SEVENTEEN LTTE FRENCH LEADERS TAKEN INTO CUSTODY AND THEIR PARIS OFFICES INCLUDING THOSE OF FRONT ORGANIZATIONS AND KOVIL SEALED

By Walter Jayawardhana

The French Police took into custody 17 leading members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) French branch and sealed their office and those of front organizations in Paris under the orders of the anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere.

Among those who were taken into custody was the leader of the LTTE in Paris, Parithy, who is considered to be a close confidante of the outfit’s leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The French sector of the Sri Lankan separatist organization is being investigated under anti-terrorism laws of the European Union.

Prabhakaran’s LTTE who are also known as Tamil Tigers depended heavily on its Paris sector for hard cash , since allegedly it collected millions of Euro dollars from the 70,000 strong Tamil expatriate community through voluntary contributions and mostly by alleged extortions , Police sources in Paris said.

The arrested LTTE leaders, are suspected of boosting up their efforts to collect funds by extortion, violence and detentions in their fundraising activities in recent times that has resulted in more Tamils making many complaints to the law enforcing authorities, sources in Paris said.

Reports from Paris said apart from its main office at Paris 20 , the Paris office of the front organization, Tamil Rehabilitation Organization(TRO) that collects money purportedly for charity, TTN Television station and the Hindu Temple called Amman Kovil run by the LTTE for a constant flow of income were closed down April 1 and sealed.

Police entered those premises, and examined computers, documents and paper files for evidence before removing them for examination. All places have been raided simultaneously, the reports said.
The Sri Lankan terrorist group last year allegedly collected about eight million US dollars ( six million Euro dollars) from the Tamil Diaspora . The terrorist Division of the French Police is investigating accounts showing how that money was spent.

The Anti-terrorist Division of the Interior Ministry, (Sous-direction antiterroriste - SDAT) is conducting the investigation into the LTTE in Paris which is known as the Tamil Coordinating Committee at the address, l situé 341 rue des Pyrénées.

The French Police received complaints that each family was under constant pressure to pay 2000 Euro Dollars annually and every Tamil owned business was charged 6000 Euro Dollars annually by the so called Tamil Coordinating Committee to run Prabhakaran’s war in Sri Lanka.