Sri Lanka appealed yesterday for support in dismantling the Tamil Tigers’ international support network after declaring victory over the rebels.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told a high-level security forum in Singapore that the global organization of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) remained “largely intact.”
“Many of the operatives have clearly cultivated powerful, political lobbies in certain capitals with a view to resurrecting the LTTE,” he said.
“It is important for the international community to take all measures to assist the government of Sri Lanka to track down the global network of the LTTE,” he told an annual forum of defense and military officials organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Sri Lanka’s military claimed complete victory over the separatist Tamil Tigers after wiping out the guerrillas’ leadership nearly two weeks ago, but has been dogged by accusations that thousands of civilians were killed in the final weeks of the campaign.
The LTTE launched a campaign in 1972 to create a Tamil homeland in the Sinhalese-majority island. Much of its funding came from Tamils overseas.
Bogollagama dismissed allegations that heavy weapons were used by the military in civilian areas as part of the “propaganda of genocide against the Tamil people.”
“This was both fictional and well-fabricated, with ulterior and sinister motives in order to discredit the armed forces as well as to embarrass the government of Sri Lanka,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan military is probing the possibility that the Tigers’ spy chief may still be alive, despite testimony that he was killed with the rest of the rebel leadership.
“The military is still investigating Tiger intelligence wing leader Pottu Amman’s death as they could not find his body among the top level Tiger leaders,” the state-run Sunday Observer said.
Amman was seen as the No. 2 in the LTTE hierarchy after rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and was believed to have masterminded the 1991 assassination of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
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