SRI LANKAN FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT NOT YET IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 000837 E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/26/2019 TAGS: CE ECON EFIN PTER SUBJECT: SRI LANKAN FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT NOT YET IN A POSITION TO REQUEST USG ASSISTANCE TO TRACK LTTE FUNDS Classified By: CDA: Rebecca Cohn ¶1. (C ) Since the early August arrest of LTTE leader and financer Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP),the Sri Lankan military has interrogated KP about the LTTE,s financing network and overseas assets. Secretary of Defense Rajapaksa (the President,s brother) publically claimed that KP,s interrogation has revealed $1 billion in overseas assets and he called for foreign assistance to recover these monies. The Sri Lankan Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) would be in charge of requesting assistance from foreign FIUs to uncover the terrorist financing network and recover overseas assets. However, the Sri Lankan FIU has not received any information yet from KP,s military interrogations, so they do not have any outstanding requests for USG assistance. ¶2. (C) Econ Cons met with FIU Deputy Director D.K. Wijesuriya and FIU Senior Assistant Director Sisira Ranasinghe (the new FIU director was out of the country),and they both assured him that the FIU is very satisfied with its cooperation with the United States, but they had no additional requests at this time. According to Wijesuriya, KP is being held under a military detention order and he is still being interrogated by the military intelligence officers. At some point KP will be transferred to the police (Wijesuriya did not know when) which is the point at which the FIU would receive KP,s information on the LTTE financing network and overseas assets. Tthe FIU then may request assistance from their counterpart FIUs in other countries. Econ Cons reiterated that the USG would be pleased to provide assistance to track LTTE funds. Wijesuriya reported a strong working relationship with his U.S. Embassy coounterparts. ¶3. (C ) Comment. The delay in turning over KP's information about the LTTE financing network is disappointing, since this information is time sensitive and the LTTE funds may have been moved subsequent to his arrest. The Sri Lankan FIU knows that the USG is fully committed to providing assistance in tracking down LTTE assets, and post will be proactive when called upon. End Comment. COHN