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The LTTE terrorists have registered several front organisations as charities in Britain and are using them to fund and sustain their terrorist activities in Sri Lanka to the tune of several million pounds sterling, tax free. The Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) which has been identified as a terrorist fund raising front at the Canadian Senate Committee for Security and Intelligence is a registered charity in the UK (Charity Number 1010029) raising millions of pounds and transferring them to LTTE control to finance terrorism. In January last year, a special Canadian Senate Committee issued a report on security and intelligence that identified charitable fund-raising in Canada by international terrorist groups as a problem and recommended changes to the Income Tax Act in Canada. A consultant to this committee, Don Gracey who was interviewed in Ottawa has stated "The Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation was one group identified by the committee that in fact, raised money for guns and material used by the Tamil Tigers". Leading LTTE activists in the UK, writing in pro-LTTE magazines have admitted that the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) and several other "charities" are the "brain child" of the LTTE leader V Prabakaran, who is wanted in India for the assassination of Indiaās former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Charles Somasundrum who works as a volunteer several days a week at Eelam House, 202 Long Lane, London SE1 4QB, the LTTE HQ in London, has stated in "Hot Spring" July 1997 issue, page 20, "Prabakaran has proved himself to be not only a brilliant military tactician but also an equally brilliant and humane administrator. This is borne out by some of the organisations he has established for the citizens of Eelam like "Chencholai" (an organisation for the care of war orphans), TEEDOR (an organisation for economic development of Eelam) and the TRO (an organisation for the rebuilding of war scorched Eelam and the rehabilitation of its citizens)." It seems that Prabakaran, has also proved too brilliant for the British Charity Commissioner, who has been deceived into registering several terrorist fund raising organisations as charities. By doing so, the British Charity Commissioner has inadvertently given legitimacy to premiere fund raising organisations of a terrorist group listed by the US State Department in its listing of foreign terror groups. The British Charity Commissioner is also unintentionally facilitating the transfer of funds out of the UK, tax free, to finance terrorism in a small weaker democracy. The LTTE is banned in Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia and Italy and it is has been officially designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US and Canada. According to a Tamil community leader in London, who wishes to remain anonymous, because he fears the wrath of the LTTE, three charities and a Housing Association in the UK are controlled by the LTTE and used for terrorist fund raising and propaganda purposes. He identified these as the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation(charity number 1010029), Tamil Refugee Training and Education Centre(charity number 1055149), Tamil Refugee Action Group(charity number 1035413) and the Tamil Refugee Housing Association which has recently changed its name to Tamil Community Housing Association. According to him, the LTTE is exploiting the emotions of the expatriate Tamils and trying to create a perception that the TRO is separate and independent of the LTTE in order to raise funds. He explained that the LTTE controls these organisations with a complex rotation of personnel who have allegiance to the terrorists and identified the TRO secretary Kathiravelpillai Kuhachandran as someone who has worked for the LTTE from the days when they had an office in 42 Albany Street, near Euston. He also identified Raghavan Vijayakumar, a director of the Tamil Refugee Training and Education Centre(charity number 1055149) and the London College of Technology as someone who works very closely with AC Shanthan, the LTTE chief in London. According to him, Vijayakumar played a leading role with AC Shanthan in organising several annual fund raising LTTE cricket festivals in London. The reason that terrorist organisations are applying for charity status is two fold. They gain recognition