Surface to air missile 

Suresh Sriskandarajah, 26, one of the LTTE supporters arrested in Canada is likely to face an extradition hearing. A statement given by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Sgt. Michele Paradis to a news report in CTV INC., a leading Canadian broadcasting company, revealed this. 

LTTE supporters likely to face exile

Written by Administrator

Thursday, 24 August 2006

Sriskandarajah along with his Canadian counterparts Sarachandran, Sabaratnam, and Thanigasalam were planning to illegally purchase and smuggle out weapons to LTTE. Six of the nine Canadians and Americans charged appeared in court on Monday and were held without bail. According to CTV reports the arm dealers these LTTE supporters were dealing with were actually under-cover agents working for the FBI.

American authorities allege that these men were traveling to New York from Canada to buy missiles, launchers and AK-47s.

The news also states that these LTTE supporters were planning to buy $900,000 worth military hardware from the black market of NY.

ImageThese men, when questioned by the security officials, have said they were going to attend a bachelor’s party in Buffalo, New York. It is also reported that the suspects were engaged in this sting operation that began more than a year ago and extended it to ten more countries, including Canada. Sriskandarajah, an engineering student of University of Waterloo, has been forcing Tamil students living there to promote LTTE by distributing leaflets hidden in toy teddy bears.

According to FBI special agents’ comments to CTV, as these men were playing a major role in the fund raisings, this arrest would make a significant negative impact on the LTTE campaigns.

Three of these LTTE supporters were arrested in New York on last week Friday (18) and the other one on Monday (21) at Kitchener, Ontario.

Concurrently US government arrested another five American Tamils associated with this banned act. These men were also arrested with multiple charges including fundraising for the banned terrorist oraganisation (LTTE), illegal weapon smuggling and trying to bribe US officials to lift US ban on the LTTE.

Canadian government added the LTTE to its official list of terrorist organizations in April this year and US added to its own list in 1997.

Sriskandharajah appeared on Tuesday in a court in Kitchener, Ontario and scheduled to appear again tomorrow, Friday.

LTTE denies links with U.S. arrests

This is not our way of operating, say Tigers

COLOMBO: The LTTE has maintained that it has no connection with the eight persons arrested by the U.S. authorities on charges of attempting to mobilise military and material support for it.

"We have no connection with the people arrested and this is not our way of operating. We have never done like this before," the LTTE said on phone from Kilinochichi in a bland response to the news which has been splashed in a big way in the local and foreign media.

On Monday, the U.S. charged eight men with providing material support to the Tigers. The U.S. Justice Department said some of the charges against them were hatching a conspiracy to buy surface-to-air missiles, attempting to bribe U.S. officials to have the LTTE removed from a list of terrorist organisations and obtaining classified intelligence.

Curfew lifted

As the fighting continued in the Jaffna peninsula, though on a reduced scale, the Government lifted the 10-day old curfew in a phased manner in Jaffna and other conflict affected areas in the North.

Defence spokesman and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told journalists here that a ship with 3,800 tonnes of food, medical and many basic goods was sailing towards the North. "The Government decided to take the sea route as it is far safer than by land. LTTE launches attacks on whatever they come across even an unarmed ship transporting basic necessities to serve the civilians," he said. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission said the situation in Sri Lanka continued to be very unstable.

Rebel group funded congressman's trip to Sri Lanka, sources say

WASHINGTON - Illinois congressman Danny Davis and an aide took a trip to Sri Lanka last year that was paid for by the Tamil Tigers, a group that the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization for its use of suicide bombers and child soldiers, law enforcement sources said.

Davis' seven-day trip came under new scrutiny this week following the arrests of 11 supporters of the organization on charges of participating in a broad conspiracy to support the terrorist group through money laundering, arms procurement and bribery of U.S. officials.

The five-term Democratic congressman said he was unaware that the Tigers paid for the trip and on his required congressional disclosure form he reported that the trip was paid for by a Hickory Hills, Ill.-based Tamil cultural organization, the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America.

