The Dutch Public Prosecutor says four Dutch Tamils who were arrested last year, have direct links with the Tamil Tigers separatists’ army, the LTTE. The rebel group has been listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union since 2006. The Tamils who are currently on trial in the Netherlands, are accused of extorting money from other Dutch Tamils.
In court in the Hague, the Public Prosecutor said the four men were also charged with organising illegal lotteries (with all proceeds going to the LTTE) and for being members of a criminal and terrorist organisation.
The four suspects, who appeared in court, are believed to have listed the names of all Tamil families living in the Netherlands, indicating who pays money to the LTTE and who doesnt. According to the Public Prosecutor, those who do pay money are often forced into doing so.
The Public 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. (surname withheld under Dutch law), pointed out that Sri Lanka’s government army has seriously violated human rights in their war against the LTTE. “Many Tamils have been kidnapped or have disappeared,” he told the court.
The UN is currently holding an investigation into possible war crimes during the final months of the decades-long civil war between the government army and the LTTE in 2009. The investigation targets both the LTTE and the government army.
Human rights organisations say that government forces were responsible for many war crimes during these final months. Recently, Channel 4 in the UK showed video footage of government troops allegedly executing Tamil Tigers who had surrendered.
The armed conflict lasted 37 years. In the 1980s, many Tamils fled their country, many of them travelled to Europe. Around 10,000 of the Tamil diaspora currently live in the Netherlands. -Radio Netherlands