as a "British Charity" and this enhances their capacity to attract central government, local government and private sector funding and gains credibility to raise funds from the general public. It also gives them a legitimate avenue to channel funds out of Britain to fund their terrorist activities, without incurring UK income tax. If the LTTE had set up a normal UK company and transferred millions of pounds out of the UK, it would have had to provide explanations to the UK Taxation authorities about the use of funds, as it would have to be of a capital investment nature. Ordinary UK companies cannot transfer a massive proportion of their revenue overseas to charities as a legitimate deductible business expense and as a result will attract UK corporation tax. By deceiving the Charity Commissioner and gaining charitable status facilitates the transfer of funds out of Britain legitimately under the guise of "charitable humanitarian work" without attracting UK Corporation Tax. A LTTE source who works at Eelam House, the LTTE HQ in London, has disclosed that the main LTTE front in the UK, the United Tamils Organisation (UTO) has been fined by HM Inland Revenue for non payment of taxes. UTO raises funds by organising sports and entertainment events in the UK for the Tamil community. This illustrates why it is so important for the LTTE to have registered charitable status. If those funds had been paid into the TRO, a registered British charity instead of the UTO, the funds could have been transferred out of the UK, without incurring UK Corporation Tax. UTO operates out of Eelam House, under the control of the LTTE chief in London, A C Shanthan. It has uniformed security guards and provides "security" to various Tamil events and in return gets an agreed generous contribution. It is a LTTE version of Mafia or Triad "protection racket", but no one complains because of the Mafia style fear grip that the LTTE has over the Tamil community. Those who oppose the LTTE, even democratically are living in Colombo, under the armed protection of the Sri Lankan government as they live in constant fear of assassination. The LTTE routinely assassinates fellow Tamils it regards as being "traitors". The TRO has declared to the British authorities that since 1995 it has transferred approximately two and a half million pounds from Britain to TRO Jaffna. But TRO Jaffna does not exist. What was TRO Jaffna, fled Jaffna in 1995 with the LTTE into the Vanni jungles in northern Sri Lanka as the Sri Lankan army took control of the Jaffna peninsula. So the funds could have never been transferred to TRO Jaffna, as declared to the British authorities, in Jaffna or to Kilinochchi in the Vanni jungles, as there are no Banks operating in the jungles of the Vanni. The
other possibility is for the funds to have been transferred to Colombo and
approximately 300 million rupees (at the current exchange rate) to have
been carried in suitcases into the Vanni. This, together with the
possibility of transporting relief goods from Colombo into the jungles
would be impossible as the Sri Lankan army would not permit an
organisation which is not a registered charity in Sri Lanka to transport
300 million Rupees worth of relief goods into rebel held areas. According to a security specialist based in the United Kingdom, the 2.5 million pounds of UK tax free funds, have never reached TRO Jaffna as declared to the British authorities or reached any part of Sri Lanka. He states that the funds have been transferred for the purchase of arms and explosives as commented by Don Gracey, consultant to the Canadian Senate Committee on Security and Intelligence. In November 1998 at a press conference, during a visit to South Africa by Sri Lankas Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, a LTTE front group known as the PASLO (People Against Sri Lankan Oppression) was given a patient hearing. The PASLO representative boasted to the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, that they had raised a large sum of money for the TRO and had sent it to Sri Lanka via Australia. TROās
world HQ in Australia is headed by Jay Maheswaren who is also an employee
of SBS, a Television and radio broadcaster in Australia and is responsible
for the Tamil language broadcasts. He is currently under investigation by
SBS. Working with Jay Maheswaran is N Nanthakumaran, a senior official of
the TRO. The TRO Bank account at the Commonwealth Bank is in his name.
