The LTTE has ordered that all government servants in the north-east should pay 8% of their monthly salary to the organisation, the government information department said yesterday.

Quoting Defence Ministry reports, the department said that LTTE cadres informed a group of grama sevakas and Samurdhi managers on Monday that they would have to pay a monthly tax of 8% of their salaries. The department said the group of government servants had been gathered at the Manmunai [north] District Secretariat when LTTEers entered the premises and announced their plan.

Some of those who attended the meeting had informed the security forces of the LTTE threat.

"They are targeting thousands of state sector employees in the north-east," a security source said while expressing the belief that unless the government swiftly got Norwegians to put an end to terrorist plans, there would be serious trouble.

The LTTE has targeted people of the north-east particularly, the Muslim community, for their fund-raising campaign that has been going on since the government and the LTTE reached a MoU in the third week of February. Responding to questions, the source said the LTTE would probably ask the MPs to pay a percentage of their salaries to them.

The decision to tax all public servants comes after the LTTE began taxing all traders and farmers living in areas under security forces' control.

The military said under the MoU, they have been forced to permit all LTTE unarmed cadres to enter areas under their control. However, most of them come with arms and communication equipment, the military said. In the latest series of such violations, a heavily armed group of LTTE cadres paraded at Manampitiya about 17 kms east of Polonnaruwa. "They carried 11 T-56 assault rifles, one light machine gun and two hand-held communication sets," the department said adding that later they forced people to part with money, batteries and other essential items.

The incident had been brought to the notice of the Welikanda Brigade Headquarters.

Senior officers privately admit that the situation was getting out of hand. — [SF]