TRO

U.S. freezes TRO funds [TamilNet, Thursday, 15 November 2007, 15:10 GMT]
Colombo confiscates TRO funds [TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 November 2008, 23:51 GMT]
75% of confiscated funds belong to INGOs, says TRO
[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 November 2008, 12:03 GMT]
Responding to the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) press release that the State has confiscated Rs. 71m from Tamil Rehabilitation Organization’s (TRO’s) bank account, TRO reiterated its denial of allegations that funds were “mainly used for terrorist activies,” and pointed out that the “GoSL has never produced any proof of these allegations in a court of law and has not brought any criminal charges against TRO,” and that Colombo has consistently denied TRO opportunity to defend against the allegations in the courts of law.
Response by TROAsserting that “TRO has met or exceeded international standards of accountability and transparency regarding project reporting and accounting,” the TRO in the press release said, “All TRO accounts and projects during the 2002-2006 CFA / Post-Tsunami period were audited and inspected by an independent Colombo-based (Sinhalese) certified public accounting firm and an “Audited Financial Statement” was published every year.”
“Additionally, TRO provided all required financial and narrative reports to the relevant GoSL ministries as required,” TRO added in the press release.
“TRO wishes to remind the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) that 75% of the “forfeited” funds in TRO’s accounts were donated by the United Nations, international NGOs, foreign governments and the GoSL itself. These funds were donated for the sole purpose of providing humanitarian assistance and development to people in the NorthEast affected by the tsunami and/or the war and as such the GoSL should return these funds to the international NGOs, UN and other bodies so that they will be able to utilize the funds for their original purpose,” TRO said in the press release.
Accusing Colombo of conducting a genocidal war of attrition against the Tamil people, the press release added that since the government ordered departure of the UN and international NGOs from the Vanni on 15 September 2008, TRO has been caring for the needs of over 300,000 IDPs displaced by Sri Lanka Army offensive.

U.S. freezes TRO funds
[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 November 2007, 15:10 GMT]
The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Thursday announced that it would freeze the U.S.-held assets of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO). A press release, issued by the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka charged that the TRO has acted as a front to facilitate fundraising and procurement for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Robert Blake, the U.S. Ambassador for Sri Lanka, is scheduled to address media Friday in Colombo on the funds freeze of the TRO by the United States Department of the Treasury.
Full text of the press release issued by the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka follows:
Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO)Designated under Executive Order 13224November 15, 2007
Colombo, November 15, 2007: The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced that it would freeze the U.S.-held assets of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), a charitable organization that acts as a front to facilitate fundraising 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 Organization since 2001 and a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997. The Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) was designated today under Executive Order 13224, which is aimed at financially isolating terrorist groups and their support networks. E.O. 13224 freezes any assets held by designees under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from transacting with designees.
The LTTE is a terrorist group that has waged a violent secessionist campaign for over two decades to secure a separate state for Tamil-majority regions in Sri Lanka's North and East. The conflict between the LTTE and Sri Lankan military forces has claimed over 60,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan citizens.
In the United States, the TRO has raised funds on behalf of the LTTE through a network of individual representatives. According to sources within the organization, 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 munitions, equipment, communication devices, and other technology for the LTTE.
The TRO's efforts worldwide reportedly have allowed the LTTE to use humanitarian aid, which TRO collected for the international community after the December 2004 tsunami, to launch new campaigns to strengthen LTTE military capacity.
According to its website, the TRO maintains a headquarters office in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka and operates branch offices throughout Sri Lanka and in seventeen countries worldwide, 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 oversees the activities of the TRO and other LTTE-linked non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Sri Lanka and abroad. Directives issued by the LTTE suggest that LTTE-affiliated branch representatives are expected to coordinate their efforts with the respective 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 U.S. Department of State designated the LTTE a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on October 8, 1997, in accordance with Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended. On November 2, 2001, the U.S. 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 organization by the European Union and Canada.
An entity designated under E.O. 13224 may request a delisting from the U.S. 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.
The United States continues to support a just, negotiated political settlement to the conflict in Sri Lanka that meets the aspirations of all communities, including Sri Lanka's Tamils. The U.S. will continue to vigorously support efforts to stop human rights violations against Tamils, including abductions and threats against Tamil journalists.
Identifier information for Tamils Rehabilitation Organization, including AKAs and address information for its branches worldwide, can be found at the following link: www.treasury.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/actions/index.shtml.

Colombo confiscates Tamil rehabilitation funds
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 November 2008, 23:51 GMT]
Around 71 million Rupees in the accounts of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) in the Sri Lankan banks have been confiscated by the Sri Lankan Government, according to a press release by the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on Tuesday. The move is widely seen as an act of 'structural genocide' against Eezham Tamils, preventing Tamils looking after their own rehabilitation, discouraging individual, organisational and international contribution to Tamil rehabilitation and also as a response of Colombo to the rehabilitation funds being raised by the Government of Tamil Nadu, said a TRO activist in Norway.
The TRO has been a registered NGO in Sri Lanka. It operates internationally in raising funds. Its speed, quality of humanitarian relief and emergency response on the construction of temporary shelters in the aftermath of Tsunami even received an award from the former president of Sri Lanka Chandrika Kumaratunga.
The Colombo government suspended the TRO funds wth effect from 04 September 2006 coinciding with the beginning of the current phase of the aggressive war. The U.S. government followed suit by freezing the funds in the U.S. banks since 15 November 2007.
Their reasoning that the funds of TRO are diverted to LTTE activities is consistently denied by the TRO.
Full text of the press relase issued by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, follows:
CENTRAL BANK OF SRI LANKA
Communications Department30, Janadhipathi Mawatha, Colombo 01, Sri Lanka. Tel : 2477424, 2477423, 2477311Fax: 2346257, 2477739E-mail: dcommunications@cbsl.lk, communications@cbsl.lk Web: www.cbsl.gov.lk
Press ReleaseIssued by: Financial Intelligence UnitDate: 18-11-2008
TRO Funds forfeited to the State
A sum of approximately Rupees 71 million which was lying to the credit of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) at the time the funds of the TRO were frozen, have now been forfeited to the State.
The TRO accounts were suspended in Sri Lanka in terms of the provisions of the Financial Transactions Reporting Act and the Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Financing Act in August 2006. Such suspension was carried out on the grounds that the large sums of money received by the TRO from time to time from international non-governmental organizations, individuals, foreign entities and TRO branches in several foreign locations, purporting to be funds for humanitarian projects in Sri Lanka, were, according to intelligence reports, mainly used to finance terrorist activities, and that the money, securities or credits which were lying to its credit were being used or intended to be used for such purposes.
Investigations are yet in progress to trace and forfeit any further funds and assets belonging to the TRO. Accordingly, the general public is cautioned that they should not have any financial transactions or any other links with the TRO, or with any of its officers, since any involvement including any financial connection with a proscribed organization, is a criminal offence.