W. Germans Probe Link of Tamil Refugees, Militants

Authorities are investigating a possible connection between 155 Sri Lankan Tamils smuggled to Canada in a cargo ship and suspected Tamil militants living in West Germany, police said today.

Peter Moeller, Bremen chief of special investigations, said West German police and prosecutors were investigating 31 Tamils suspected of ties to rebels who are waging a separatist war on the island nation off India.

Radio Bremen said Monday that the Sri Lankans who left West Germany on July 28 by ship belong to a Tamil guerrilla group.

Asked about this report today, Moeller said, “I cannot confirm it.”

Radio Bremen quoted unidentified “police circles” as saying the 155 Tamils had come to West Germany to raise money from welfare checks and drug dealing to buy weapons for their guerrilla movement.

The 155 were found in lifeboats off Newfoundland on Aug. 11. West German police said they had paid $2,500 each for passage from this country and then were cast off from the cargo ship before arriving in port.

Moeller said 31 Tamils were detained after police raided a Bremen apartment July 29 on a tip. He said the Tamils were demanding money from one of two Tamils who has since admitted involvement in organizing the voyage to Canada.

The 31 were held for identity checks but released a short time later, Moeller said.

Letters found in the apartment bore the emblem of a group Moeller identified as the Tamil Tigers. The Liberation Tigers are one of five major rebel groups fighting for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka.

“We found things in the apartment that made us suspect it was more than a family gathering going on,” Moeller said. But he added that authorities had no proof the Tamils were members of a rebel group.

“The Tamil we freed told us he had been held there for three days and was being pressured psychologically, not physically, to pay money to an organization,” Moeller told a news conference. He refused to identify the man.

Police indicated earlier that the 155 castaways were victims of an unscrupulous smuggling ring that profited from their fears of being deported to Sri Lanka.