Publicity

The LTTE has one of the best publicity networks covering Europe, Australia and North America and they have even setup radio and tv satellites.

It was widely reported in the recent weeks in the Sri Lankan media how the LTTE has infiltrated BBC. They began to hire a weekly one hour tamil language slot in Sunrise radio owned by an Indian in London and is now broadcasting in Tamil three days a week to a London based Tamil audience. Similarly stations are broadcasting in Tamil in Paris, and Toronto and they have also setup the International Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) a satellite based 24 hours radio station broadcasting via the Astra satellite and cable channels into the Europe, North America, Middle East, Sri Lanka, India etc. The LTTE has a controlling interest in IBC and broadcast heavy LTTE content from time to time operating their small office with a staff of 15 reaching an estimated Tamil audience of over 600,000. The IBC has been granted broadcasting licence by the British government and so far only one complaint has been lodged with the British licencing regulatory body against the IBC.

Canada's main LTTE radio station is Canadian Tamil Broadcasting Corporation (CTBC) which is operated by Kandiah Sivasothy alias ' Iliyabarathy'. Kandiah Sivasothy is from Karinagar, in Jaffna. He was a former employee of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC). Most of the LTTE programs at the station are broadcast by Krishnaligam who originates from Puloliyur in Point Pedro. Recently, Krishnaligam interviewed LTTE supremo's sister who is resident in Canada.

The significance the LTTE attaches to all this radio and tv activity can be gauged by a recent LTTE appointment to CTBC and its new production officer. He is Kathiravel Selvakumar alias `Raff' who is a well known LTTE intelligence leader who originates from Prabakaran's home town, Valvettithurai in Jaffna. He is noted for killing many innocent tamil people and for hanging them on lamp-posts in Jaffna. These were the famous lamp-post executions, which were carried out during the early days of the tamil `liberations' struggle. Canadian law enforcement authorities are at present gathering evidence from the murdered victims families in Canada with a view of prosecuting this particular tamil refugees for mass murder. Other LTTE radio stations in Canada are "Geethavani, CTR and ITBC. Geethvani belongs to Nadaraja Rajakumar a former WTM Montreal Leader. The World Tamil Movement (WTM) is categorized by the US State Department as a LTTE front organization.

The Sri Lankan political establishment is yet to awaken to these many LTTE strategies abroad and respond to them in any way. No attempt has yet been made to hire channels of the Astra satellite, or to secure other means of broadcasting, in order to transmit the Sri Lankan Tamil language broadcasts of the SLBC in competition to the IBC broadcasts world-wide on a commercial basis. This would give the Sri Lankan state instant and direct access to the Tamil diaspora world-wide and opportunities not only in terms of generating commercial revenue in foreign exchange, eroding the LTTE fund-raising potential, but also the opportunity to carry out psy-ops.

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