Incidents involving the LTTE outside Sri Lanka: 2014

Date

Nature of incident

January 14

Toronto, Canada

January 15

Paris, France

HRW on in its World Report 2014 released in New York said 'Sri Lanka made little progress in 2013 in accountability for serious human rights abuses committed during the country's three-decade long war against LTTE that ended in 2009.'

To avoid hurting Tamil sentiment ahead of elections, the Indian Government in New Delhi refused to commit Sri Lanka any support against a US-sponsored UN resolution accusing its military of committing war crimes in the final assault on the LTTE in 2009.

Tamil Nadu, India

A city court in Chennai (Tamil Nadu) acquitted 13 people accused of involvement with the banned terror group LTTE. The case relates to the arrest of some Sri Lankan Tamils in Chennai and seizure of communication devices, including satellite phones from them in April 2009.

HRW has backed UN rights chief's recommendation for an international inquiry into alleged war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the final phase of battle with the LTTE, the New York-based HRW said.

Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh met President Mahinda Rajapakse after a resolution at the UNHRC condemning Sri Lanka's human record during its war against the LTTE and to underline the case of de-militarisation in the Jaffna Peninsula.

Kapilan alias Nandhagopan, the 'second in command' of the LTTE's Nediyavan Group, was arrested by Iranian authorities at the transit passenger lounge in the Teheran airport. Thereafter, Nandhagopan was "seized" by Sri Lankan officials and transported to Colombo.

London, United Kingdom

A new video clip showing Sinhala-speaking uniformed men celebrating over bodies identified as those of female LTTE fighters released by Channel 4 accused the Sri Lankan Armed Forces of having an "underlying culture of systematic brutality and sexual violence".

Geneva, Switzerland

External Affairs Minister G L Peiris claimed that most of the 47 member countries of the UNHRC are under pressure to back a tough US-sponsored resolution that has called for an international probe into alleged rights abuses during the country's war with LTTE.

New York, United States

Piratheepan Nadarajah (37), a Canadian LTTE operative extradited to the US to face charges of supporting the LTTE, has been sentenced to two years in prison by a Federal Court in Brooklyn, New York.

Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa speaking at the 14th Defence Services Asia Exhibition and Conference held in Puthrajaya (Malaysia) said that though there was no more terrorism in Sri Lanka, the LTTE's global network continued to function largely unhindered and that some nations seemed to have chosen to turn a blind eye to these front organizations.

Interpol issued a Red Notice for the arrest of Perinpanayagam Sivaparan alias Nediyavan, who is believed to be the leader of the LTTE organization in Norway.

The Bureau of Counterterrorism of the US Department of State in its Country Reports on Terrorism 2013 said that although no arrests related to terrorism were made in 2013, the Sri Lankan Government remained concerned of the LTTE's international network of financial support.

Defence sources revealed that one of the former prominent LTTE cadres, identified as K. Thayapararaja, said to have been tortured and killed by the Sri Lankan SFs in 2009 as claimed by many local and international NGOs, was among the arrested persons by the Tamil Nadu Police in Dhanushkodi in India when they entered India without valid documents.

British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Hugo Swire said in the UK Parliament that the proscription of diaspora Tamil organizations that are suspected of having links to the LTTE by the Sri Lankan Government is not conducive to a successful reconciliation process in the island nation.

As Sri Lanka is getting ready to commemorate the defeat of the LTTE, the Ministry of Home Affairs, India extended its ban on the LTTE for five more years.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

CTD of the Malaysia Police's Special Branch arrested three men suspected to be members of LTTE for allegedly attempting to revive the Sri Lankan separatist group at the international level. Malaysian Police also have seized LTTE propaganda material, media equipment and currencies from 24 countries worth MYR 20,176.53 (approximately US$ 6,280) from the arrested LTTE members.

Washington, USA

A Resolution submitted to the USHR by Rush Holt called on the TNA to acknowledge its past relationships with the LTTE and make a firm commitment to reconciliation process in Sri Lanka.

