The arrest of LTTE activists in Britain

Dushy Ranetunge in London speaks to the key witness

As reported in the Sunday Observer, three LTTE activists were arrested by the British police late in the evening on June 8, outside the premises of the anti LTTE, Tamil Broadcasting Corporation (TBC). Among the activists arrested was Nadarajah Sethurupan who allegedly runs the website with links to the LTTE intelligence wing. The LTTE is a listed terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom.

The Daily News interviewed a key witness of the incident, Vivekananthan, formally a senior card carrying leader of the LTTE, who is now opposed to the LTTE.

Daily News: Mr Vivekananthan, what is your involvement with the TBC ?

Vivekananthan: TBC radio campaigned on our behalf during my abduction in the Vanni by the LTTE. I was held by the LTTE with Jayadevan. We were released after intervention by the British authorities, and after that every Thursday we go to TBC for the political programme which is broadcast live all over the world in Tamil. We discuss political affairs in relation to the Tamil community and take a line independent of the LTTE. The LTTE regards the TBC as a major challenge to their hegemony. We have participated in this programme every Thursday for the last one and

a half years.

Daily News: Please describe the events leading up to the arrests on Thursday (June 8)?

Vivekananthan: I went to the TBC like any other Thursday to participate in the programme. Jayadevan was not there, as he was on holiday. I was at TBC at 7.30pm and met Sivalingam (TBC programme presenter). He had gone to the shop outside to get some food and had been confronted by a group consisting of Nadarajah Sethurupan, Thamotherampillai, Suthaharan, the proprietor of Time Travel who is a ticketing agent for SriLankan Airlines based at the World Trade Centre in Colombo and his younger brother.

They had demanded access into TBC premises from Sivalingam.

Sivalingam had explained that they were about to start a live radio programme and that it would not be possible to gain access at the present time, but that if they wanted access, a request could be made to the proprietors.

The group had been persistent, but Sivalingam had left them and came back into the secure office, which has two doors.

Daily News: What time was this?

Vivekanandan: It must have been about 7pm. When I arrived, Sivalingam told me of the incident.

We started the radio programme at about 8pm, which is a phone-in radio programme which covers Tamil political affairs.

Normally four or five people participate in this programme, but because of Jayadevan's absence, it was just myself, Sivalingam and the radio operator, Rajan.

At about ten past nine, someone rang the front door intercom bell of the radio station. Rajan inquired who it was and those outside said they wanted to come inside.

Rajan had stated that a live radio programme is going on and if they want, they can come the following day and speak to the proprietor, Mrs Sivajini Ramraj.

Then they pressed and held the intercom buzzer for almost 5 minutes continuously disturbing us and the programme.

We said, please don't do that, if you want to speak or make a complaint please come tomorrow, when the proprietor will be there. They still demanded entry and entry was refused.

Then they became abusive and started swearing in Tamil.

We had a CCTV camera outside and we could see everything happening outside via the camera. Then they vandalised and broke the camera so that we cannot see what is happening outside.

We have two front doors, a steel gate and a wooden door and we could hear them banging on the steel gate trying to break it down.

Then they said, we want to kill Jayadevan and Vivekananthan, tell them to come down.

Rajan told them that Jayadevan is not here and that only Vivekananthan and Sivalingam are there.

They said, it does not matter, ask them to come down. We want to teach them a lesson, we want to kill them.

We tried to contact the police and the police did not turn up for nearly 40 minutes, because the location is very remote on an industrial estate and the police might have found it difficult to locate the place.

We then called our friends and also Basheer.

Daily News: Is that Basheer the Muslim lawyer?

Vivekananthan: Yes, you know him, he also called the Police and gave the right location and told them that there is a threat to our lives.

Daily News: What about the people in the area? Did they not intervene?

Vivekananthan: Its an industrial estate and a very remote area. It's a dead end and there is a footpath to the radio station.

