SINGAPORE: The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Victoria Police are said to have raided the premises of several persons in Melbourne suspected of having links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The Australian reported on its web page on Thursday that the anti-terror raids, carried out early on Wednesday, related to an ongoing investigation of a group suspected of providing assistance to the LTTE.

No arrests were made, the paper said, although it also quoted a federal police spokesperson as confirming that "a number of warrants were executed" and items were seized. The nature and scope of the warrants remained unspecified.

Thamil Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) Radio reportedly broke the story that the AFP "arrested" for questioning more than 15 LTTE operatives and "raided offices of the LTTE front organisations and homes of suspected LTTE operatives."

According to the radio report, five of the Australia-based LTTE operatives are to be charged under the Commonwealth Criminal Act. Those now on the AFP radar were said to include an LTTE representative for Australia and New Zealand and an operative who had participated in the Norway-sponsored peace talks with the Sri Lankan authorities.

While it was not immediately possible to obtain an independent version of the latest events, the Australian media report and the TBC were categorical in identifying the LTTE, and not any Muslim "terrorist" group, as the focus of the latest police operation in Melbourne.

The Australian quoted sources as saying that the people raided included some residents in a middle-class suburb of Melbourne suspected of extending "material support to the LTTE" in such ways that might have included the "financing of a terrorist organisation" in violation of the existing anti-terror laws. The seized items included computer hard drives and apparently incriminating literature.

No decision yet

The paper also quoted a spokesperson for the Australian Attorney-General as saying that no decision had been taken about proscribing the LTTE although the issue had been considered.

TBC Radio was reportedly more categorical in indicating that the latest Australian operation was significant on two counts — Canberra's ban on the LTTE and the reports that it was currently engaged in a massive fund-raising operation allegedly for a "final war for Eelam."

The radio quoted sources in Melbourne as suggesting that the latest operation followed "painstaking investigation, over many months," into the suspected fund-raising and money laundering by the LTTE operatives and front organisations.

The premises raided were believed to include a front office that apparently served as the headquarters for the LTTE's operations in Australia and New Zealand, besides printing presses, grocery stores and private homes, the radio indicated.

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