During the visit, Davis spent most of his time in a region controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as the group is formally known, and visited the organization's political headquarters. He also met with a police chief for the region appointed by the Tigers.

The Tamil Tigers is a separatist group that has been fighting since 1983 for an independent state for 3.2 million ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka, a tear-shaped island nation of 20 million off the southern tip of India. In addition to conventional guerrilla tactics, the group has used terrorist methods, including 200 suicide bombings, in a bloody conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives. Though the violence between the government and the separatist group abated during the past several years, it recently surged again, threatening a renewed civil war.

Davis said he believed that the trip, from March 30 to April 5, 2005, was paid for by the Tamil federation, which in accordance with congressional ethics rules sent him a written statement of the travel expenses, more than $7,000 each for Davis and his aide, Daniel Cantrell. Davis said he knew that the group was "associated" with the Tamil Tigers but did not realize that the trip's costs were covered with funds controlled by the rebel group.

"I know who I got the trip from," Davis said. "I don't know if any clandestine group gave them money. All I know is what I saw and was told."

He also said that he had not been contacted by federal investigators in connection with the trip.

He defended the trip, saying he traveled there at the behest of ethnic Tamils who live in his Chicago congressional district so that he could examine charges that the region was not receiving an equitable share of relief funding sent to Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami. Davis has been harshly critical of the Sri Lankan government's treatment of the Tamil minority.

"Since I have an interest in human rights and since I have a tendency to kind of favor the underdog, I went at their request to take a look," Davis said. "I don't regret taking the trip. I have a much better understanding of the situation than prior to going."

As recently as this past Saturday, Davis talked in Chicago with a supporter of the Tamil Tigers who was among 11 people arrested on charges of conspiring to aid the rebel group through money laundering, procurement of arms, including surface-to-air missiles, and bribery of public officials.

That Tamil Tiger supporter, Murugesu Vinayagamoorthy, was described in a federal criminal complaint as a high-level operative who served as an intermediary between the Tigers' leaders and foreign backers. The complaint charges that he offered a $1 million bribe to an undercover FBI agent posing as a State Department official in an attempt to remove the Tamil Tigers' designation as a terrorist organization.

Davis said he first met Vinayagamoorthy, a 57-year-old London physician, at a Tamil cultural event in the Chicago suburbs at which both of them gave speeches "a few years ago." Vinayagamoorthy also participated in several of the meetings that Davis held while visiting Sri Lanka, the congressman said.

The Tamil supporter contacted the congressman's office again last week seeking a chance to brief Davis on events in Sri Lanka, where violence between the government and Tamil Tigers has flared anew. Vinayagamoorthy arranged to do so while walking alongside Davis Saturday for 10 blocks during the congressman's annual "Back to School" Parade in Chicago, Davis said.

The criminal complaint against Vinayagamoorthy asserts that he had "direct and frequent contact" with leaders of the rebel group and was "often dispatched" to facilitate Tamil Tiger projects around the world.

Without mentioning Davis or his aide by name, the complaint describes a series of transactions in which Vinayagamoorthy and others charged in the case allegedly laundered $13,150 in Tamil Tiger funds at the direction of a top guerilla leader to pay for travel of "two individuals" to Tamil-controlled Sri Lanka. The two individuals were Davis and Cantrell, law enforcement officials said.

Another person arrested in the case, Nachimuthu Socrates, was listed as a director in 2004 of the Tamil cultural organization which Davis listed in public disclosure forms as the trip's sponsor, the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America. Representatives of the federation did not return phone messages on Wednesday.

Davis said he always assumed that the organization had a connection with the Tamil Tigers.

"I knew that they were associated with the Tamil Tigers, yes," he said.

Davis has been an outspoken supporter of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka.

This month, he issued a statement condemning an Aug.14 Sri Lankan Air Force bombing in Tamil-controlled territory that reportedly killed dozens of girls.