Nanthakumaran of TRO Australia works directly under Kumaran Pathmanathan,
the chief arms procurement officer of the LTTE. The
British Charity Commissioner has been deceived into legitimising and
aiding the fund raising organisations of the most ruthless terrorist group
in the world, which has been criticised this year by the UN, for its use
of child soldiers in combat and has killed thousands of innocent men women
and children in Sri Lanka. In the United Kingdom, from its very inception, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation has been dominated by LTTE activists and directly controlled by the LTTE via a complex network of personnel who have allegiance to the terrorists. Its UK founder subscribers, are Pathmanabhan Nagulesan, N Sivananthan, P M Quintus, T Manmatharah, K Jeyakumar, M Thangarajah, Dr Sathasivam Maheswaran, R Satkunananthan, Rasiah Navanayagam and Kengai Pennampalam Chetty. An overwhelming majority of them are known LTTE activists in London. Dr Sathasivam Maheswaran is an engineer by profession and was an advisor to to set up an LTTE Air Wing. The LTTE already have a naval capability and have over the years attacked and sunk civilian passenger ferries, foreign cargo ships using the international shipping lanes, Sri Lankan naval crafts, and have been engaging in international piracy. Among the many terrorist groups in the world, the LTTE has used the highest number of suicide bombers, who have blown themselves up, exploding the plastic explosives moulded and strapped to their bodies, assassinating fellow democratic Tamil politicians and even world leaders such as President Pemadasa of Sri Lanka and the former prime minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. The LTTE has perfected suicide technology to carry out attacks, including the use of Oklahoma style truck bombs causing massive civilian collateral damage. They have transferred this suicide technology to small high speed boats, which are used to ram other vessels, detonating the explosives packed in the terrorist craft, and blowing up the target vessel. Dr Sathasivam Maheswaran, a founder subscriber of the TRO, which is now a British charity, was a former adviser to the LTTE air wing. Dr Sathasivam Maheswaran alias "Periya", formerly of Athedi New Road, Jaffna was arrested in Sri Lanka on 1st September 1993 and charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and given a prison sentence and a fine at court No. 2, High Court case number 6347/93. He now lives in London. Other than procuring military manuals, documents and Videos, Dr Sathasivam Maheswaran and the LTTEās official spokesman Ramalingam Vallipuram Ramachandran alias Anton Rajah was in the early 1990ās involved in an attempt to purchase a light aircraft in Britain and Anton Rajah underwent training to become a pilot in a British airfield with a group of LTTE cadres including a suicide bomber known as Pampan Ajith. The US State Departmentās Global Terrorism report lists the World Tamil Association (WTA), World Tamil Movement (WTM), the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils(FACT) and the Ellalan Force as known terrorist fronts of the LTTE. One of the constituent organisations of the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils(FACT) is the Tamil Eelam Society of Canada. (TESOC). The Canadian branch of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation(TRO) operates out of the same offices as the Tamil Eelam Society of Canada (TESOC), 861 Broadview Avenue, Toronto M4K 2P9, Ontario and is headed by Mr E Gunananthan a well known LTTE activist in Canada. In Sweden and several other European countries, the front name of the LTTE is TCC, (Tamil Co-ordinating Committee.) The Swedish office of the LTTE is located at Glomminge Grand-25, 3rd Floor, 16362 Spanga, Sweden. The British Charity TRO has its office at Glomminge Grand - 29, 1st Floor, 16362 Spanga, Sweden. In addition to Canada and Sweden, TRO has offices in over 16 countries and in many of them, it shares the same premises as the LTTE, if not the same town. The Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation frequently falsely publicises that it is a registered charity in Sri Lanka. In July this year, an editorial of the LTTE controlled newspaper the Tamil Guardian repeated this falsehood. This is an attempt to deceive the ignorant in order gain legitimacy to raise funds. Its preferred marketing strategy is to state that the TRO is a registered charity in Sri Lanka and Britain. The "Island" contacted Mr Raymond Perera the Director of the National Secretariat for NGOās in Sri Lanka, who confirmed that the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation(TRO) is not a registered charity in Sri Lanka. The "Island" also learns that in July there was a similar inquiry from the British Prime Ministers office. The Deputy Director, Mr Mandawela later confirmed that the Social Services Act in Sri Lanka was amended in 1998, requiring all charities to apply for registration with the National Secretariat for NGOās and that so far over 160 have been registered and that the TRO is not one of them and that it is unlikely that the Defence Ministry will give it clearance to register as a charity in Sri Lanka. Recently the TRO in Canada has been trying to