By NNN-News. LK,
Colombo : President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the LTTE, although a proscribed terrorist outfit in the UK is still extorting millions of pounds from the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora living in that country.
The President in an interview given to UK ‘Times’ newspaper during his visits to London for the mini commonwealth summit where he raised the issue with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that this money is collected through various channels, such as intimidating the Tamil expatriates.
“You can’t have two different attitudes towards terrorism,” he said
“I don’t agree that there are good terrorists and bad terrorists. There is only one kind of terrorist.” There are about 150,000 Tamils living in Britain, mostly in North London. It is estimated that they send 70 million pounds to the LTTE home every year.
“These are not all voluntary contributions, the money is taken by force, usually a percentage of their income,” said President Rajapaksa. “The money is used to buy weapons. London is not the only place; money is also sent from Europe, Canada and other places.”
Explaining the Sri Lankan Government’s commitment to protecting Human Rights President Rajapaksa insisted that he was taking steps to protect human rights.
President also said that due to the weak propaganda mechanism of the Government the LTTE terrorists have taken advantage on foreign soil to collect funds and to distort the image of the nation.
President Rajapaksa insisted Friday that in spite of the cost in lives and damage inflicted to Sri Lanka’s tourist trade he would not resume peace talks with the Tamil Tigers until the organisation agreed to disarm.
“When they are weak they call on the international community to arrange a ceasefire. During this period they train and rearm and then fight back. This time if they want to talk, they should disarm first,” he said.
Even if the Tigers were to meet his preconditions it seems unlikely that he would ever be able to conclude a peace deal with Velupillai Prabhakaran.
“This man (Prabhakaran) and the three or four henchmen around him are blood-thirsty killers,” said President Rajapaksa. “They have no feelings. It is very difficult to deal with them.”