Tigers sold Norwegian passports to al-Qaeda

Walter Jayawardhana

TORONTO: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have stolen Norwegian passports and sold them to the al-Qaeda organisation to earn money, Norwegians Against Terrorism Organisation chief spokesman Falk Rovik said.

Addressing as the main guest speaker at the Sri Lanka United National Association's special general meeting at the North York Civic Centre Auditorium in Toronto recently, he said an LTTE member called Mike Daniel Jeya is already in prison for this passport racket.

"The LTTE has sold these passports to the highest bidders including an Algerian al-Qaeda group," Rovik said. He said the LTTE in Norway has made use of weak members of the society to carry out their illegal rackets.

"In this case it was a police officer who was made use of. Police officer Herman Olav Nyhusmoen was a habitual gambler and was always wanting money to pay his debts. So, LTTE cadre Mike Daniel Jeya was easily able to steal the passports using him," Rovik said.

He said both the Norwegian and the LTTE cadre are in jail for the crimes. Rovik said the passport fraud was detected when a LTTEer was caught with 700 passports in Thailand.

He said according to Interpol figures 130,000 Norwegian passports have been stolen. Rovik pointed out that the LTTE has used some of the stolen passports and the balance had been sold to the highest bidders including the al-Qaeda group in Algeria.

A large gathering including representatives from Amnesty International, Mackenzie Institute, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, CSIS, Toronto Police, several GTA Riding Association officials, Sri Lanka's High Commissioner, Deputy High Commissioner, Consul General and other Sri Lankan community leaders were present at the lecture.

Rovik who is also a member of the board of Oslo Chapter of the Amnesty International, said almost 90 per cent of LTTE revenues are raised from criminal activities outside Sri Lanka, including the smuggling of narcotics and humans, extortion of Diaspora members, credit card fraud etc.

He charged that the Norwegian Government had funded the LTTE through two ways, by giving money to the bogus humanitarian front organisation called the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) and sending money to secret bank accounts.

He said the TRO is directly controlled by the LTTE and is being used to funnel money into the LTTE's arms procurements. Rovik said the money supplied by Norway to the TRO ran into millions of dollars. He said his organisation extracted these lists from public records and published.

"As a cover up, the government is grouping those figures to hide certain names the monies received," Rovik said. Norway is also using secret accounts to fund the LTTE, he said.

Rovik further charged that ex-Norwegian Special Forces have trained the LTTE Sea Tigers in under water demolition methods in Thailand. He said ex-Norwegian Special forces never train foreigners without the Norwegian Government's consent.

He said the Sea Tigers were especially trained in attacking ports and Navy ships. He revealed that certain Norwegian military personnel serving in the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) under the peace process have taken LTTE personnel to study at the Special Forces Military base in Rena, Norway.

He said the Norway managed SLMM monitors are not true monitors but a bias lot and said it was amply demonstrated when a Chinese fishing trawler was destroyed by the Sea Tigers. Rovik said what the SLMM said was that the sinking of the Chinese vessel was done by an unknown third party.

He said there is innumerable pieces of evidence to prove that the Norwegian Government has contributed to terrorism in Sri Lanka.

"Due to that victims of terrorism in Sri Lanka who have lost their limbs, loved ones and property and suffered mutilations are able to file class actions against the Norwegian government asking for compensation, under the country's laws," Rovik said.