Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka have been illegally using a satellite of US giant Intelsat to beam their radio and television broadcasts overseas, the company said yesterday. ”We have been actively pursuing avenues to terminate the illegal usage of our satellite,” Nick Mitsis, the spokesman for Intelsat, the world’s largest provider of fixed satellite services, told AFP. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting for independence in Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern regions, has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the United States since 1997.
Intelsat officials and technical experts met with Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United States Bernard Goonetilleke on Tuesday to discuss steps Intelsat was taking “to address the unauthorized use of one of its satellites by the LTTE,” an Intelsat statement said. ”Intelsat does not tolerate terrorists or others operating illegally on its satellites,” the statement said. ”Since we first learned of the LTTE’s signal piracy, we have been actively pursuing a number of technical alternatives to halt the transmissions,” it said. ”We are clear in our resolve to ending this terrorist organization’s unauthorized use of our satellite,” it added.
Intelsat pointed out that the illegal transmissions were a violation of laws of both the United States and Sri Lanka. Goonetilleke said: “I am satisfied that Intelsat is taking these unauthorized transmissions very seriously.” The issue was also taken up by Sri Lanka at a meeting of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization in Paris last month, Sri Lankan officials said.
(Source: AFP/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)