Pata
05-03-2007, 08:26 AM
bloomberg, May 3. May 3 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. will stop illegal fundraising by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that serves only to prolong Sri Lanka's civil conflict, Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells said.
Security agencies in the U.K. are moving to ``counter the bullying, threats and acts of fraud that are used regularly to extract money from the Tamil population and others in the country,'' Howells told Parliament in London yesterday.
Intelligence officials have revealed that ``widespread fraud scams'' may be providing funds to the LTTE, he said. The Tamil Tigers last month denied allegations by Sri Lanka's embassy in London that they're involved in an operation to clone credit cards.
Fighting in Sri Lanka escalated last year as two attempts at peace talks in Geneva between the government and the LTTE failed to restart a peace process to end two decades of conflict. More than 600,000 Tamils have fled the country to escape the violence, more than half of them going to the U.K. and Canada.
Security agencies in the U.K. are moving to ``counter the bullying, threats and acts of fraud that are used regularly to extract money from the Tamil population and others in the country,'' Howells told Parliament in London yesterday.
Intelligence officials have revealed that ``widespread fraud scams'' may be providing funds to the LTTE, he said. The Tamil Tigers last month denied allegations by Sri Lanka's embassy in London that they're involved in an operation to clone credit cards.
Fighting in Sri Lanka escalated last year as two attempts at peace talks in Geneva between the government and the LTTE failed to restart a peace process to end two decades of conflict. More than 600,000 Tamils have fled the country to escape the violence, more than half of them going to the U.K. and Canada.