Malaysian Police following the arrest of three LTTE members have launched an operation to hunt down more members of the group who are believed to be hiding in the country.

UNHCR Spokesperson Yante Ismail said that a close and full examination of all facts is needed following the detention of three members of LTTE bearing the commission's cards in Malaysia.

Deputy Home Minister of Malaysia, Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said that Malaysians who gave donations to refugees may have unknowingly helped LTTE raise enough money to buy warships and weapons.

A Local Court in The Hague ordered five LTTE suspects to be imprisoned for collecting funds for the organization in Netherlands. The five men are believed to be front-liners of the LTTE in Netherland and they were given sentences ranging from 2 to 6 years.

Pro- LTTE candidate for Scarborough-Rouge River, Neethan Shan, despite his alliance with the Tiger rump failed to win at the recently concluded Ontario provincial election in Canada. He was a staunch LTTE supporter who had taken part in all LTTE heroes' day celebrations in Canada. Shan had publicly criticized the Canadian Government for banning the LTTE front, World Tamil Movement. He spoke on behalf of terrorist leaders, and maintained that they were fighting for the liberation of Tamils.

Police arrested four Sri Lankan Tamils, including a LTTE cadre, on charges of illegal entry when they clandestinely landed at Arichamunai, off Danushkodi, in Tamil Nadu. The police identified them as S. Sathish (39), who had worked as an 'accountant' with LTTE, S. Ravindran alias Ravi (38), who had worked in EPDP, J. Santhi (38) and Malar (55). Enquiries revealed that Sathish, who had studied BA (Accounts) at the Jaffna Hindu College, had served in the LTTE as an accountant from 2004 until the final phase of the war in 2009.

Sri Lanka Police have requested the assistance of the INTERPOL to trace the absconding suspect who had maintained close links with LTTE. The suspect, Kathirwel Dayabaran Raj, is believed to be in India. Preliminary investigations have revealed that he had escaped to Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu on May 4 with his wife and three children. An Indian magazine has reported that Dayabaran Raj was killed by the SFs but the Sri Lanka Police denied the allegation. Sri Lanka Police said they have evidence that the suspect had escaped by boat to Rameshwaram.

Malaysian Police arrested four former LTTE leaders accused of trying to revive the organization using Malaysia as a base. The arrestees suspected of involvement in terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka were arrested by the Malaysian Police in a series of anti-terrorism operations in Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur and the four are being detained by the SB-CTD. Malaysian Police said one of the suspects was wanted for his involvement in the assassination attempt on the then Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga in 1999. Police IG, Khalid Abu Bakar said that the suspects "were planning to reactivate the group by making Malaysia as their base of operations". Some activists, he said, had exploited their status as refugees to pursue illegal activities. According to the Malaysian Police one of the suspects was an explosives expert, and another is alleged of facilitating planned attacks on Sri Lankan consulates in India. The fourth man is accused of gathering intelligence for the group. The Police confiscated counterfeit passports of multiple nations, counterfeit rubber stamps of the Immigration Department and foreign embassies and other documents.

Malaysian authorities are on the hunt for more cadres of LTTE after a crackdown on the Tamil militant group led to the arrest of seven persons in the last two months in the country. Four suspected LTTE cadres were arrested on July 3 brings the total number of Sri Lankan Tamils arrested here in the last two months to seven. Malaysian Police believe the Tamil Tigers were trying to revive their movement using Malaysia as a transit point, hideout and a new base of operation.

Two Police reports have been lodged against Malaysia's Penang Deputy CM II Dr P. Ramasamy over alleged links with LTTE. The reports were lodged by two NGOs at the Central Seberang Prai Police stations, Penang, Malaysia. One of the groups also alleged that Ramasamy was brave as he is "backed up by the Tiger Eelam separatist group from Sri Lanka". The NGOs also demanded Ramasamy be investigated and arrested.

