Charity Probe

Sep 04, (LBO) - Sri Lanka’s central bank, which froze the bank accounts of a charity operating in the country’s North and East areas said Monday, following raids on the organization’s overseas offices and arrests of persons connected to it raised doubts about the use funds. TRO said it was willing to ˜assist and fully support any enquiry or investigation into any aspects of its operation,’ but it was finding it difficult to operate after the accounts were frozen.

The bank accounts of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), a registered charity in Sri Lanka, were frozen last week.

The TRO in Sri Lanka has received large sums of money from its branches in several foreign locations through the banking system in Sri Lanka and continues to receive such funds, purporting to be for humanitarian projects, Central Bank said in a statement.

Since there is now grave doubt as to the purposes of these funds and there is a likelihood that these funds may be used for terrorist financing, investigations are currently in progress in this regard.

Central Bank said the Sri Lanka Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also been informed that investigations are proceeding after TRO offices have been raided by foreign law enforcement agencies.

The accounts h