raise funds stating that it is affiliated to the Sri Lankan government charity "Janasaviya". This is again a falsehood, as "Janasaviya" ceased to exist in 1994 and has been replaced with "Samurdhi", which has no affiliation to the TRO. Ramalingam Vallipuram Ramachandran alias Anton Rajah who has frequently appeared on CNN as the LTTEās Official spokesman, and trained to become a pilot with a LTTE suicide bomber in a British airfield, also works for another British charity controlled by the LTTE called the Tamil Refugee Training and Education Centre (British charity number 1055149). He is a tutor and a verifier. An overwhelming majority of the revenue of the Tamil Refugee Training and Education Centre is from London Boroughs, which are UK local authorities and various other UK educational grants. The charity status given to these establishments enhances their ability to attracts grants from UK central and local governmental bodies and the funds are being used to provide employment key LTTE activists in the UK, who are working for the terrorist cause and to fund terrorism abroad. The staff and trainees of the Tamil Refugee Training and Education Centre, including Anton Rajah, the LTTEās "official spokesman" have also been to British seaside resorts of Margate and Bournemouth. The British tax payer is paying to provide employment for known terrorist activists and for them to go on holiday as well. It would be recalled that according to the Australian terrorism specialist Dr. Peter Chalk, the LTTEs previous international spokesman V. Manoharan, who in early 1997 replaced Lawrance Thilakar as Head of the International Secretariat of the LTTE and signed a petition challenging the US designation of the LTTE as a terrorist group in 1997, had been identified by the INTERPOL as having been imprisoned in France for 2 years for possession of heroin. Once again the management committee of this British "charity" is packed with known LTTE activists. For example, there is Miss Eliza Packiadevi Mann formally of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation(TRO), formally co-ordinator of the Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR), formally of the Tamil Refugee Housing Association, Director of The World Peace Organisation (UK), Director of the Tamil Refugee Action Group (TRAG), Director of the Tamil Refugee Training and Education Centre and the Tamil Eelam Economic Development Organisation (TEEDOR) which operates from Eelam House, 202 Long Lane, London SE1 which is the LTTE headquarters in the UK. All the above are LTTE fronts and three are charities registered in Britain. The
Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR) was exposed as a terrorist front
earlier this year at the United Nations(UN). On the 18th of May 2000, the
UN Committee of Non-Governmental organisations published a press
release(NGO/345), indicating that the Tamil Centre for Human Rights had
been refused consultative status because of "concerns raised about
its connections with terrorist activities." In 1997 I visited a sports event organised by the JSSA (Jaffna Schools Sports Association) at the Warren Farm School Sports Centre in Southall in Middlesex. The event had a TRO stall and working in it representing the TRO was Miss Eliza Packiadevi Mann. I photographed the stall and a poster with the photoās of three of Sri Lankas leaders, Prime Minister, SWRD Bandaranayake, Mrs Sirima Banadaranayake who was the worldās first woman Prime Minister, and the current Sri Lankan President, Mrs Chandrika Kumaratunga. The caption read "A Dynasty of Murderers of Tamil People". The photograph was published in Rohan Gunaratnaās book, "Sri Lankaās Ethnic Crisis and National Security", published in Sri Lanka. A similar sports event held at the same venue on 30th August 1999 ended with a shooting incident and the British Police shut down the event and ordered everyone to vacate the grounds. The event was organised by the LTTE chief A C Shanthan and Raghavan Vijayakumar, a director of the Tamil Refugee Training and Education Centre(charity number 1055149). A C Shanthan was photographed being questioned by the Police at the event, after the shooting incident. A question that begs to be answered is, if the "real IRA" were to register a fund raising front organisation as a charity in Britain and had a poster with the photoās of three British PMās with a caption "A Dynasty of Murderers of Irish Peoples" what would be the reaction of the British Charity Commissioner? Other than fund raising using British charities as a front, the LTTE is also involved in drug trafficking to finance its terrorist operations. Earlier this year a comprehensive report on LTTE operations world wide was issued by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service and can be found on the Internet http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/eng/comment/com77e.html An
investigation into the three charities and the Housing Association
mentioned above came up with some interesting results. Other than the
incidents of Eliza Mann and Anton Rajah above, there is a Mr T Santheepan
listed as a member of the Management Committee of the Tamil Community
Housing Association in 1996. (Continued tomorrow)
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