US freezes TRO assets

US freezes TRO assets
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Tangible action at last Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told the Daily News last night that the USA is the first foreign Government to take tangible action against an LTTE front organisation following detailed investigations.
“As has been pointed out by Sri Lanka for sometime the proscription of the LTTE have been undermined by the continuing ability for front organisations of the LTTE, particularly the TRO to continue collecting funds to beef up the LTTE arsenal”.
This freezing of the assets of the TRO and other allied bodies would no doubt set a precedent to several other countries which are also investigating LTTE front organisations to take tangible action against these fronts, Bogollagama stressed.
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The United States Government yesterday froze all assets of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO ), an LTTE front, in the USA in furtherance of its declared aim of financially isolating terrorist groups and their support networks.
In a media release issued last night, the US Embassy in Colombo stated:
“The US Department of the Treasury yesterday announced that it would furtherance freeze the US held assets of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), a charitable organisation that acts as a front to facilitate fund-raising and procurement for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The LTTE has been designated by the United States as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organisation since 2001 and a Foreign Terrorist Organisation since 1997. The TRO was designated today under Executive Order 13,224 which is aimed at financially isolating terrorist groups and their support networks.
E.O. 13224 freezes any assets held by designees under US jurisdiction and prohibits US persons from transacting with designees.
In the United States, the TRO has raised funds on behalf of the LTTE through a network of individual representatives.
According to source within the organisation, the TRO is the preferred conduit of funds from the United States to the LTTE in Sri Lanka.
The TRO also has facilitated LTTE procurement operations in the United States.
Those operations included the purchase of ammunition, equipment, communication devices, and other technology for the LTTE.
The TRO’s efforts worldwide reportedly have allowed the LTTE to use humanitarian aid, which it collected for the international community after the December 2004 tsunami, to launch new campaigns to strengthen the LTTE’s military capacity.
According to its website, the TRO maintains a headquarters office in Kilinochchi and operates branch offices throughout Sri Lanka and in countries, including the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
The LTTE overseas the activities of the TRO and other LTTE-linked non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Sri Lanka and abroad. Directives issued by the LTTE suggest that LTTE-affiliated branch representatives are expected to co-ordinate their efforts with the TRO representatives in their locations and report all activity to the LTTE.
Recent information indicates that the LTTE has ordered international NGOs operating in its territory to provide all project funding through local NGOs, which are managed collectively by the TRO.
This arrangement allows TRO to withdraw money from the local NGO accounts and to provide a portion of the relief funds to the LTTE. The LTTE has reportedly exerted pressure to comply on a few international NGOs that have resisted these arrangements.
The US Department of State designated the LTTE a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) on October 8, 1997, in accordance with Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended. On November 2, 2001, the US Department of State named the LTTE a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under E.O. 13224.
The LTTE has also been listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and Canada.
An entity designated under E.O. 13224 may request a delisting from the US Government under published procedures if it can establish that there is insufficient basis for the listing or that it has taken remedial steps that would remove the basis for the designation.”