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Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 05.42 GMT |
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Refugee was an
LTTE member
'No choice but
to work with, or for, the LTTE command' -
Brother of refugee |
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One of the 78 alleged Sri Lankan refugees held on Christmas Island with her two children, is found to have worked for the legal system run by the LTTE.
She was rescued from the Customs vessel Oceanic Viking in October and held on Christmas Island after Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) declared her to be a security threat, reported The Australian.
The woman's brother in Indonesia revealed that his sister had been employed in the de facto justice system set up by the LTTE. She had worked in the Vanni district which was earlier controlled by the LTTE, the report said.
"Anyone who worked in the LTTE-controlled areas had no choice but to work with, or for, the LTTE command", he stressed.
Sources contacted by The Australian have confirmed the woman worked as a legal officer in the LTTE-run courts.
The woman along with the others refused to leave the Oceanic Viking for one month following their rescue. The stand-off ended only after the Australian government offered them a special deal, guaranteeing their resettlement within four to 12 weeks.
The deal was condemned after it emerged that four of the passengers had been classified by ASIO as security threats before they were taken to Australia.
A fifth Tamil -- the woman's husband, who was already on Christmas Island -- was also rejected by ASIO. The woman travelled to Australia with her two young children as well as her mother and brother.
According to the woman's brother, the family was separated in the mid-1990s due to the war.
Before the defeat of the LTTE, the Tigers ran a civil administration in the areas they controlled, effectively running a state within a state. "They had courts, they had everything there, they had separate police, military, courts," quoting the brother The Australian reported.
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