The Tamil Tigers was established in 1975. The Tamil ethnic minority group always felt discriminated since 1948 when Sri Lanka gained her independence.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was just one of the groups which were created to protects the rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
The organization has two wings: political and military. The political wing is made up of law courts, police force, television and radio broadcasting stations, administrative offices and planning and reconstruction units among others.
At its peak, LTTE had an excess of 10,000 armed soldiers.
The LTTE has investments in stock markets, restaurants, real estate, grocery stores around the globe.
The terrorist organizations used to engage in shipping where they transported legitimate goods but also engaged in smuggling of gold, drugs, arms as well as human trafficking to the United Kingdom and other European countries.
Large portion of the LTTE’s annual revenue ($200 million – $300 million) came from forgery, robbery, arms sales, donations and extortions.
Overseas bases
In 1984, LTTE opened its first overseas office in London. They have established organizations in Cambodia, Germany, India, Laos, Malaysia, Denmark, Botswana, South Africa, Thailand, Switzerland and Qatar. They maintain branches in 54 countries worldwide.
Fighting for a separate homeland for minority ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka’s east and north regions for more than 20 years.
It was one of the world’s most feared guerilla groups.
They had operations ranging from extortion, drugs to shipping.
The Tamil Tigers have always denied engagement in criminal activities. They used to say that their income was from donations from rich Tamil people in diaspora.
The Sri Lankan government revealed in 2007 that most of funds raised during the 2004 Tsunami ended up in the pockets of the Tamil Tigers.
The Tamil Tigers even owned their own rebel air force, a fleet of navy ships as well as fast attack boats. Their aircraft was always smuggled in Sri Lanka in pieces.
As a result of the war between Sri Lanka government and Tamil Tigers, western donors cut their aid to the country. This was mostly due to the widespread human rights abuses.
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