EU bans LTTE

BELGIUM: The European Union (EU) formally banned the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terrorist organisation, EU sources revealed yesterday.

The 25-nation bloc rubber-stamped the ban, which was agreed in principle last week, at a meeting of EU Ministers late Monday evening.

The ban follows a series of deadly LTTE ambushes on the military, including the abortive attacks on the Pearl Cruise II vessel carrying 710 personnel and Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka at Army Headquarters.

Earlier Canada banned the LTTE, which has also been proscribed as a terrorist organisation in India and the US. Following the assassination of former foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in August 2005, the EU imposed a travel ban on the LTTE preventing them from setting foot on EU soil.

The EU ban, under which the LTTE will be listed as a terrorist group, will lead to a freeze on LTTE assets and operations in the member States and is likely to severely affect their fund raising activities. The 'terrorist' designation also allows for special cooperation measures to combat them. The designation would formally take effect in the next few weeks.

An EU diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to AFP, said the LTTE had brought the ban on itself.

"If they had been serious at the negotiating table we could have thought about another way, we would have set up a virtuous circle, instead of this vicious circle that we're in at the moment," he said. "It's too late to complain about the ban," the diplomat said. "They were warned."

He said things might have been different if the rebels had helped improve international access to the area after the tsunami in December 2004. "But there wasn't any tsunami effect."

"One of the consequences is the freezing of the (group's) assets," an envoy told Reuters of the decision taken at a regular meeting of EU ministers in Brussels.

However, the EU will remain as a Co-Chair of the Lankan peace process, along with the US, Norway and Japan. According the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) the EU ban will also not affect the work and composition of the SLMM which has members from three Scandinavian EU countries.

The decision came after US State Department official Donald Camp said in Sri Lanka that Washington had encouraged the 25-member EU to ban the Tigers, declare them a terrorist group and cut off their international funding.

"We think the LTTE is very deserving of that label. We think it will help cut off financial supplies and weapons procurement and the like," he said.

The Government has said that the move would help bring the LTTE back to the negotiating table. Government peace negotiators say the EU action will not in any way dilute the Government's commitment for peace.

"The message that the ban sends out to the LTTE is that terrorism is not a means to attain political objectives," Peace Secretariat Deputy Chief Kethesh Loganathan said.

Loganathan said this action underscores the point that it is through a process of negotiations that a mutually acceptable settlement which addresses aspirations of all peoples of the country can be reached. The EU blacklist was drawn up late in 2001, following the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington and is revised regularly. The militant Palestinian group Hamas and the Spanish separatist movement ETA already figure on it.

The Tigers figure on Britain's terror list, as well as those of the United States, Canada and India.