Dutch Tamils ‘directly linked’ with LTTE - prosecutor
July 9, 2011 09:24 pm
A Dutch prosecutor said the Dutch Tamils who were arrested last year, have direct links with the Tamil Tigers separatists’ army, the LTTE. The Tamils who are currently on trial in the Netherlands, are accused of extorting money from other Dutch Tamils.
At the trial in the Hague, the prosecutor said the four men were also charged for organising illegal lotteries (with all proceeds going to the LTTE) and for being a member of a criminal and terrorist organisation, Radio Netherlands reported.
The four suspects who appeared in court are said to have registered all Tamil families living in the Netherlands, including details on who is paying money to the LTTE and who isn’t.
Those who do pay money are often forced into doing so, according to the prosecutor.
“Violent and ruthless”
The prosecutor stressed the fact that the Tamil Tigers “are a violent and ruthless” organisation, who fought their war with the Sri Lankan government with bomb attacks and other forms of serious violence, while recruiting and deploying child soldiers.
Victor Koppe, who is the lawyer of one of the suspects, 45-year-old Srinangan R., claimed that Sri Lanka’s army has violated human rights in their war against the LTTE. “Many Tamils have been kidnapped or have disappeared,” he said in court.
The armed conflict in the island lasted for 37 years. In the 1980s, many Tamils fled their country and moved elsewhere, many of them in Europe. Around 10,000 of the Tamil diaspora currently live in the Netherlands.
There have been similar cases in other European countries in recent years, such as the UK and Switzerland.
The four suspects’ court case will probably take many more months , as Dutch police is still investigating many of the charges against the four men, reports Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW).
