Leader of Tamil Tiger finances arrested in New York

AP/CNN:

The top U.S. representative of the Tamil Tigers, a Sri Lankan rebel group designated as a foreign terrorist organization, orchestrated a covert campaign to finance its escalating conflict with military forces in Sri Lanka, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Karunakaran Kandasamy was arrested and awaiting arraignment on charges of providing material support to the Tamil Tigers. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

In the past several years, the group has "covertly operated within the United States, drawing on America's financial resources and technological advances to further its war of terror in Sri Lanka and elsewhere," U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said in a statement.

The arrest was the latest attempt by American authorities to cut off support for the group, which according to court papers has engaged "in terrorist tactics, including suicide bombings and political assassinations" while fighting for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils in the island nation's north and east.

Last year, its emissaries were charged in New York with conspiring to buy surface-to-air missiles. Prosecutors also alleged the defendants tried to bribe U.S. officials to remove the group from the terrorism list.

Kandasamy, as director of the American branch of the Tamil Tigers based in New York City, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, the court papers said. He also allegedly arranged for rebel leaders to meet in Sri Lanka with supporters "with backgrounds in engineering, technology, weaponry, medicine and scientific fields."

The Tamil Tigers have fought the Sri Lankan government since 1983, seeking independence from the ethnic Sinhalese-dominated country after decades of discrimination against Tamils.

...

The Tigers were one of the first to use human bomb attacks, which have been mimicked by the Islamic religious bigots to terrorize people in several countries. They have also engaged in naval attacks and air attacks. They are a pretty determined group.

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