COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, March 15 (UPI) -- Members of the Tamil diaspora around the world are being threatened into funding the Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebel movement, a new report reveals.
Tamil Tigers continue to extort funds from ethnic Tamils residing in Europe and North America to bankroll a "final war," says the Human Rights Watch report, according to the BBC.
Leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have denied the accusations, but HRW asserts that an "aggressive and systemic fundraising drive" was launched by the Tigers in 2005 in concert with an escalation in violence.
An estimated 800,000 Sri Lankan Tamils live abroad, many of whom are said to have been coerced into providing funds to the rebels.
Most live in Britain and Canada, where HRW has called on governments to protect Tamil residents.
The Tigers seek an independent state for the Tamil minority in the northeast of Sri Lanka and have fought the Sinhalese-dominated government for two decades, resulting in more than 60,000 deaths.
Both sides met in Geneva last month and agreed to observe a fragile 2002 ceasefire, though a recent spike in violence has killed at least 120 people.
