FOREIGN MINISTER TELLS BOSTON GLOBE THAT BOSTON TAMILS DIVERTED TSUNAMI FUNDS FOR ARMS PROCUREMENT

By Walter Jayawardhana

In an interview with Boston Globe Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister alleged that a Federation of Tamil Sangams in the United States were raising funds for Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

In an interview with the newspaper’s Farah Stockman the minister said , the Boston Tamil Association of Boston diverted money collected for the victims of Tsunami for the arms procurements of the LTTE.

The foreign minister of Sri Lanka has accused several US-based charities, including a Boston-area cultural association, of raising money for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a militant separatist group in Sri Lanka that the State Department has classified as a terrorist organization, the Minister told the newspaper in a story datelined March 17..

“Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama met yesterday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other US officials to ask for greater scrutiny of Tamil charities, including the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America , which has a Boston-area affiliate” the newspaper said.

“Bogollagama alleged in an interview that the federation, including the Boston Tamil Association of New England, raised money following the 2004 tsunami that was diverted to arms procurement for the Tamil Tigers. He did not provide specific evidence to buttress his claim.

Two leaders of the Boston group denied the accusation, saying that the group has nothing to do with the Tigers and that all the money it raised went to tsunami victims.

“The Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate state for the ethnic Tamil minority, who have been discriminated against under the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lankan government. Both sides have been accused of atrocities in the war.

“The Tigers have been implicated in the recruitment of child soldiers and the use of suicide bombs, while the government has been accused of mass arrests, disappearances, and torture.
"We are seeking the support and cooperation to go into all these areas in which the US legal system and intelligence can reach," he said, adding that the Bush administration has been taking Sri Lanka's complaints more seriously since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“He said that cutting off funds to the Tigers would persuade the rebel group to take peace talks more seriously.

Bogollagama also accused the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization , a Maryland-based aid group that works in Tamil areas, of serving as a front for terrorist fund-raising. In September, the Sri Lankan government froze the organization's asse ts inside the country.

“Now, Sri Lanka is seeking similar action in the United States, he said. In addition to meetings with Rice and lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Bogollagama was seeking to meet with Stuart Levy, a top Treasury Department official involved in the freezing of asse ts of the North Korean and Iranian regimes.

Gowri Navanandan , chairwoman of the board of the Boston Tamil Association of New England, said the Sri Lankan government had no basis for its allegation against the group, except that it is a Tamil organization.

"When you say the word 'Tamil,' obviously they are going to think you have something to do with it," she said. "We don't have anything to do with politics."

“She said the organization, which has a Reading post office box, was formed to promote cultural awareness and festivals, especially for Tamil youth, and had no connection to the Tigers. She said no one from the US government ever questioned members of the group.

Palani Nadarajah , vice president of the organization, dismissed the allegations as false propaganda from the government. Nadarajah, who has lived in the Boston area since 1970, said that the group holds annual cultural events, picnics, and Tamil language classes, and that all the money the group raised for tsunami aid went to victims living in Tiger-controlled areas, not the military effort.
"The money went to the right place," he said, adding that the group's finances were open to the public. "It didn't go to terrorists at all."

In recent months, the Justice Department has launched its own investigation of Tiger activities inside the United States.

In August, US agents confiscated the computers of a Maryland doctor who leads the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization.

Justice Department complaints allege that suspects who said they represented the Tigers offered undercover agents millions of dollars to obtain classified intelligence, and tried to buy 18 surface-to-air missiles inside the United States.

E-mails to the organization were not answered.Critics of the Sri Lankan government say these allegations are overblown.
“
Sri Thillaiampalam , president of the Eelam Tamil Association , an unregistered Boston-based group he describes as a self-funded lobbying organization for human rights, said that he received a visit from FBI agents about two months ago, but that they quickly left him alone.

"They just wanted to ask if I am part of it," said Thillaiampalam, a retired manager of a cargo company.
"I said, 'I am not.' "