HomeFBI going after LTTE fund-raisers in US
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other U.S. law enforcement agencies have already begun to go after organizations and sympathizers of the outlawed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) raising funds of behalf of the group, a senior Clinton Administration official informed Congress recently.
On October 8 1997, the U.S. proscribed the LTTE-which is seeking a separate state in Sri Lanka, and listed it officially as a terrorist organization, thus making fund-raising on its behalf in this country a crime punishable by heavy fines, confiscation of property and assets, and incarceration.
Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, Karl F. Inderfurth, appearing before the House Subcommittee on Asia and Pacific, which has jurisdiction over matters pertaining to the subcontinent, said, 'The FBI and other law enforcement agencies will be pursuing this. Indeed, (they) already are.'
Congressman Doug Bereuter, Nebraska Republican, who chairs the panel, and had been in the forefront in urging the administration to list the LTTE as a terrorist organization, lauded the State Department for finally going ahead and taking this action. He told Inderfurth, 'Our expectation would be that this would place a cramp on the fund-rasing opportunities (on behalf of the LTTE) in this country.
Bereuter added: 'I certainly hope that's the case and I would hope that the administration would do whatever it can to assure that not only Americans and people who are resident alien in this country,' were barred from raising funds for the LTTE, 'but other countries around the world would bring a similar kind of halt to the fundraising.'
The cerebral lawmaker who wields considerable influence in the House said that if this worldwide ban against fundraising for the LTTE could be achieved, 'I am very sure it would be felt,' and would curtail the LTTE's terrorist activities.
Privately, U.S. officials and Congressional sources have said they are at a loss to understand why the LTTE has not been proscribed in Sri Lanka, even as Colombo kept imploring the U.S. to outlaw the LTTE and thus effectively prohibit fundraising on its behalf.
These officials have said that the Sri Lankan government's decision not to proscribe the LTTE only means that it holds out some glimmer of hope, however quixotic, that the LTTE may some day eschew its ruthless terrorism and wanton attacks against innocent civilians and come to the negotiating table.
But those officials point out that it is rather an absurd situation to say the least, where the Sri Lankan government goes around the world calling for the outlawing of the LTTE, without first doing it themselves.