Malaysia has agreed to hand over to Sri Lanka four former leaders of the LTTE arrested during a recent operation. Sri Lankan Police sources said that four specially trained Policemen would leave next week for Kuala Lumpur to bring down the hardcore terrorists to Colombo. A senior Police officer said that the Malaysian police had assured to cooperate with their Sri Lankan counterparts to apprehend other LTTE suspects who have taken refuge in the South East Asian country with the help of the information elicited from the LTTE suspects arrested by them. The Malaysian Police have warned the citizens of that country with dire consequences if they provided refuge or assisted terrorists in any manner. Among the former LTTE cadres arrested by the Malaysian Police is a suspect wanted in connection with the abortive attempt on former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaranatunga's life at the Colombo Town Hall grounds during her 1999 presidential election campaign.

With "security concerns" keeping President Mahinda Rajapaksa away from attending last week's opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, the planned pro-LTTE demonstration opposite the Celtic stadium lost its steam. Sources said that "The number of activists expected to turn up for the demonstration dwindled as news spread that the President would not be coming for the event." The protesters openly waved Eelam flags, shouted anti-Sri Lanka slogans and were attired in T-shirts sporting Velupillai Prabakaran's photograph despite the LTTE listed as a proscribed terrorist outfit in the UK.

TNA Northern Provincial Councilor Dharmalingam Sitharthan, during his European visit said that Norway, which facilitated the peace process between the then Government and the LTTE is now giving less emphasis to the peace building process in Sri Lanka. However, he added Switzerland keenly looking at Sri Lanka's situation.

According to reports, International intelligence services have arrested four individuals who had allegedly attempted to carry out a plot to assassinate two VIPs of the Sri Lankan Government. The report said that the four, who were arrested in a foreign country, includes a former SLA captain and three activists of the defeated LTTE terrorist group. The suspects have requested money from LTTE diaspora to carry out the plot.

Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ravinatha Aryasinha, revealed that the LTTE are running "Madrassa type" indoctrination schools in EU countries. He said that the LTTE has established "Madrassa-type" schools called "Tamil Cholai" to "ferment the radicalisation of Tamil youth, and glorify terrorism and martyrdom." He added that students of these schools are forced to participate in propaganda events organised by the LTTE and its front organisations. He also said that an estimated 20,000 Tamil students between the ages of 4 and 21 years are studying in more than300 "Tamil Cholai" schools functioning in Europe under different names.

A large cache of arms including spent shells of 245 grenades and 28 rockets, believed to have been used by the LTTE in the 1980s have been unearthed in a reserved forest at Kolathur near Mettur in Salem district of Tamil Nadu, India. It is believed that LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and his cadres had used this Kolathur camp for training purpose during 1984-86.

The arrest of four human traffickers while trying to transport six Sri Lankans to Australia through the Prakasam coast, Andhra Pradesh in India earlier this week has raised the suspicion among Indian investigators that the LTTE may be trying to revive in Australia. Report said that the officials from agencies including the IB, CBI and Tamil Nadu Police, conducting the investigations suspect that the LTTE is trying to regroup itself in Australia after lying low for five years since their defeat at the hands of Sri Lankan SFs. The illegal emigrants to Australia from Sri Lanka were from, among other places, Mullaitivu and Mattakalappu and are in the age group of 24 to 28 years.

Sri Lanka's High Commissioner in the UK, Chris Nonis said that the funds used by the rump of the LTTE to procure arms are now being diverted to fight the 'propaganda' war and the international 'propaganda war' has to be fought with the same focus and same strategy as the physical war that was fought and finished.

A special Police team led by ADSP Usha Rani safely detonated and destroyed explosive materials seized from LTTE in Nagapatinam in Tamil Nadu in 1985. The Police said the explosives were seized in the coastal areas of the District, particularly Vedarnayam and Kodiyakkarai. Police had seized 166 detonators and 250 hand bombs and had kept it under their safe custody.

