Revenue of the LTTE

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil: தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள்,commonly known as the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers) is a separatist organization formally based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976, it waged a secessionist campaign that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. This campaign evolved into the Sri Lankan Civil War, which was one of the longest running armed conflicts in Asia. The LTTE arguably had the largest revenue of any independent rebel organization without backing from any country. It was this that allowed it to become a powerful rebel organization capable of fighting a conventional war even against the US-trained special forces of the Sri Lankan military. Their arsenal included heavy artillery, machine guns, gunboats, aircraft, RADAR, tanks, submarines, chemical weapons, and anti-aircraft missiles. The weapons recovered by Sri Lankan forces were so much that the Sri Lankan President remarked "The weapons they had accumulated could not have been just for Sri Lanka! The amount of weapons our armed forces are discovering is unbelievable."

In addition, they owned advanced communication equipment, their own television and radio stations, and at least ten large commercial vessels.

It was the LTTE's massive war chest that allowed it to succeed in the battlefront.

The Liberation Tigers are the most organised and well controlled liberation movement in the world. The Liberation Tigers are a tightly knit organisation whose members do not indulge in alcohol, tobacco, unlawful [...], theft of private property or any other vices. They have established courts of justice, police, and other legal institutions within the areas under their control which help maintain law and order, while at the same time they are also involved in the social and economic development of the Tamils. The civil population is free to participate in all these activities. Even international activists of the LTTE have similar controls.

The Tamil Eelam national leader Velupillai Prabhakaran insisted that all the international offices of the LTTE should function in accordance with the law of the individual country in which they find themselves. However, it has been unfortunate that representatives of the LTTE had been arrested in countries like Canada and Switzerland. Even though these actions are the direct result of the vicious propaganda of the Sri Lankan government, the LTTE has taken all legal measures in this regard. It is on the basis of this legal action that the LTTE's Swiss representative was recently released.

Background

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has created one of the most sophisticated resistance movements in the world, largely due to a complex global network of financial resources and weapons that are integral to prolonging its campaign for a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka.

In a unique report on the financial operations of the LTTE, Jane’s Intelligence Review reports that with financial and procurement structures well organised and strategically positioned around the globe, the group has a profit margin that would be the envy of any multinational corporation – more than 300 million per year.

The Tamil Tigers is consequently the only known insurgent organisation with its own army, navy and now even a rudimentary air force, with access to financial resources and weapons giving it the luxury of introducing bold, new dimensions to the conflict.

The report details two overarching financial and procurement bodies that provide the main source of LTTE money, manpower and weapons; the Aiyanna Group and the Office of Overseas Purchases (nicknamed the KP Department).

The Aiyanna Group functions as the group’s intelligence and operations body, likely to be responsible for monitoring and ensuring the organisation’s financial support and revenue streams, while the KP Department is most probably the LTTE’s procurement arm.

In addition, the LTTE creates and staffs some charitable organisations, projecting its influence through this front to raise money from Tamil communities and, ultimately, convert the gains into arms.

The Jane’s Intelligence Review report says that the system works as an efficient way to move funds wherever investment or procurement opportunities arise.

Geographically, the LTTE use a myriad of methods to maintain this formidable, non-state support structure. The southern province of Tamil Nadu in India plays a pivotal role in LTTE procurement and has become an essential transit point in the LTTE arms, narcotics, and contraband smuggling.

Beyond Sri Lanka’s neighbour, Cambodia is one of the most significant single sources of weapons for the resistance. The remainder of internationally procured weapons are believed to originate from the rest of Southeast Asia, North Korea, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and Ukraine.

Donations from the Diaspora

The LTTE is known to extensively collect money fromt he diaspora for its war effort. A Tamil man in France said that an LTTE front had asked Tamils to pay a "revolutionary tax" of one euro evey day. Businesses paid 15,000-20,000 euros every year. The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora numbers about 500,000. Around 300,000 of them were subject to an LTTE call to send them around 100 dollars every month. That would make 30 Million Dollars every month.

This would result in an estimated 350 million dollars per year for 25 years. This would mean that by 2009, around $9 billion had been collected from the diaspora.

Linking the Liberation Tigers with [...] traffic

The policy of the Liberation Tigers is that drugs are dangerous to humanity and hence all sources of its traffic should be destroyed. Due to the untiring effort of the LTTE in the past, there were no sellers or users of drugs in the regions under its control. Even illicit arrack (liquor) and prostitution are banned by the LTTE civil administration because they are detrimental to the well-being of society. In contrast, the use of drugs and child prostitution are an everyday occurrence in Colombo and other Sinhalese areas in the south of the island. The child prostitution is carried out with the blessings of those with direct links in the higher echelons of the Sri Lankan Government. However, there are allegations that the LTTE had been involved in [...] trafficking which earn the Tigers an average of 100-200 million dollars yearly which would add up to $2.5 to 5 Billion over the years before their shipping activities began declining.

Does the LTTE have links with international [...] organisations?