Davis' statement said the facility was an orphanage he had visited during his 2005 trip to Sri Lanka. The government said the site was a former orphanage being used as an LTTE training camp for female recruits.

"We've been engaged," Davis said. "There hasn't been anything clandestine about our position."

Davis has been one of the most prolific travelers in Congress, accepting 47 trips paid for by private groups since 2000. That total ranks Davis 15th among the 535 members of Congress, according to Political Moneyline, a nonpartisan watchdog group that compiles data from congressional disclosure forms.

The Tamil Tigers were designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. As a result, federal law bars providing them funding, arms or other material support.

The FBI searched a residence Sunday in Glendale Heights, Ill., in connection with the Tamil Tiger investigation, according to Ross Rice, a spokesman for the bureau's Chicago office. No arrests were made and no criminal charges have been filed as a result of the raid, Rice said.

Aid agency worker shot to death in eastern Sri Lanka , military says

Associated Press, Thu August 24, 2006 07:42 EDT . - - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels Thursday fatally shot an ethnic Sinhalese man working for a New Zealand-funded aid agency in troubled eastern Sri Lanka - , the Defense Ministry said. Sri Lanka - 's four-year cease-fire has nearly collapsed with renewed fighting in the northeast, killing hundreds of people and tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced, prompting local and international aid agencies to warn of a growing humanitarian crisis.

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels have fought since 1983 to create a separate state for the country's minority Tamils citing decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese-dominated state.

More than 65,000 people have been killed in the insurgency.

The 2002 cease-fire brokered by Norway temporarily halted the bloodshed, but the past few months have seen renewed fighting in the north and east, where the rebels want to establish a separate state.

The international community has called for an immediate end to the hostilities and a return to the peace process that faltered earlier this year when the rebels refused to attend a round of peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland

Sri Lankan air force strikes rebel sea base as government discusses peace

Associated Press, Thu August 24, 2006 03:05 EDT . COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Sri Lanka - 's air force launched strikes on a Tamil Tiger rebel sea base in the northeast Thursday in an operation the military described as ``successful.'' There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. A recent escalation of violence between government forces and the insurgents has returned Sri Lanka - to a war footing, with some of the fiercest fighting since the two sides signed a cease-fire four years ago.

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera told Parliament during a debate on the conflict Wednesday that since then, other rebel leaders have broken promises to end the violence.

Rambukwella, the government spokesman, said any new cease-fire agreement would need to have clear conditions written into it, such as restricting the Tigers' access to the sea.

``We have areas that are very vulnerable and we cannot have them pounding our naval headquarters in eastern Trincomalee,'' he said.

Military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe earlier said there were no major incidents overnight in the northern Jaffna Peninsula, which the insurgents made a major push to recapture on Aug. 11.

In the east, suspected rebels fired at an army checkpoint early Thursday in Batticaloa district, injuring one soldier, while a police officer was killed by a mine explosion overnight in eastern Valachchenai, he said. ``It was a quiet night,'' Samarasinghe said.

The Tigers have been fighting for over 20 years for a separate homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils. More than 65,000 people have been killed in the insurgency.

The 2002 cease-fire temporarily halted the bloodshed, but the past few months have seen renewed fighting in the north and east, where the rebels want to establish their separate state.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the recent violence and tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced, prompting local and international aid agencies to warn of a growing humanitarian crisis.

The international community has called for an immediate end to the hostilities and a return to the peace process that faltered earlier this year when the rebels refused to attend a round of peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland.

Samaraweera accused the Tigers of initiating the renewed fighting in late June by blocking a water source supplying thousands of people living in government-controlled areas. The move prompted the military to launch its first ground offensive since the 2002 cease-fire.

The Tigers say they acted because the government had failed to honor a promise to provide water to rebel-held areas, and that the government turned the water dispute into a ``military issue.''