WORLD OPINION

 

ANALYSIS / DRUG DEALS LINKED TO FREEDOM FIGHT
Tigers adopt new tool of terror
Bangkok Post : 17 Nov 1997

A long insurgency needs lots of money, and from all indications it appears the Tamil Tigers are following other separatist movements by funding their activities with drug profits.

Click here for full details in Babgkok Post

 

U.S. Department of State
Office of the Spokesman
Press Statement
Press Statement by James P. Rubin/Spokesman
May 19, 1998

Sri Lanka: Killing of Jaffna Mayor

 

US State Dept slams LTTE
Daily News : 3 Feb 1999

The US State Department has slammed the LTTE for undermining the work of the Jaffna Municipal Council through a campaign of killing and intimidation.

The LTTE has thus sabotaged the work of the Jaffna MC whose members had been elected in free and fair elections, the State Department says in its 'Sri Lanka Country Report on Human Rights Practice for 1998' issued yesterday.

"The LTTE regularly committed extrajudicial killings, including killing prisoners taken on the battlefields," the report stated.

It has also blamed the LTTE for disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrests, detentions and extortion. "The LTTE continued to control large sections of the north and east of the country through authoritarian military rule. It denied the people under its authority the right to change their Government, infringed on their privacy rights, routinely violated their civil liberties, operated an unfair court system, restricted freedom of movement, and severely discriminated against ethnic and religious minorities."

Click here for the full details

 

Clinton administration and US congress slam LTTE
Daily News : 4 March 1999

March 3 - The Clinton Administration and members of Congress on Tuesday slammed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for its continuing wanton violence against innocent civilians and conscription of child soldiers in its war against the Sri Lankan Security Forces.

George Pickart, a senior Administration official in the State Department's South Asia Bureau, said, "While we have seen improvements in the Government's record, regrettably, we have seen no signs that the LTTE wants to improve its human rights record or abandon terrorism."

Click here for full details

 

Burma will not be a safe haven for LTTE
- Myanmar Foreign Minister

Myanmar's Foreign Minister U. Win Aung assured the Sri Lanka Government that Myanmar will not permit any activities by
the LTTE.

The Minister said: "I promise that we will not help the LTTE in our country. If arms smuggling or any such activities are
reported to be happening from our country, please inform us and we will take prompt action".

The Myanmar Foreign Minister made this pledge to acting Foreign Affairs Minister Lakshman Kiriella in response to Mr.
Kiriella's request seeking assistance to prevent LTTE from using Myanmar soil for its activities, during discussions on bilateral
issues between Sri Lanka and Myanmar at the Foreign Affairs Ministry on Thursday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Click Daily News on 17 July 1999 for full details

 

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