The Liberation Tigers, as its name implies, is a liberation organisation concerned with the struggle for the national self determination of the Tamil people. They are anxious to establish normal diplomatic relations with legally constituted countries in the world and continue their efforts in this direction by their political and diplomatic encounters. Hence the LTTE is aware that it will be [...] to establish links with international [...] or criminal organisations such as the Mafia. The LTTE has no links whatsoever with such [...] or criminal organisations.

The Liberation Tigers, on the other hand, are concerned with maintaining friendly relations, even with countries that give military training and other logistic assistance to the Sri Lankan armed forces who are engaged in a genocidal war against the Tamil people; and to convince these countries the extent to which their assistance to Sri Lanka is causing misery for the Tamil people. The LTTE gives due consideration to cooperate with non governmental and volunteer organisations and to give them all their assistance to carry out their missions. The Liberation Tigers have clearly understood that it is the Sri Lankan Government and its governmental machinery who are the enemies of the liberation struggle.

In their 24 year history of leading the liberation struggle, the Liberation Tigers have never indulged in any kidnapping of foreigners, holding them as ransom, threatening them or even causing damage to their property.But the Sri Lankan Government has threatened the Secretary General of the United Nations for his condemnation of the Sri Lankan Government for the massive displacement of the Tamil people by its military operations, threatened the M.S.F. for its condemnation of the Nagarkovil aerial bombing, and boycotted the conference in Colombo of non governmental organisations.

Thus the Sri Lankan Government has not hesitated to take punitive measures against those countries and organisations which did not agree with the Government's genocidal policy against the Tamil people. The Government has enlisted the services of experts from the United States, United Kingdom and Israel for training its troops, and even used them in military operations. Unable to stand the growing influence of the Liberation Tigers in the international sphere and financial assistance given to them by Tamils living abroad, the Sri Lankan government has made established contacts with international [...] organisations to hunt out and exterminate LTTE activists in foreign countries.

This is evidenced by the cold-blooded [...] of Nathan and Kajan in France. Former president J. R. Jayawardena once said that he would even seek the assistance of the devil to defeat the Tamil Liberation struggle. These heinous actions of the Sri Lankan Government are a direct threat to the balance of power in South East Asia, disrupt regional peace in the Indian Ocean and help in organising a stage for a World Power confrontation. A Council on Foreign Affairs article by Preeti Bhattacharji stated, "the secular nationalist LTTE currently has no operational connection with al-Qaeda, its radical Islamist affiliates, or other [...] groups," but "In its early days, experts say the LTTE did train with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The group may still interact with other [...] organizations through illegal arms markets in Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia."

There were reports that an LTTE merchant vessel had smuggled arms for an Islamic [...] organization for money. There is little evidence supporting this and the revenue generated is unknown.

Taxes

There are taxes under LTTE controlled areas, but they are reported to be little (around $200). From 1985-1995, Over 350,000 Families in Jaffna were paying the taxes. The total income would be over $700 million. In 1995, the LTTE was pushed out of Jaffna by the Srilankan military. After gaining control of Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, and parts of the East, a steady flow of taxes started again, resulting in an expected 70 million per year till 2007. During the 2002-2006 ceasefire, the LTTE taxed heavily on vehicles travelling through the A9 highway to Jaffna. In the east a tractor owner has to pay $500 a year and a lorry owner $1000. On an average 8 to 12 per cent tax is imposed on farmers and traders. In some areas public servants are also taxed by the LTTE, but few complaints are made.

LTTE uses the A9 highway to collect more than $10,000 daily as tax & other revenue from 7,000 - 8,000 civilians & 1,000 - 1,200 vehicles that use that stretch on a daily basis. Records also reveal that the LTTE material taxes amount to $2 - 3 million from Jaffna bound cargo passing through Pallai.

Bank of Tamileelam

LTTE also ran a bank named the Bank of Tamileelam which used the Sri Lankan rupee as its currency but offered higher interest rates than any bank on the island. The net revenue generated is unknown.

Alleged human trafficking and prostitution

There have been allegations of human trafficking and prostitution, but there is no reliable evidence regarding this.

Shipbuilding

The Tigers are known to build fast gunboats, RADAR-proof [...] boats and Submarines for the Sea Tigers. In Thailand Kumaran Pathmanadan set up and led the "KP Department", the procurement arm of the LTTE, the oldest international wing of the outfit. He procured modern hardware, paid for them through secret bank accounts, and shipped them to the rebels using a merchant shipping network operated by the KP Department, known as the "sea pigeons". Apart from setting up a number of lucrative businesses in Thailand, Pathmanadan established a state-of-the-art boatyard in the country, which manufactured over a dozen different boats, including mini-submarines and [...] boats.

Shipping

The LTTE is known to be engaged in commercial shipping of legitimate cargo under various flags. The income generated is unknown.

Sales of Arms

There have been reports of LTTE selling light weapons it does not need (which are usually captured from paramilitaries and the Sri Lankan police) on the black market. It is not confirmed.

Total revenue

The total revenue generated by businesses, taxes and funds amoun to about $15 Billion. The sources of income mentioned are not complete, since there are other secret businesses owned by the Tamil Tigers. However, these are the main sources of income. That would make the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran and Co. the 18th Richest in the World in 2009!

See also

• Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation