The LTTE has led the way in "innovations for terrorism" in other
countries too, according to the annual assessment of terrorism worldwide
submitted to the U.S. Congress.

"Many LTTE innovations, such as explosive belts, vests, and bras, the
use of female suicide bombers, and waterborne suicide attacks against
ships, have been copied by other terrorist groups," U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice has said in the 2006-Country Reports of
Terrorism.

In its South and Central Asian section, the report said while the
Maoists in Nepal signed a peace agreement the LTTE continued with its
terrorist attacks.

"In Nepal and Sri Lanka, terrorism carried out by the Maoists and the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) posed a severe challenge to
those Governments."

The report said the LTTE raised money from the Tamil diaspora in North
America, Europe and Australia and by imposing "taxes" on businesses in
the areas under its control.

It used weapons either purchased with the money on the international
black market or captured from the army.

The report said the LTTE conducted a campaign of targeted assassinations
against political and military opponents.

"The Karuna faction, a dissident faction of the LTTE, conducted its own
assassination campaign against the LTTE and pro-LTTE civilians in the
east," the report noted.

It said the Sri Lankan cooperation with the FBI had resulted in the
arrests of persons charged with material support to terrorist groups.
Colombo cooperated with efforts to track terrorist financing, though no
assets were identified.

"The United States also provided training for relevant Sri Lankan
government agencies and the banking sector. The Government cooperated
with the United States to implement both the Container Security
Initiative and the Megaports program at the port of Colombo."

The Media Center for National Security (MCNS) reported that the police
had uncovered arms and ammunition in a temple at Velanithurai in the
Kaytes Island. It said the weapons were concealed above the statues of
gods by the LTTE. Two priests were arrested.

TamilNet claimed that the Tigers had repulsed an offensive by the army
on the Vavuniya-Mannar border.

LTTE's military spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told TamilNet that two
bodies of soldiers were captured with arms and ammunition when the army
offensive involving 300 troopers towards Paalmpiddi was thwarted.

A Tiger cadre was killed in action.

Proscription as a terrorist group
At least 32 countries have listed the LTTE as a terrorist
organisation.[70][71][72] As of July 2006, these include:

India (since 1992)
United States of America (since 1997)[73]
Malaysia[74]
United Kingdom (since 2000)[75]
Canada (since 2006)[76]
European Union (since 2006; representing 27 countries since 2007)
Another 159 countries (which constitute a majority in the UN General
Assembly) have not proscribed the LTTE. However, the only terrorist list
the UN maintains is devoted solely to individuals and organisations
believed by the UN to be connected to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, mandated
by Resolution 1267.[77] The UN has no other mandate to list any
organisation as being terrorist. The UN has also passed Resolution 1373,
asking member countries to identify and limit activities of any
organisation that carries out terrorist activities. The UN has not
published its own list of terrorist groups, leaving their identification
to the discretion of member countries. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
has also suggested that the LTTE should face travel curbs and other
penalties if they keep using children as soldiers. As well as travel
bans, his report to the Security Council also recommended other
sanctions such as arms embargoes and financial restrictions against the
LTTE, Though Kofi Annan has gone as far as to requesting a visit Tamil
Tiger held areas and meeting with key Tamil officials[citation needed],
a request that was promptly denied by the Sri Lankan Government.[78]
Australia[79] and other countries have listed the LTTE as a terrorist
group in accordance with Resolution 1373. Canada does not grant
residency to LTTE members on the grounds that they have participated in
crimes against humanity.[80] The first country to ban the LTTE was its
early ally, India. The Indian change of policy came gradually, starting
with the IPKF-LTTE conflict, and culminating with the assassination of
Rajiv Gandhi. The EU with its 25 member nations is the most recent
entity to ban the LTTE. Sri Lanka itself lifted the ban on the LTTE
before signing the ceasefire agreement in 2002. This was a prerequisite
set by the LTTE for signing of the CFA.[81]


Recent events
See also: Sri Lankan Civil War#Resumption of hostilities
The LTTE executed 6 Sinhalese farmers on April 23, 2006. The LTTE
executed a further 13 labourers on May 29 2006[82]


Kebothigollewa massacre
See also: Kebithigollewa massacre
A claymore antipersonnel mine attack by the LTTE on 15 June 2006 on a
bus carrying 140 civilians killed 68 (including 15 children), and
injured 60.The Sri Lankan Government, US state department and the SLMM
blamed the LTTE for this attack[83]. However the LTTE denied carrying
out this attack.


