UK LTTE fronts in major larceny

It emerged yesterday that LTTE front organisations which act as charities have defrauded the British Government to the tune of several million pounds.

"By raising over three million pounds in the UK, without paying Value Added Tax on turnover and transferring over 2.5 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," terrorism analyst Dominic Whitman wrote in the Globalpolitician.com website.

Whitman also disclosed that the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), closely linked to the LTTE, 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".

The TRO has collected as much as Rs. 56.3 million for tsunami work in the North of Sri Lanka which was supposedly to construct 639 housing units. The entire sum of money has been drawn by the LTTE but only approx 100 housing units have been completed.In August 2005 the UK Charity Commission de-listed the charity TRO from its list of charities for its links with the LTTE.

At the time of its being de-listed it had pounds 1.3 million but the trustees made a mockery of British legislation by registering the same organisation under the name "International Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (ITRO)" as a company with Companies House UK.

Since 1995, three LTTE British charities and the Tamil Housing Association has raised over eight 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.

In the words of Charles Somasundram, the LTTE activist who wrote in "Hot Spring" magazine, these charities are the brainchild of the LTTE leader Prabhakaran.

The charity work they carry out in the Vanni jungles is minuscule, (a fraction of the 2.5 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, Whitman, spokesperson for the London-based VIGIL anti-terrorist organisation, wrote.

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.

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