Tamil Tiger arms suppliers charged

Saturday, September 30, 2006 (Baltimore):

Arms brokers for Tamil Tiger separatists in Indonesia have been charged with trying to buy surface-to-air missiles through undercover agents in Maryland, federal officials said.

The US attorney's office in Baltimore scheduled a news conference for Friday to discuss the arrests, along with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, according to a news release.

The number of defendants was not immediately available.

"In today's world, keeping sophisticated US weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists has never been more important," said Julie Myers, an assistant secretary for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"As this case demonstrates, ICE has no tolerance for international arms
brokers looking to equip terrorist organizations with stinger missiles and other advanced American weaponry."

The Tamil rebels began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's largest ethnic minority, citing decades of discrimination by the Sinhalese majority.

About 66,000 people had died in nearly two decades of violence before the 2002 cease-fire.

The group was added to the US State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations in 1997, a designation that bars the group from raising money, obtaining weapons or lobbying for support in the United States.

Last month, US officials in New York announced that eight emissaries of the rebel group had conspired to buy surface-to-air missiles in the United States amid an escalating conflict with military forces in Sri Lanka. (AP)