Sri Lanka investigates aid groups over rebel links

COLOMBO, Jan 11 (Reuters) Sri Lankan authorities are investigating a number of foreign and local aid groups they suspect may be helping Tamil Tiger rebels, a defence official said today.

The military said this week it had found equipment belonging to Dutch aid group ZOA Refugee Care at a rebel base overrun by the military in the eastern district of Ampara.

ZOA, whose projects are focused on helping refugees in Sri Lanka's restive east, said that any recovered equipment with their logo must have been stolen.

Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said if found guilty, offending groups would be expelled from the country. He did not name other groups under investigation.

''We found an NGO fully and totally involved in running a hospital at Stanley Base. It is ZOA,'' Rambukwella said by telephone.

''Certain NGOs are acting against the normal law of the land and have got involved with subversives. Some have stooped down to assisting the terrorists.

''Once investigations are over and we have 100 per cent confirmation of what we suspect ... we will have to take steps to have their visas cancelled or have them leave,'' he added, referring to ZOA.

ZOA's general affairs manager, Anslem Mudiatta, said: ''The allegation is of course groundless.

''We were operating in that area until August 2004 and then closed our office because of fighting and had to leave so many things behind we couldn't carry with us.

''Certain things they say were found in that LTTE (Tiger) hospital are things we presume were taken from our office while it was closed,'' he added.

The conflict has forced many aid groups to shelve or abandon projects in conflict-affected parts of the north and east, where aid workers say both the military and the rebels are hampering access to civilians trapped in the crossfire.

Some aid workers fear the government is mounting a witch-hunt against aid groups to appease hardline nationalists who seek to blame the international community for the ravages of the island's ethnic conflict.

The European Commission yesterday endorsed the work of ZOA along with UN agencies and the Red Cross, and called for greater access to help conflict-displaced civilians.

''It's totally clear that ZOA are not helping the Tigers at all,'' said Jeevan Thiagarajah, head of the Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies, the main umbrella body for aid agencies in the country. ''I think it's a pure and simple misunderstanding.'' The probe comes amid mounting international pressure on both the government and the Tigers to halt a new chapter in a two decade civil war that has killed more than 67,000 civilians, troops and rebel fighters since 1983.

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