GTF circulating doctored war crimes photos: Military

The Military said yesterday that the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) was circulating pictures of alleged war crimes. It said this was being done by the GTF to support its claim for an international investigation of alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka.

The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) is an organization that emerged in early 2010 as a result of an initiative by the British Tamil Forum (BTF) and has as its objective the establishment of Eelam or separate state in Sri Lanka on the pretext of fighting for justice for alleged war crimes against the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Military spokesman Ruwan Wanigasuriya said they have been very successful in using the Tamil vote- base in Britain to obtain the support of a few local political personalities there.

“They use two LTTE fronts, namely Tamils for the Conservative Party (TCP) and Tamils for the Labour Party (TLP) to lobby on their behalf not only in Britain but in several other Western countries,” he said.

Brigadier Wanigasuriya said GTF's latest fabrication was to renew allegations of war crimes by re- leasing new pictures in another attempt to influence the the international community.

“This appears to be another fabrication by the GTF in an attempt to justify their continued call for an international investigation and to confuse the international community,” he said. “The GTF which mostly consists of Tamil expatriates who have not visited Sri Lanka for many years is very clearly detached from the ground realities prevailing in Sri Lanka, particularly in the North and East of the country.”

Brigadier Wanigasuriya said there was no doubt that along with other pro LTTE organisations, the GTF would continue fabrications of this nature and that he would not be surprised even if more pictures were released as a means of sensationalising its claims.