Tamil Tigers' roots run deep in Australia

"Denial and lack of comment are LTTE strategies":

Shelley Markham

AUSTRALIA: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers organisation has roots that run deep in Australia's Tamil community, a security expert has told a Melbourne court.

Christopher Smith gave evidence on Monday in Melbourne Magistrates Court at the committal hearing for three men accused of using the Melbourne-based Tamil Coordinating Committee to raise funds for Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as Tamil Tigers.

Melbourne pair Aruran Vinayagamoorthy, 33 and Sivarajah Yathavan, 36, along with Arumugan Rajeevan, 41, of Old Toongabbie in Sydney's west, have been charged with being members of a terrorist organisation, making funds available to a terrorist organisation and making an asset available to a proscribed entity.

Vinayagamoorthy, of Mount Waverley, and Yathavan of Vermont South, have also been charged with intentionally providing support or resources to a terrorist organisation.

Dr Smith, who was giving evidence via video-link from the United Kingdom, has prepared reports on Sri Lanka for the National Commission on Illegal Weapons and is involved in the preparation of witness reports for the British courts on Sri Lankan asylum-seekers.

In a report Dr Smith wrote for the Australian Federal Police (AFP) - entitled The Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE): Local Insurgency Global Organisation - which was tendered to the court today, he said support for the LTTE ran deep in the Tamil community in Australia.

"The LTTE has never admitted to operating front organisations in Australia, or indeed, anywhere else in or outside of Sri Lanka," Dr Smith said in his report. But he said "denial and lack of comment are fundamental parts of the LTTE strategy".

"The LTTE has always been an exceedingly secretive organisation. The LTTE taproots run deep through the Tamil diaspora in Australia, as well as other parts of the world."

Dr Smith said LTTE supporters were thought to use sporting and community events as a way to raise funds.

"The links the LTTE has established are also pragmatic," he said. "It might maintain a presence during cricket matches, doing little more than pass around a collection box. But few Tamils will have any illusion as to which organisation they are donating."

He told the court he travelled to Sri Lanka three times a year and had contacts within that country's Government, military and police force. He also had contacts within the Tamil community. During cross-examination, defence lawyer Phillip Boulten SC questioned the credibility of the evidence in Dr Smith's report.

Boulten asked Dr Smith if he had ever conducted interviews with active members of LTTE. "I have had interviews with individuals who I have suspected of being LTTE members," Dr Smith said. "I have never had anyone admit to me of contributing to LTTE. That is something people don't admit to."

The hearing before Magistrate Peter Reardon continues today.