LTTE Propaganda

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has a long history if using Propaganda along with enforcement as a means for mobilizing its supporters and troops. According to an article in Asiaweek, the LTTE is an international network of commercial companies and small businesses, informal banking channels, a fleet of ships, political offices, aid and human rights organizations, arms dealers and foreign mercenaries that are engaged in disseminating propaganda along with procuring arms and raising funds. While the independent nation called Eelam claimed by the LTTE website www.eelam.com is yet to materialise, Tamilians around the world can read Eelam news, listen to Eelam radio and also send each other Eelam cards online. Some auhors claim that even the training camps set up by the LTTE in India were used for propoganda.
Types of Propaganda
*International Organizations - According to most authors the most important and visible propaganda is carried out by LTTE Front Groups like Fedearation of Associations of Canadian Tamils (FACT), World Tamil Movement and the World Tamil Association. These front groups disseminate information through email, internet, telephone hot lines, community libraries, Tamil television programs and radio broadcasts. These also host cultural events like the birthday of Prabhakaran and are carried out in open areas where the photographs of the Tamil Leader along with images of the atrocities of the Sinhalese Government are prominently displayed. These are usually carried out as a part of recruitment drives.
*School Presentations - According to Jo Becker the LTTE Propaganda Campaigns have been very successful in recruiting volunteers from schools. LTTE cadres frequently visited schools, sometimes showing LTTE Services in positive light.
* When the Indian Government sent the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) so Sri Lanka to try and enforce a peace settlement between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE, the nwespapers published by the LTTE gave undue significance too the civilian deaths in encounters with the LTTE. The Indian soldiers inability to speak the local language became a handicap in dealing with this propoganda.
* The possibility of a negative publicity by the LTTE Propaganda machinery was so much feared by The Sri Lankan Government that it prevented international media from entering the conflict zone and was criticized for this in a Congressional Report as it prevented the government from publicizing its positive steps since the end of the war. Attempts by the Sri Lankan Government to blame it for the cancellation of aid by donor countries such as Germany have been refuted by these countries who claim that they cancelled aid due to the killing of civilians in the conflict.
* In Canada the LTTE groups managed to get members of parliament to attent pro-LTTE rallies. in July 2000 Maria Minna, the minister of international Cooperation and Paul Martin, Finance Minister attended a Tamil New year's Celebration organized by the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils (FACT).
* According to some sociologists, The LTTE may have used the idea of masculinized virgin warrior as its own version of Feminism i.e. the Female warrior in its posters and other literature.
Criticism
* Some authors have criticised the lack of information given by the LTTE about the why's of it oursuing a peace process and what it aims to achieve through peace. Instead the LTTE has always maintained that peace is a part of its freedom struggle.

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