TRO’s 78 m. rupees frozen for 6 months

The Court order to freeze the accounts of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) has blocked some Rs.78 million held in private and state banks in Sri Lanka, TRO’s Director Planning Arjun Ethiriveerasingham said.

The Colombo High Court on Tuesday ordered the freezing of TRO accounts for six months enabling the Central Bank’s (CBSL) Financial Investigations Unit to carry out its investigations. The investigations are expected to lead to the establishing of links between the TRO and the LTTE.

The CB investigations followed the arrest of several persons linked to the TRO allegedly involved in terrorist financing in other parts of the world.

The Sunday Times learns that as part of the investigations, CBSL is in the process of gathering information on TRO finances from various international organisations.

Mr. Ethiriveerasingham said 90 per cent of the money has been directed to the TRO organization through donors and INGOs and the Sri Lankan government while the rest had been donated by individuals.

The TRO Director said the latest accounts of the TRO has been audited and sent to donors and was also submitted to a Parliamentary Select Committee investigating NGOs.

Mr. Ethiriveerasingham said the allegations that the projects were carried out under LTTE supervision was not correct, adding that under the circumstances all projects in the uncleared areas had to go through the LTTE and even Government projects had to get its approval. He said consultations with the TRO legal team was in progress and depending on the charges against the organization, necessary action would be taken to defend it.

He said the projects were not confined to Tamil areas, but also Muslim areas such as Kinniya where it is planned to build 1,200 toilets.