WikiLeaks: Abduction Plague Muslim Community – Banks Tip Off Abductors Businessmen’s Details
April 25, 2012
By Colombo Telegraph -
The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from WikiLeaks database, the cabal named as “Abduction Plague Muslim Community”. The cable is classified as “SECRET” and written by the Ambassador Robert O. Blake on June 19, 2007.
Under the subheading “EMBASSY INTERLOCUTORS DETAIL ABDUCTION METHODS” Robert Blake wrote “Several credible Embassy interlocutors, including members of the Center for Policy Alternatives (strictly protect), a respected Sri Lankan NGO, have described how abductions of prominent Muslim businessmen sometimes occur. They told us that abductors illegally obtain copies of prominent businessmen’s bank documents from corrupt bank officers. A source in the Central Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit said he believes the banks tip off abductors immediately after a large transfer appears in a businessman’s account. According to reports, the businessman is then abducted and held in a number of different safehouses, at least two of which are located in Kandy, requiring the abductors to pass several checkpoints between Kandy and Colombo. Contacts told us the businessman’s family is directed to pay between 20 and 50 million rupees (approximately 200,000 to 500,000 U.S. dollars), or the businessman will be killed. One interlocutor related that after payment is made, the businessman is escorted with the help of the Sri Lankan military out of the country to Singapore. He is told not to return to Sri Lanka or his family members will be killed. The Embassy has received reports of 11 Tamil and Muslim businessmen transported to Singapore after ransom has been paid.”
Placing a comment Blake wrote “ The negative impact of abductions is spreading beyond the Tamil community and past extra-judicial methods of dealing with possible LTTE supporters into abductions of any minority with a large bank account. Muslim leaders like Rauff Hakeem are increasingly critical of the Rajapaksa administration’s apparent tolerance for abductions, and numerous recent media reports have called attention to the growing trend of Muslim abductions for ransom. The Ambassador met with Foreign Minister Bogollogama on June 13 in part to flag to the Government our concern about this new trend and the need for the GSL to address it ”
Related news to the cable;
