Greece foils LTTE fundraising strategies

LTTE's attempts to raise funds by forcibly collecting from Sri Lankan expatriates in Greece, has been foiled by the Greece Police. It is reported that the LTTE activists have made several unsuccessful attempts to collect funds from Sri Lankan expatriates in Greece.

Greece is a member of the European Union, has already listed the LTTE as a terrorist organisation, there have been several attempts by Tiger agents to collect funds from the Tamil community living here.

However, according to the reports from Greece, it is said that it is hard for the LTTE to collect funds in Greece - Unlike in other European countries such as Britain, France, Norway and Switzerland, the LTTE can not do their fundraising in Greece.

According to the Sri Lankan expatriates in Greece there are only few instances which have been reported of the LTTE fundraising activities.

These restricted LTTE fundraising activities are based on two main reasons.

The first reason is that there are only a few Tamil origins living in Greece, compared to the large number of Sri Lankan expatriates. Unlike in other European cities, both the Sinhalese and the Tamils in Athens are united.

Second reason is that the Greek Police has particularly been vigilant and the Asian expatriates and their activities are closely monitored. They keep a close eye on illegal immigrants. Even those who have resident visas, carry their papers along with them. Hence, there is less room for LTTE activities in Greece. However, these minimum amenities have lead to failure of the Tiger agents in their fundraising activities impressing the Tamil Diaspora in Greece.

Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Dora Bakoyannis met her Sri Lankan counterpart Rohitha Bogollagama in Athens last month.

Due to its expanded shipping and relatively low population, human smugglers have been using Greece as a transit point in job seekers to cities like Rome, Paris and Zurich. Hence, the LTTE has been eyeing to gain support from the Lankan expatriates without any success.

However, with the recent banning of Tamil satellite television telecasts from the US and Europe, the LTTE is making use of a few other Television feeds telecast from Rome and Athens.