Two on terror charges

By Shaun Inguanzo
POLICE raided Dandenong premises this week in a bid to crackdown on terrorism funds and material being sent overseas to Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers separatist movement.
The Tamil Tigers is a proscribed terrorist group in Australia.
Federal and Victorian police raided properties in Dandenong and a number of suburbs across Melbourne’s east on Tuesday, as well as in Sydney.
They charged a 32-year-old Mount Waverley man and 36-year-old Vermont South man with being members of a terrorist organisation and knowingly making funds available to a terrorist organisation, namely the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or Tamil Tigers, in Sri Lanka.
The Tamil Tigers group is engaged in a bloody civil war with the Sinhalese-controlled government in Sri Lanka to take control of the country’s north.
Australian Federal Police counter terrorism manager Frank Prendergast said the raid was related to locals allegedly supporting LTTE activities overseas.
“There is no evidence that there was a plan to carry out a terrorist attack in Australia. It will be alleged in court that the 32-year-old man is a member of an organisation engaging in terrorist activity overseas and he has been providing active, material support to that group,” Mr Prendergast said.
The raid comes as Greater Dandenong’s mayor Youhorn Chea has become embroiled in ethnic tensions between Tamil and Sinhalese people living in Melbourne’s south-east.
Cr Chea attended the funeral of Tamil community leader Thillaindarajah Jeyakumar at Springvale City Hall on 3 April.
Cr Chea also sent a wreath to the Tamil community on behalf of the council – a move Keysborough South Ward councillor Peter Brown has publicly distanced himself from.
Cr Chea’s actions have infuriated the Sinhalese community, whose members claim that Mr Jeyakumar supported the LTTE cause.