Time to Act: The LTTE, it’s Front Organisations, and the challenge to Europe - 4:

TRO and its ties with LTTE

Continued from January 8

Excerpts from address by Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the EU, Belgium and Luxembourg, Ravinatha Aryasinha at the EU-US International Seminar on the LTTE, held at the Europol Headquarters in the Hague, Netherlands, 9-10 Dec 2008.

“The LTTE oversees the activities of the TRO and LTTE linked organisations in Sri Lanka and abroad. Directives issued by the LTTE suggest that the LTTE-affiliated branch representatives are expected to coordinate their efforts with the respective TRO representatives in their locations and report on all activity to the LTTE”

As revealed in the US investigation, the TRO engages in procurement of military arms, equipment, communication devices, etc. which activities point to its critical terrorist linkage with the terrorist group - the LTTE, and are also indicative of engagement in terrorism including aiding and abetting.

The proscription of the TRO in the US, was preceded by an FBI investigation of the activities of TRO/USA and its transactions and the arrest during the period 2006-2007 in various cities of the US and in Guam, 17 activists for raising funds, money laundering to purchase military equipment including surface to air missiles, night vision devices, AK-47s, to bribe state department officials to remove the LTTE from the foreign terrorist organisation list, to purchase classified intelligence concerning the LTTE and to influence at least one US Congressman.

Most important among them was the arrest on 25 April 2007 in Queens, New York, of the head of an LTTE front organization, the World Tamil Coordinating Committee (WTCC), Karunakaran Kandasamy (alleged to be the LTTE in-charge in the US), on charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

The group headed by him reportedly operated in the US “drawing on America’s financial resources and technological advances to further its war of terror in Sri Lanka and elsewhere”.

A FBI raid on Kandasamy’s office in Queens has revealed evidence that he had raised millions of dollars for the Tamil Tigers through the WTCC. Already 4 of these persons have been tried and convicted, while the others are due to stand trial shortly.

d) In Canada, on 13 June 2008, the Government proscribed the Toronto-based front organization of the LTTE, the World Tamil Movement (WTM), under the Anti-Terrorism Act of Canada.

The directive issued by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions advised banks and insurance companies to notify the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) or Canadian Security Intelligence Service if they held any accounts linked to the WTM.

The LTTE is entrenched in Canada and a 58-page RCMP document refers to the WTM as “the Canadian arm of the LTTE”.

Documents emerging from the investigations into the WTM have established, inter alia that the WTM is a foreign branch of the LTTE and that the WTM received direct instructions, through an ‘operational manual’ dated 28 July 2003, from the LTTE Leader Prabhakaran, inter alia, on raising funds for the LTTE.

The manual found, also instructed that the younger generation should be taken in for the “freedom battle”.

RCMP counterterrorism investigators and Canada Revenue Agency charity regulators also accuse the TRO in Canada of having ties to the LTTE.

They note, “we believe that there are reasonable grounds for concern that TRO (Canada) operates for purposes that conflict with Canadian public policy”.

The head of Canada’s charities directorate wrote in a letter to the group, “more specifically, there appears to be reason to conclude that TRO (Canada) may be functioning as part of a support network for the terrorist organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.” Whether to designate the TRO a terrorist “entity” under the Anti-Terrorism Act, is believed to be currently under consideration in Canada.

e) In France, 21 activists belonging to LTTE front organizations including Nadarajah Mathinthiran, in-Charge of the Coordination Committee of Tamils in France (CCTF) were arrested in April, May and September 2007. They continue to be under arrest/on bail and are due to stand trial shortly “for criminal conspiracy with a view to perpetrate acts of terrorism, financing of terrorist enterprise and extortion”.

It has been established that TRO-France alone has raised 7.2 million Euro during 2006 for the LTTE (where each Tamil family was forced to pay 2000 Euros per year and shopkeepers were made to pay 6000 Euros).

f) In Australia, having been arrested on 1 May 2007, on 13 Sept 2007, 3 persons, Aruran Vinayagamoorthy, Sivarajah Yathavan, and Arumugam Rajeevan were charged for using the Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC) in Melbourne to raise funds for the LTTE. J. Jeyakumar, head of LTTE in Australia/New Zealand and also a prominent member of TCC accused for the same charges, died while the investigations continued.

When they reportedly appeared for the start of their committal hearing at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. Mark Dean S.C, the Commonwealth Prosecutor, told the court that US $1.9 million was deposited in a bank account for the TCC between 2001 and 2005.

He alleged that US $1.2 million of that money was withdrawn in cash and was used to purchase electronic equipment and other items for the LTTE. He said money provided to the LTTE was collected under the guise of donations for charitable projects and included money raised after the 2004 tsunami. They have been charged for collecting funds and providing material support to the LTTE.

In late 2007, a committal proceeding was held in a Magistrates Court of Melbourne and the Magistrate held that there existed a prima-facie case against the defendants. The defendants are to stand trial following indictment in the Supreme Court of the State of Victoria.

g) In Denmark, TRO-Denmark has had its assets amounting to DKK 52,000 (over 7,000 Euros) frozen for supporting the LTTE. The action was taken 5 days after the US proscription of the TRO in November 2007.

The TRO has been forced to close down their offices in Denmark in July 2008 due to the lack of money to pay rent and the number of members has fallen dramatically since the allegations against the organisation.

TRO-Denmark, which appealed the conviction early through Municipal Court and High Court without success, has presently taken up the issue before the Supreme Court.

h) In Italy, on 19 June 2008, Italian police arrested 28 suspected LTTE sympathisers for providing funding for the group.

The suspects were arrested from 9 cities including Rome, Genoa, Bologna, Naples and Palermo at the end of a two-year investigation According to Naples police all suspects are Sri Lankan citizens and extorted money from their fellow nationals in the various cities and sent it home to finance the LTTE. The investigations are continuing.

To be continued