France says no official issue of LTTE stamp

Wednesday, 4 January 2012 00:45 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Following reports published in different newspapers regarding the issuance in France of stamps bearing pictures and symbols of the LTTE, the Embassy of France in Sri Lanka said yesterday that no such stamp is part of the official philatelist programme of France, neither on sale in the French post offices.

The French Postal services, “La Poste”, offers an online service through which customers can order limited quantities of personalised stamps under their responsibility and under specific conditions. It appears that individuals have used this service to order the above mentioned stamps.

“La Poste” recognised that they failed to detect that the conditions had not been met and that some of these stamps have been printed by mistake. Having been informed by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs that LTTE is a movement which has been listed since 2006 as a terrorist organisation by the European Union, “La Poste assures that no such stamp will be printed further.Since 1991, le “Groupe La Poste”, of which French postal services are a part, is an independent public, industrial and commercial institution.