Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has claimed that the LTTE uses “money to bribe western politicians” in order to make them take an anti-Sri Lanka line, in an interview with The Australian.
Rajapakse said that the LTTE was still active in the diaspora and blamed the network for people smuggling activities.
The president also denied that the army knowingly killed civilians during the armed conflict.
Sri Lanka's navy accused of helping people smugglers – Sydney Morning Herald (06 Marc 2013)
Rajapakse said that the LTTE was still active in the diaspora and blamed the network for people smuggling activities.
"The LTTE sympathiser networks have been in this business for a long time. It was their big money-raiser. They are still doing it today. I don't know whether the money they make goes to the LTTE today or to propaganda efforts.
"It's easy money for them. Sometimes they even rent a fishing boat, just hire it, then use it for this (people-smuggling) purpose."The Sri Lankan Navy has been previously accused of involvement in smuggling people to Australia.
The president also denied that the army knowingly killed civilians during the armed conflict.
"In a war like this, it was a war against terrorists. If we had killed civilians, civilians would never have come to us. But some 300,000 civilians fled to our side. When people tried to flee from the LTTE, the LTTE shot them."Four Sri Lankan Navy members arrested for people smuggling – The Age (20 Aug 2013)
Sri Lanka's navy accused of helping people smugglers – Sydney Morning Herald (06 Marc 2013)