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Sri Lanka enacts tough law to stop rebels from laundering money
Associated Press,
Wed January 18, 2006 05:40 EST .
- - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Sri Lanka - 's parliament on Wednesday enacted a tough new law against money laundering to fight crimes like terrorism and drug trafficking and to help track Tamil Tiger rebel finances a government spokesman said. Washington has also labeled them terrorists, and India, which neighbors Sri Lanka - , has banned them as such. Asked if the new law will help track Tiger rebels finances, government spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, ``Of course it will, definitely.'' The Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for the country's minority ethnic Tamils, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. A Norway-brokered government-rebel truce halted the war in 2003, but subsequent peace talks collapsed and recent scattered assassinations and attacks on Sri Lankan forces threaten to plunge the country back into full-scale war. The government blames the renewed violence on the Tigers, who deny responsibility. The Tigers are largely financed by tens of thousands of Tamils who fled Sri Lanka - after a 1983 anti-Tamil riot. The Tigers deny being terrorists, and say overseas Tamils donate to their political campaign to counter discrimination. ``The law encompasses wide-ranging issues to help us fight illegal funding which encourages terrorism, drug trafficking, corruption and organized crime,'' Yapa said. The new law toughens previous provisions and penalties for money laundering, he said. At least 75 government troops and 40 civilians have been reported killed in Sri Lanka - 's northeast the Tamils' traditional homeland since violence in the country heated up again on Dec. 4.
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Published: Wed Jan 18 07:00:10 EST 2006
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