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LTTE responds to the credit card accusation

The local BBC Television in London ran as its headline news on Sunday, 22 April 2007, the widespread abuse of credit cards belonging to customers of service stations selling petrol. BBC report said that the credit card details of the customers were stolen by the service station employees and then millions is being stolen using these details.

Such abuse of credit cards is widespread world wide. A small number of members of Tamil Diaspora have been implicated in some countries for this illegal activity. So have members of the Sinhala Diaspora or for that matter, so have members of any community. The BBC report linked the credit card fraud by a few members of the Tamil Diaspora to the LTTE. The main source quoted again and again in the BBC report is the Sri Lankan Government.

Sri Lankan Government stands accused of serious human rights violations. Many international human rights bodies and world leaders have repeatedly highlighted the seriousness of the human rights record of the Government. These human rights violations by the Government are always directed against the Tamil people. Therefore, the Sri Lankan Government’s desperate act of linking this illegal activity among a handful of members of the Tamil Diaspora to the LTTE in order to divert attention from its own human rights record is not surprising.

What is indeed surprising is that BBC has chosen to report on the credit card fraud cquoting Sri Lankan Government as its main source. The report did not provide any other substantive evidence for linking LTTE to the credit card fraud, clearly showing that this report is the result of spin doctoring of the Sri Lankan Government.

Neither the majority of the Tamil Diaspora nor the LTTE involve itself in activities in other countries that are against laws of that country. We very much regret that BBC did not see it fit to contact us for our comments on this issue before issuing a one sided report based on Sri Lankan Government allegations.

23 April 2007

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