An Indian tribunal headed by Justice G P Mittal that was set up to judicially scrutinize the ban on the LTTE recorded the evidence presented by the UMHA in support of a notification it issued proscribing the outfit for five years from May 14, 2014.

The trial against Sri Lankan-born Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam for allegedly funding the LTTE is expected to begin as early as 2015. In a seven-count complaint filed in the US District Court of New Jersey by the family members of those killed and survivors of bombings committed by the LTTE alleged that Rajaratnam and the family foundation headed by his father provided millions of dollars in funds used for terrorist attacks.

Luxembourg, Europe

The ECJ on procedural grounds annulled the European Council measures maintaining the LTTE on the European list of terrorist organizations but allowed measures to keep their assets frozen. The effects of the annulled measures will be maintained temporarily in order to ensure the effectiveness of any possible future freezing of funds, the Court ruled. The European Court said a decision by the European Council to place the LTTE on a list of terrorist organizations had been based on "factual imputations derived from the press and the internet" and not on acts examined and confirmed in decisions of competent authorities as required by law. The Court stressed that those annulments, on fundamental procedural grounds, do not imply any substantive assessment of the question of the classification of the LTTE as a terrorist group.

India

Following the ECJ decision to annul the sanctions against LTTE, the pro-LTTE Tamil political parties in Tamil Nadu, India have begun to demand the Indian Government to lift the group's ban in India. PMK party founder S. Ramadoss said that India should take its cue from the ECJ's directive.

Luxembourg, Europe

The General Court of the EU said that the decision to lift sanctions on the LTTE was a legal ruling of a court and not a political decision taken by the EU Governments. The Court in a statement said that the legal ruling is clearly based on procedural grounds and it does not imply any assessment by the Court of the substantive issues of designating the LTTE or of freezing LTTE funds. It also said that the EU institutions are studying the Ruling carefully in detail and they will reflect on the options open to them and, in due course, decide on appropriate remedial action to take.

The Indian central Government as well as state of Tamil Nadu have submitted before a tribunal that as per the documents and oral evidence on record the LTTE continues to practice violent, disruptive and unlawful activities, which are prejudicial to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of India. However, a special tribunal constituted by the Delhi High Court has reserved its verdict on whether the Centre's ban on the LTTE needs to be upheld. The central and state governments have also submitted that the LTTE and pro-LTTE groups have been active in Tamil Nadu even during the period of the ban on the outfit since May 2012.

Former Norwegian Minister and facilitator of Sri Lanka's peace process, Erik Solheim, rejected President Mahinda Rajapaksa's allegation that he supported and funded the LTTE. He said, "Norway, as the third, facilitating party to the Sri Lankan peace process financed neither the LTTE in general nor its military operations in particular." He however, noted that Norway made economic resources available to the LTTE peace secretariat in order to assist them in engaging more fully with the ongoing peace process.

The EU court's decision to delist Sri Lanka's LTTE and the upcoming presidential election were among the issues discussed at Britain's upper parliament, House of Lords. The discussion initiated when Lord Naseby, who is the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sri Lanka, asked the House of Lords what action they are taking in response to the EU of Justice verdict on October 16 and its conclusions in respect of restrictive measures currently in place since the LTTE was proscribed by the EU in 2006 and by the UK in 2000.

Simonstown / South Africa

A South African Tamil group has filed criminal charges against General Srilal Weerasooriva, a former Sri Lankan General for alleged war crimes during the civil war with the Tamil Tiger terrorist group LTTE. General Weerasooriva is in South Africa as part of an international delegation attending the Association of Military Christian Fellowships - Global Interaction 2014 at the naval base of Simonstown.

The CBI of India has sought the assistance of Interpol to its request to question, Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP, the LTTE leader, who is under Sri Lanka's protective custody, for the conspiracy behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991. Sources have told TOI that Interpol's help has also been sought to convince Sri Lanka to assist in the case and reply to the judicial requests that have been pending for years.