CNN.com - Singapore breaks up Tamil fundraising ring
Scarlett Howard 
SINGAPORE -- Singapore has put an end to a fundraising network for Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels in the city state.
The Home Affairs Ministry said 13 people, including five permanent residents, were found to be supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is not allowed to exist as a group in Singapore.
Two people found to have been "more seriously involved" in the activity have since been banned from the city state. The ring's leader is now under a two-year restriction order that requires him to get official permission to travel abroad, move house, or change jobs.
Singapore expelled 10 Sri Lankans for similar activities in 1985.
The Tamil rebels suffered a blow when Britain named the LTTE in a list of groups that could be banned once a new anti-terrorism law is implemented.
The Sri Lankan army has rolled back most of the rebel group's military gains in the last six months. Fighting has died down recently, because the rebels are observing a unilateral ceasefire that ends on March 24.
More than 64,000 people have been killed in the ethnic conflict which flared in 1983 as the rebel LTTE sought an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil population.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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