Mr Kodagoda told Australian officials he would tell the witnesses not to testify unless he was able to advise them, and asked to review Sri Lankan witness statements before they were finalised. The need to interview Sri Lankan military and police personnel arose because federal agents had to prove under Australian law that the Tamil Tigers, also known as the LTTE, was a terrorist group.

All terrorism charges against Arumugan Rajeevan, Aruran Vinayagamoorthy and Sivrajah Yathavan were dropped last year.

The defence lawyer Fiona Todd said the reliance on Sri Lankan officials to sustain the initial terrorism charges made Australia a partisan player in a bloody civil war. ''The Australian people have paid at least $10 million for the privilege of doing the dirty work of the Sri Lankan government beyond its own borders,'' she said.

Ben Saul, co-director of the Sydney Centre for International Law, said anti-terrorism laws in Australia had ''essentially criminalised waging a civil war'', creating serious consequences for Australian citizens financially supporting one side of a civil conflict in another country.

The Herald can reveal that the Sri Lankan government - whose complaint sparked the Australian police investigation in early 2005 - viewed the case as a means of overcoming the Australian government's long-held refusal to list the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group.

The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama, raised the Melbourne case with the Australian government at least three times, each time lobbying unsuccessfully for Australia to ban the Tamil Tigers.

Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker
http://www.smh.com.au/national/sri-lanka-stymied-investigation-20100330-rbl7.html