Then the Police arrived and pressed the buzzer and said, this is the police, open the door. At the same time Thamba and Mrs Sivajini Ramraj also arrived at the scene.

At that time, Nadarajah Suthurupan told Suthaharan in Tamil to get away from there and he slipped away. May be he had something with him, which he did not want to fall into police hands.

Thamotharampillai then started abusing Mrs Sivajini Ramraj in Tamil, saying I am the one who broke into the radio station last time, and shouting at her in Tamil filth.

Saying you are a prostitute, you have been sleeping with many men, I am not scared of the police, you can tell the police that I broke into the radio station etc.

Daily News: How many police officers attended the scene?

Vivekananthan: Initially three policemen came and later another three or five arrived. There were in total about three police vehicles.

Daily News: Did they arrest the group on arrival?

Vivekananthan: No, they initially made investigations and then told us that they can be arrested on two charges.

One is criminal activity for breaking the camera, and the other was the murder threat. The Police were waiting for another vehicle. A police van arrived and they took, Nadarajah Sethurupan, Thamotharampillai and Suthaharan's brother to the Police station.

Other police checked the premises and damage etc.

Daily News: What time was this?

Vivekananthan: At about 10.30 pm. We broadcast on radio that problems are going on and ceased transmission. Tamil people were calling us from all over the world asking us what was going on. Calls came from all over, Germany, Norway, France and even Saudi Arabia.

Myself, Thamba and Rajan went to the Police station and gave statements. It was almost 2.00am in the morning when we came off from the Police station.

Daily News: Was the group arrested detained by the Police?

Vivekananthan: Yes, they were locked up for over 48 hours from Thursday night to Sunday. The Police visited TBC the following day as well and were there for a very long time taking statements from Rajan and Mrs Sivajini Ramraj. The Police confirmed that the group were detained at that time and that they were preparing papers to submit to the CPS ( Crown Prosecution Service) for a decision.

The Police had appointed a police solicitor for them. Sethu did not want a solicitor, but Thamotharampillai got a solicitor.

New Scotland Yard special branch was also alerted and they were liaising with the local police.

Daily News: Amnesty International recently alleged that in Sri Lanka Police carry out investigations, but fail to follow through with successful convictions. How confident are you that in the British Democracy, the British police will investigate this issue and follow it through with a successful conviction?

Vivekananthan: We hope that the British police will be successful as these people are intimidating us on our own doorstep and bringing violence to our premises.

There are vehement denials from some quarters that Nadarajah Sethurupan was arrested. Even Sethurupan on his own websites is denying the arrest.

The Daily News independently contacted New Scotland Yard and they confirmed that police were called to an incident at TBC on Imperial Drive, Raynors Lane, Harrow on June 8 at 10.00pm. They confirmed that three males aged 28, 37 and 39 were arrested and were released on conditional bail on June 10, requiring the three to report to the Police at the end of June. Nadarajajah Sethurupan and his wife travelled to the UK, from Norway at the invitation of the pro LTTE Harrow labour councillor Daya Idaikadar to provide publicity for Idaikadar's protest fast in Parliament square last week. Sethu and wife were residing with Daya Idaikadar until Sunday. Idaikadar's wife is a cousin of the LTTE's US based lawyer Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran who was in Oslo last week, meeting with the LTTE delegation from Vanni, Sri Lanka.

Idaikadar's wife had been opposed to Sethurupan's staying at their North West London home and as a result of this objection; the Sethurupan's were accommodated in a side extension to the Idaikadar's residence.

After Nadarajah Sethurupan's arrest from Thursday night to Sunday, the Sethurupan's have been asked to leave the Idaikadar home and have now moved to Hemel Hampsted.

LTTE sources allege that Sethurupan's wife is also threatening to leave him because of all these problems.

The British Parliamentarian Barry Gardiner MP is said to have been informed of this incident as Sethurupan's web sites have made various false allegations against him,because of his association with Rajasingham Jayadevan.