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Friends raising fund to secure release of 2 Tamils
From Neville de Silva in London
Friends here of two Sri Lankan Tamils detained by the LTTE in the Wanni for non-payment of Rs 500,000 demanded by the Tigers are desperately trying to raise money to try and secure their release.

It is well known here that the LTTE demands £1 per day from UK residents for everyday they have not paid money into LTTE coffers, unless they have been regularly paying at this end sums that have been demanded of them.
Sri Lankan Tamils living in continental Europe are similarly taxed one Euro per day.

Although close friends of Sivananthan Sivakaran, one of those detained and works in a supermarket not far from where he lives in Rayners, Harrow, remain tight-lipped about the whole incident, it is known they are trying to raise at least half of the nearly £2800 demanded by LTTE cadres of the two brothers as they crossed over into Tiger-controlled territory after passing through Army checkpoints without any trouble.

Mr. Sivakaran and his brother were taken into LTTE custody two weeks ago when they went to Sri Lanka to visit their relatives and travelled by road from Colombo.

Mr. Sivakaran is a British passport holder and is entitled to British consular protection. But his brother is said to be travelling on a Sri Lankan passport but is a resident of the UK. He, however, will not be able to seek UK consular protection.

It is not known here whether the British foreign office has been alerted to the predicament of the two brothers so that it could then inform the British High Commission in Colombo to contact the LTTE and secure the release of the British citizen at least. However, those closely connected with Mr. Sivakaran's friends believe that they would have avoided seeking consular protection and are trying to keep the whole incident quiet in order to have them released early so they could return home.

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