Attack on the Pakistani High Commissioner
On August 14, 2006, a convoy carrying the Pakistani High Commissioner
Bashir Wali Mohamed, was attacked by a Claymore type directional mine
concealed within a trishaw, killing seven and injuring seventeen.[84]
The explosion took place near the official residence of Sri Lankan
President Mahinda Rajapakse.[85] The Sri Lankan government accused the
LTTE of responsibility. Pakistan has accused the Indian intelligence
agency, RAW, for the attack.[citation needed]


Criminal activities
One factor that has benefited the LTTE greatly has been its
sophisticated international support network. While some of the funding
obtained by the LTTE is from legitimate fund raising and extortion among
the Tamil diaspora,[86] a significant portion is obtained through
criminal activities, involving sea piracy, human smuggling, drug
trafficking and gunrunning.[87][88]


Sea piracy
The LTTE are reported to hijack ships and boats of all sizes, and it is
common practice for them to kidnap and kill the crew members on board
the hijacked vessels.[89]

The LTTE has been accused of hijacking several vessels in waters outside
Sri Lanka including the Irish Mona (in August 1995), Princess Wave (in
August 1996), Athena (in May 1997), Misen (in July 1997), Morong Bong
(in July 1997), MV Cordiality (in Sept 1997) and Princess Kash (in
August 1998). When the LTTE captured the MV Cordiality near the port of
Trincomalee, they killed all five Chinese crew members on board. The MV
Sik Yang, a 2,818-ton Malaysian-flag cargo ship which sailed from
Tuticorin, India on May 25, 1999 was reported missing in waters near Sri
Lanka. The ship with a cargo of bagged salt was due at the Malaysian
port of Malacca on May 31. The fate of the ship's crew of 15 is unknown.
It is suspected that the vessel was hijacked by the LTTE and is now been
used as a phantom vessel. A report published on June 30, 1999 confirmed
that the vessel had been hijacked by the LTTE.[89]


MV Farah III incident
In a notable incident since the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement in
2001, the crew of a Jordanian ship, MV Farah III that ran aground near
rebel-controlled territory off the island's coast, accused the Tamil
Tigers of forcing them to abandon the vessel which was carrying 14,000
tonnes of Indian rice and risking their lives.[90] The crew said that
LTTE fired four times to force them out of the vessel after failing to
explode it in choppy seas three days ago. The skipper of the vessel
said;

"First they tried to set up a bomb and explode the anchor cable and when
it failed they ordered us to weigh anchor"

He also said that the Tigers dismantled and removed all radio
communication equipment and radar from the vessel.[90] Later in May 1,
2007 Sayed Sulaiman, the chairman of the ship's owners, Salam
International Trading Company gave an interview to the BBC Tamil service
said;

"We hear from the parties who are concerned with the ship, the insurance
company etc, that... everything that could be taken - like the rice,
lights, generators - has been taken from the ship. The ship is now
bare." [91]


Pilferage of tsunami donations
In May 2007, two Tamils with connections to the LTTE were arrested in
Australia for raising thousands of dollars in Australia under the
presence of being for charities and aid for those affected by the 2004
Asian Tsunami, which killed 35,000 people in Sri Lanka, but instead
using the money to fund the LTTE.[92] Australian Federal Police
conducted raids across Melbourne and Sydney and charged the two men with
"being members of a terrorist group, financing terrorism and providing
material support for terrorism".[92] They are said to have provided
significant funds as well as electronic and marine equipment to the
Tamil Tigers since July 2002. Commenting on the possibility of the LTTE
engaging in other similar incidents, Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner
Kieran Walshe said "We are concerned that that sort of thing is taking
place in Australia, that Australian citizens are being duped into making
contributions to what they believe to be honest fundraising activities
in terms of relief for people in distress."[92]


Human Smuggling
Most of the smuggling of Tamil people to Western countries is done under
the permission of the LTTE. The LTTE benefits greatly from smuggling of
Tamil people for example, to Canada. It usually costs between $10,000
and $40,000 for a Sri Lankan Tamil to be smuggled to Canada illegally,
with the usual cost running around $20-25,000 dollars. Also, the people
who are leaving Sri Lanka from Tamil Tigers controlled are ordered to
pay a few hundred dollars for an "exit visa" by the LTTE. In addition to
this, people with special skills or a greater wealth than ordinary
Tamils may have to pay thousands of dollars to be entitled to leave.[93]


Abuse and forced prostitution of Tamil women
Another industry the LTTE has been implicated in is the forced
prostitution of Tamil women who are being smuggled to other countries.
In the mid 1990s some Sri Lankan women were abused or raped while being
smuggled towards Canada by the LTTE, and some were deliberately stranded
in Thailand and forced into prostitution there.[93]


