By P.Vijian, NNN-Bernama
New Delhi : The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) will soon find itself short-changed by banks when Malaysia and Sri Lanka jointly combat cross-border money-laundering and terrorist financing.
This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and its counterpart in Bank Negara last Saturday.
CBSL was represented by its deputy governor Dr Ranee Jayamaha while Zamani Abdul Ghani appeared for Bank Negara.
The aim of the MoU is to stem the flow of monies to terrorist outfits, thereby safeguarding the financial system from abuse.
“Malaysia is one of the best performing FIUs in the region, having done comprehensive work in money-laundering. It is vital for us to share information on any unlawful funding,” H. A. Karunaratne, director of Sri Lanka’s FIU told Bernama Wednesday.
He said that under the agreement, the FIU of both countries would exchange information on a regular basis to facilitate investigation and prosecution of persons suspected of money-laundering or financing terrorism.
The Sri Lankan government has been trying to halt the LTTE from raising funds from its well-established local and overseas clandestine network to procure weapons.
For almost a quarter century, the LTTE has staged an armed rebellion against the Singhalese government, fighting for a separate homeland for the minority Tamil population.
The civil war has left almost 70,000 people killed, and devastated the island state which was once hailed as the world’s popular tourist destination.