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New Voice of Tigers with govt. approval
The government last month granted approval to the LTTE to clear six tons of equipment to set up a modern Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio broadcasting station. Representatives of the LTTE cleared the container load of cargo from the Colombo Port on November 26 on their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran's birthday.

The next day, an armed Police team led by an inspector escorted the sealed container load from Colombo to Omanthai. Army personnel at the check-point had wanted to examine the container when the inspector had objected. He had produced a letter from Defence Secretary Austin Fernando. Thereafter the trailer carrying the container was permitted to cross over to LTTE held Omanthai entry point to Wanni at 11.30 pm on November 27 - Maveerar's Day commemorated by the organisation.

The Sunday Times learns that the equipment arrived in Colombo consigned to the Norwegian Embassy, which in turn, had gifted it to the LTTE. Thereafter, the government had granted clearance with a duty waiver. The Norwegian Embassy avoided repeated calls from The Sunday Times while the Sri Lanka Customs declined to comment.

According to highly placed Customs sources, a team of Security Forces communications experts, backed by representatives from the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation had studied the technical specifications. They were of the view that the equipment would enable the LTTE to only broadcast on the FM frequency to a limited area though other technical sources told The Sunday Times their transmissions could be heavily enhanced through boosters to reach areas outside Sri Lanka.

A high ranking government official had asked Customs to allow security authorities to examine the equipment at the Colombo port and seal it before it was transported to the Wanni.

These sources told The Sunday Times the cleared equipment included FM transmitter, backup transmitter, MPX Clipper Generator, FM Antennas, headphone, patch panel, loudspeaker, microphone, microphone holder, MD recorder, CD player, cables, antenna cables and RDS audio. The LTTE had originally planned to clear the equipment early to enable their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, to make his annual "Maveerar Week" (Heroes Week) address through the new Voice of Tigers radio station. However, procedural formalities had entailed delays.

In a separate report, our Trincomalee Correspondent Sinniah Gurunathan states the LTTE is making preparations to expand the reach of the Voice of Tigers radio to Southern India and Singapore. He quoted LTTE's Arts and Cultural Section head, Puthuvai Ratnathurai, as saying that VoT expansion plans for this purpose were ready. The new VoT broadcasting station is to be located in the Wanni. According to Ratnathurai, its programmes are to reach out to entire Sri Lanka.

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