LTTE scoffs for propaganda mileage

(By Walter Jayawardhana)

The 'finance commissar' of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) , Thamilendhi has identified the group's struggle with the Tamils of India and Malaysia and has accused India of enslaving the millions of Tamils living in India.

In India's Southernmost state of Tamil Nadu, the origin of Tamil Language, more than 60 million people speak the language and in Malaysia more than 3 million speak it. In Sri Lanka 1.8 million Sri Lankan Tamils speak the language.

The LTTE is fighting for a separate state for the Tamil speaking people in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of the country. Few months ago, the group controlled most of both provinces but now their power is restricted to two tiny districts called Mulaithiuvu and Kilinochchi.

As reported by the pro-LTTE Tamil language newspaper Sudar Oli the LTTE leader Thamilendhi, who is in charge of finances and also a member of the inner circle of LTTE leaders charged that Indian Tamils live as slaves of the Indian government. They earlier accused India of helping the Sri Lanka government for what they called 'Tamil Genocide'.

He is quoted having said at a ceremony of a book launched for propaganda of the LTTE that, "In ancient times the whole of India was a Tamil land. And the Chola kings (from Tamil Nadu) ruled over Sri Lanka for 70 years. Today, the Tamils are slaves in India and are fighting for their liberation in Sri Lanka."

Majority of the more than 60 million Tamils in India belong to two major Tamil parties called DMK and AIADMK and do not maintain direct links with the LTTE. But two small parties PMK and MDMK and other small groups are allegedly run under funds given by the LTTE.

The LTTE leader was speaking at the launching of the book entitled , Let us Move towards the Frontiers of Tamil Eelam, at the LTTE's headquarter town of Kilinochchi in the Wanni area of Northern Province of Sri Lanka.

Thamilendhi in his speech was trying to emphasize if what he called the liberation struggle of the LTTE failed the Tamils all over the world would perish.

To prove his case the LTTE leader said, the Tamils in Malaysia, having become helpless are forced to come to the streets and protest now.

He said the Tamils living in Western countries, under the immense Western white cultural dominance, are in the danger of losing their language and ethnicity.

The LTTE leader whose party has vowed to establish a mono-ethnic society in Sri Lanka's Northern and Eastern Provinces blamed Tamils in India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka themselves for their present plight and said they dangerously trust other communities to protect their rights and they are hopelessly disunited.

Thamilendhi warned, "In the past, we had failed in our nation's duty to secure an independent Tamil Eelam. If our present struggle does not succeed, the Tamils all over the world are sure to perish."