Jaliya Wickramasuriya: from tea taster to ambassador: Larry Luxner visited Sri Lanka, where he met the country's leading tea exporters. It all began with a visit to Colombo's ambassador in Washington. | Asia > South Asia from AllBusiness.com

Click Here:Jaliya Wickramasuriya: from tea taster to ambassador: Larry Luxner visited Sri Lanka, where he met the country's leading tea exporters. It all began with a visit to Colombo's ambassador in Washington. Asia > South Asia from AllBusiness.com

April 1, 2009- Worth a second look.

On Feb. 12, the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted the Tamil Foundation, a Maryland-based charity accused of funneling money to the LTTE. Treasury official Adam Szubin said the Tigers have "relied on so-called charities to raise funds and advance its violent aims."
The order freezes the U.S. assets of the foundation, which is headquartered in the small town of Cumberland, Maryland, and prohibits Americans from engaging in any transactions with the group. But the foundation's owner, a kidney specialist named Nagaramam Ranjithan, says his private charity has nothing to do with the Tigers and is only interested in improving the lives of Sri Lanka's Tamils.
Meanwhile, Jayantha Gnanakone, leader of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit group Tamils for Justice, says he aims to "expose human-rights violations and bring war criminals to justice." His organization has hired conservative Washington lawyer Bruce Fein to publicize what he calls President Rajapaksa's sinister attempts at ethnic cleansing.
"The Sri Lankan government has a secret plan to militarize the Mullaittivu district and install a huge army base, bring in Sinhalese and colonize the area," he claimed. "That's why they're trying to remove all the civilians from that area and push them into internment camps."
One thing both sides can agree on is that the suffering has been tremendous--and that Asia's longest-running conflict won't be ending anytime soon.
"In the short term, it will be a bloody mess, and in the worst-case scenario for the Tamils, there will be intense guerrilla warfare," said Gnanakone. "And they will give it back as hard as they get."
Larry Luxner, a regular contributor to The Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, is news editor of The Washington Diplomat and publisher of CubaNews. His articles and photos can be viewed online at www.luxner.com.