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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rapa" data-source="post: 226977" data-attributes="member: 212">THE head of a Sri Lankan Government peace mission has urged the Australian Government to enact domestic laws making it an offence to raise money for the Tamil Tigers. Dr Palitha Kohona has been in Australia to talk to Sri Lankan expatriates and government officials. His visit coincided with fresh terrorist attacks in his country. Eleven people were killed on Saturday when a suspected suicide bomber blew up a bus. Six people died in another bus blast on Friday. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are fighting for an independent homeland in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The Tigers have been gazetted as a terrorist organisation in Australia in accordance with a 2001 United Nations Security Council resolution, but have not been listed under domestic legislation for the purposes of outlawing membership or fund-raising. Dr Kohona, whose title is secretary-general of the Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process in Sri Lanka, said the Tigers found their inspiration and their funding from overseas, particularly in Western countries, where they used the Tamil diaspora for fund-raising. He estimated about one-sixth of the estimated $US10 million ($12.8 million) to $US30 million the Tigers raised internationally came from Australia. "Australia is one of their biggest sources of funding, and of course these funds do not go to any charitable or other purpose; they are used essentially for procuring weapons on the international weapons black market." He said he wanted to convey "very firmly" that the Sri Lankan Government was committed to achieving peace through negotiations. "We hope that all our friends in the international community will exert whatever pressure they can on the Tigers to do the same thing." Dr Kohona said he was in no doubt that Australia was taking the problem of terrorist financing in Sri Lanka seriously. This was evidenced by a number of raids by Australian Federal Police on homes in Sydney and Melbourne a year ago that targeted people suspected of having links to the Tigers and of raising money to fund terrorist attacks. But he said Australia still had a way to go in enacting legislation to enable law enforcement authorities to curtail fund-raising, extortion, money laundering and even possible arms procurement in Australia.</blockquote>

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