According to police grudges based on the 23-year rebellion by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka have spilled into Britain and led to some horrific attacks. In 2005 alone, 16 killings have taken place involving the Sri Lankan Tamil community in the UK. The Specialist Crime Unit of the UK Metropolitan Police launched two operations (Operation Enver and Operation Quadrant) but sadly these operations which led to the arrest of hundreds of LTTE gangsters in the suburbs of London has been abandoned due to lack of funds apparently the priority is "Islamic terrorism".
It is interesting to note that Mr Charles Anthony, son of the internationally hunted criminal Velupillai Prabhakaran is now a student at the University of Belfast. His entry was secured with the help of the IRA's Martin McGuinness as a "confidence building measure" to contribute towards bringing peace to Sri Lanka!
Worse still
Since 1995, three LTTE British charities and the Tamil Housing Association has raised over 8 million pounds. Most of the funds have been attracted as grants from local and central government because of the legitimacy these organisations have derived from being registered charities and a Housing Association in the UK. The Tamil Refugee Action Group has even got a British National Lottery grant of œ78,450 pounds awarded on 2nd December 1998. Tamil Refugee Education and Training Centre where the LTTE official spokesman Anton Rajah works, has also attracted a British National Lottery grant of œ155,484 pounds, awarded on 4th March 1999. It is a grant covering a period of 3 years.
The TRO has declared to the British authorities that since 1995 approximately 2.5 million pounds have gone from Britain to LTTE control, tax free, via the charity under the guise of "rehabilitation work". Although TRO has raised approximately 3 million pounds since 1995 and have no staff costs, most of those who canvass for the TRO are working for the other two charities and the Housing Association and are receiving salaries courtesy of the British tax payer. The total salary costs since 1995 of the Housing Association and the two charities (excluding TRO which has no salary costs) is approximately 1.5 million pounds.
By raising over œ3 million pounds in the UK, without paying Value Added Tax on turnover and transferring over œ2.5 million pounds out of Britain since 1995, exploiting the "charity status" it has gained by deception to avoid the payment of corporation tax, the LTTE may have defrauded the British Treasury, Her Majesty's Inland Revenue and Her Majesty's Customs and Excise of over a million pounds.
There is no doubt that these groups are doing some degree of charity work and no doubt that the TRO does carry out refugee relief work in the Vanni jungles, but in the words of Charles Somasundram, the LTTE activist who wrote in the "Hot Spring" magazine, these charities are the brainchild of the LTTE leader Prabakaran. The charity work they carry out in the Vanni jungles is minuscule, (a fraction of the œ2.5 million pounds that has been sent from Britain) compared to the other organisations such as UNHCR, ICRC, OXFAM etc. who are active in the conflict areas and refuse to have anything to do with the TRO, as they are all aware of TRO's LTTE connections. In its propaganda the TRO claims that it "works with" organisations such as CARE, MSF, UNHCR and UNICEF in order to gain credibility and legitimacy.
The charity work of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation is a facade to cover up its primary purpose, which is to raise funds to purchase weapons as commented by Don Gracey, security specialist to the Canadian Senate Committee on Security and Intelligence. The little work the TRO does in the Vanni jungles is given massive publicity in the LTTE controlled media in order to create a distorted perception among expatriate Tamils, that they are the largest NGO operating in the Vanni jungles, so as to emotionally target them and raise more funds to finance terrorism.
While UNHCR, ICRC, OXFAM and other international organisations move about freely all over Sri Lanka, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (British charity number 1010029), only operates in terrorist held areas of Sri Lanka, because as a terrorist outfit, it has no legitimacy in parts of Sri Lanka where democracy prevails.
...>>