Passport forgery
A passport forgery scheme uncovered in Canada in 1990 which was the
first one to result in a Canadian conviction has also been linked to the
LTTE. The perpetrators were Canadian Tamils who produced around 1,000
doctored travel documents before being caught. Another forger was
uncovered in 1991, and was proven to have dealt with the LTTE after the
phone number of Ontario’s World Tamil Movement was found to be listed
under ‘LTTE’ in his date book.[93]


Drug trafficking
A number of international organizations and intelligence agencies have
accused the LTTE of involvement in drug
trafficking,[94][95][96][97][98][99][100] and its history of drug
smuggling that runs back to 1970s when Tamil smugglers (a group from
which the leader of the LTTE and some of his key lieutenants originally
emerged) started carrying heroin from India to Sri Lanka. When the
traditional smuggling routes used by many Afghan/Pakistani opium and
heroin producers became severely disrupted due to the 1979 Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan and the Fundamentalist revolution in Iran, the
Sri Lankan Tamils soon provided a new way of getting their drugs to
markets elsewhere in the world.[93]

In addition to this, Tamils also started selling drugs in the Western
Europe by 1984. Many Tamil heroin smuggling activities have been
reported in many countries in the Europe including Italy, Switzerland,
Poland, and France. One LTTE operative who was jailed in France for two
years for heroin smuggling has later become the chief of their
international operations.[93]

At the end of 1990s when the volume of heroin from Southeast Asia was
increasing, the Tamil Tigers again took advantage of this source too.
The LTTE set up a naval base for their use on the Island of Twante, off
Burma, the world's leading source for heroin from that part of the
world. The LTTE have reportedly used their very own merchant ships from
the shipping line that they own, to smuggle heroin into Europe. The
American government is aware of LTTE's heroin transactions inside and
around southern Thailand and Burma, but in the absence of any direct
threat to the US from the Tigers, the resources of their Drug
Enforcement Agency are focused elsewhere.[93]

The LTTE operates within two separate levels in their activities in the
North America and Europe. The Tiger operatives are engaged in propaganda
and lobbying aspects, as well as coordinating a myriad of fronts and
charities to raise cash for the war. Another group of operatives run
criminal enterprises including refugee smuggling, narcotics trafficking,
sophisticated frauds, and extortion rings to deliver funds to feed the
LTTE.[93]


Arms smuggling
Another one of LTTE's most secretive International operations is the
smuggling of weapons, explosives, and "dual use" technologies to keep up
with the military operations. The part of the LTTE responsible for these
activities is given the nickname "KP Branch", taking the initials of its
highest level operative, Kumaran Padmanathan. The workers for the KP
Branch are outsiders from the fighting wing of the LTTE, since the
identities of the those fighters are recorded and available to law
enforcement and counter-intelligence agencies by India's RAW, who had
helped train many Tiger Cadres in the early 1980s. The KP Branch
operates extremely secretively by having the minimum connection possible
with the LTTE's other sections for further security. It finally hands
over the arms shipments to a highly trusted team of the sea Tigers to
deliver them to the LTTE dominated areas.[93]

In order to carryout the activities of International arms trafficking,
the LTTE operates it own fleet of ocean-going vessels. These vessels
only operate a certain period of time for the LTTE and in the remaining
time they transport legitimate goods and raise hard cash for the
purchase of weapons. The LTTE initially operated a shipping base in
Myanmar , but they were forced to leave due to diplomatic pressure. To
overcome the loss of this, a new base has been set up on Phuket Island,
in Thailand.[93]

However, the most expertly carried out operation of the KP Branch was
the theft of 32,400 rounds of 81mm mortar ammunition purchased from
Tanzania for the Sri Lanka Army. Being aware of the purchase of 35,000
mortar bombs, the LTTE made a bid to the manufacturer through a numbered
company and arranged a vessel of their own to pick up the load. Once the
bombs were loaded into the ship, the LTTE changed the name and
registration of their ship. The vessel was taken to Tiger-held territory
in Sri Lanka's north instead of transporting it to its intended
destination.[93]

The Western countries are the main territory for fund raising activities
of the LTTE. The money raised from donations and criminal enterprises
are transferred into bank accounts of the Tigers and from there to the
accounts of a weapons broker, or, the money is taken by KP operatives
themselves. LTTE's need for resources is mostly fulfilled by the Tamils
who reside outside Sri Lanka. In 1995, when the LTTE lost Jaffna, their
international operatives were ordered to increase, by a massive 50%, the
amount raised from Tamils outside of the island.[93]


Other crimes
LTTE has also committed credit card fraud in a number of countries
including India and the United Kingdom, and other similar crimes
including organized crime, social security fraud and counterfeit
currency trading[101][102] and satellite piracy.[103][104]