Tigers get weapons from eight sources - expert

A terrorism expert recently listed eight sources of arms procurement for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Peter Leitner, president of the Higgins Counterterrorism Research Center and professor at the National Center for Biodefense at George Mason University, said clandestine arms dealers in Tamil Nadu, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Cyprus, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and Croatia supply explosives, weapons and other supplies to the group.

While most armaments are obtained by forged or adapted end-user certificates, the LTTE arms transport is the "largest quantity of armaments ever transported by a non-state armed group," Leitner pointed out.

The LTTE has been listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.

Certain inconsistencies in U.S. counter-terrorism policy create sanctuaries where civilians are victimised, Leitner noted. "Terrorism should be called terrorism everywhere. If it is unacceptable when it is wielded against the United States it should be unacceptable wherever it is wielded."

He urged the West to put pressure on the LTTE to negotiate a settlement for their reintegration into a unitary Sri Lanka.