LTTE racket targeting France's Lankans: Le Figaro

PARIS, Friday (AFP) - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have collected some 100 million euros (120 million dollars) in a sophisticated racket targeting France's Sri Lankan immigrant community, a French newspaper reported Friday.

Quoting French intelligence officials, Le Figaro reported that around 1,000 members of the LTTE enforce the collection of the so-called "revolutionary tax" among the 70,000-strong community.

Using threats and intimidation, they force each family to pay one euro a day for each of its members, who are registered in a computer file to ensure their payments are up to date, the report said.

Death threats against family members still in Sri Lanka are commonly used to pressure families to pay up, it said.

Le Figaro reported that the Tigers were shortly to demand a 2,000-euro "loan" from each member of the community, including children, in order to replace a flotilla of speedboats destroyed in last December's tsunami.

The report said the funds from the racket were channelled into Swiss banks.

A confidential intelligence memo from September, quoted by Le Figaro, says that France has become "an important rear base for the Tigers and their financing of the armed struggle in Sri Lanka".