Top 'US Tamil Tiger' is arrested

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A top member of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebel group has been arrested in the US for supporting "terror" activities on the island, US officials say.

Prosecutors say Karunakaran Kandasamy is the main US representative of the insurgent group, responsible for raising money and supplying arms.

They say he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Tigers.

If convicted, Mr Kandasamy faces up to 15 years in prison and the possibility of deportation.

'War of terror'

"The arrest is the latest in ongoing investigation of (the) terrorist group's reliance on individuals in the US as a major source for money, arms, and military technology," a statement issued by the US embassy in Colombo said.

The Sri Lankan army is regularly attacked in the north and east

It said that Karunakaran Kandasamy, also known as Karuna, is the main US representative of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and was charged on Wednesday in Queens, New York.

It said the LTTE - designated since 1997 as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US State Department - has covertly operated within the US "to further its war of terror in Sri Lanka and elsewhere".

"We refuse to allow this to continue," the statement quoted US attorney Roslynn R Mauskopf as saying.

Lawyers for the accused man have vigorously protested his innocence.

"They're fighting for freedom in their own country and they're coming to the United States much like the IRA did raising money here for years.

"I don't remember people being prosecuted for that," Mr Kandasamy's attorney, Charles Hochbaum, said.

'Suicide bombings'

Mr Hochbaum would not say whether or not Kandasamy had raised any money for the Tamil Tigers.

But court papers say that he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in his capacity as director of the American branch of the Tamil Tigers based in New York City.

He also allegedly arranged for rebel leaders in Sri Lanka to meet US supporters "with backgrounds in engineering, technology, weaponry, medicine and scientific fields".

The US Sri Lanka ambassador was injured in a rebel attack this year

Correspondents say that Mr Kandasamy's arrest is the latest attempt by US authorities to cut off support for the group, which according to court papers has engaged "in terrorist tactics, including suicide bombings and political assassinations".

The Tamil Tigers are fighting for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils in the island nation's north and east.

Last year, at least five Tamil Tiger sympathisers were charged in New York with conspiring to buy surface-to-air missiles, and 11 others were charged with "material support" for the rebel group.

Tamil Tiger sympathisers have also been arrested over the last year in Indonesia and France.

Prosecutors allege the rebel group even tried to bribe US officials to remove the group from the US terrorism list.

Propaganda

FBI investigator Mark J Mershon said that Mr Kandasamy "hasn't merely supported the Tamil Tigers' cause, he orchestrated US support".

"We can no sooner allow terrorists to raise funds here than we would allow them to carry out acts of terrorism here," Mr Mershon was quoted as saying.

According to court papers, the rebels rely on sympathetic Tamil expatriates residing in the US, Canada, Britain, Australia, France, and several other countries to raise and launder money, smuggle arms, explosives, equipment and technology into LTTE-controlled territory.

The papers say that the rebels obtain intelligence about the Sri Lankan government and spread propaganda.

The Tigers control large parts of Sri Lanka's embattled north where they run a de facto separate state.

More than 60,000 people have been killed Sri Lanka's protracted civil war.