Information on whether non-Tamils provide assistance to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Colombo was scarce among the documentary sources consulted by the Research Directorate. However, on 23 May 1999 the Ratmalana newspaper Weekend Express reported that the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) had

detected a serious breach by corrupt government employees collaborating with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in issuing national identity cards under Sinhalese and Muslims names to LTTE terrorists. A top-level probe has now been initiated to round up all those involved in this massive fraudulent operation, senior police sources said yesterday.

The sources added: "The going rate is anything between Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 10,000 for a false identification. Police are also to investigate two persons who allegedly had connections with some persons convicted of aiding and abetting LTTE terrorists and who had been released under the common amnesty given by the Peoples' Alliance government."

A Defence Ministry official told The Weekend Express: "Thousands of such false identification cards, including many issued to suspected LTTE terrorists under Sinhalese and Muslim names are already in circulation." A police source said: "The CID and the NIB had seized numerous documents containing false information pertaining to other applications for identity cards and has questioned several staff members of the department in this connection too."

A Senior Superintended of Police said: "The Attorney General's advice has been sought against several persons at the Registration of Persons Department."

On 23 March 2001, five individuals, including two Sinhalese, one Muslim and two Tamils, were arrested in Colombo's Maligawatte district under suspicion of forging official documents (Daily News 24 Mar. 2001; The Island 24 Mar. 2001). Police making the arrests also seized forged government stamps, along with false birth certificates and national identity cards (NICs) (Daily News 24 Mar. 2001; The Island 24 Mar. 2001). While The Island claimed that the forged documents were being issued to Tamils arriving in Colombo from Vavuniya (ibid.), the Daily News alleged that they were being prepared for an unidentifed German citizen who had been hired by suspected LTTE supporters in the United Kingdom to obtain Sri Lanka birth certificates and NICs on their behalf (24 Mar. 2001).

In correspondence dated 15 August 2001, a Sri Lanka-born professor of anthropology at Columbia University, who is also director of the university's Southern Asian Institute and a specialist and author on India and Sri Lanka, provided the following information regarding assistance offered by non-Tamils to the LTTE in Colombo:

(1) There are non-Tamils in Colombo who are politically in sympathy with the LTTE's demands to a lesser or greater extent. This I know for a fact. (2) As far as Sinhala assistance to the LTTE is concerned, it comes from the Sri Lankan (entirely Sinhalese) army, in the form of arms, small and heavy, sold or surrendered by the armed forces. There are also officers of the armed forces who are "willing victims" of the war economy in the North and East who, for a profit, facilitate the transgression of the embargo placed by the government in this part of the country. This information comes from several reliable sources. (3) I do not know of any non-Tamils who give direct financial assistance to the LTTE. (4) Even though - especially given the desperate financial situation - an increasing number of Sinhalese are willing to do things that directly or indirectly assist the LTTE for financial rewards, I do not know of any Sinhalese who would risk their lives in willingly giving members of the LTTE shelter and protection in their homes. The only group that may extend this kind of "hospitality" to the LTTE would be certain communities whose transformation from being Tamil to being Sinhalese is but a few generations deep. (5) If any Sinhalese person were to be found guilty of acts described under (4) above, the punishment would be extreme, even possibly worse than what a Tamil would receive. Betrayal is not taken too kindly. And the worst kind of betrayal (for a complex of reasons) is to provide food and shelter to the enemy - much worse than selling arms.

This information could not be corroborated among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Columbia University, New York. 15 August 2001. Correspondence from professor of anthropology.

Daily News [Colombo]. 24 March 2001. Sarath Malalasekera. "Police Bust LTTE Forged Document Racket." http://www.lanka.net/lakehouse/ [Accessed 15 Aug. 2001]

The Island [Colombo]. 24 March 2001. Norman Palihawadana. "Bogus Kachcheri in Maligawatte Raided." http://www.island.lk/2001/03/24/news07.html [Accessed 16 Aug. 2001]

Weekend Express [Ratmalana] 22-23 May 1999. Ifham Nizam. "Tigers Get False Identity Cards." http://www.is.lk/spot/sp0346/clip3.html [Accessed 15 Aug. 2001]

IRB databases.

LEXIS-NEXIS.

Unsuccessful attempts to contact the Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace.

Internet sites including:

Daily News [Colombo]. 2001.

EelamNation. June 2000-July 2001.

Sri Lanka Monitor [London]. 2000-2001.

TamilNet.