Massive demonstration to seek banning of LTTE terrorists under Criminal Code of Australia

AUSTRALIA: Sri Lankan community organisations in Victoria, NSW and the Australian Capital Territories joined hands to stage a massive demonstration in front of the Federal Parliament on Monday demanding the Government proscribe the LTTE as a terrorist organisation.

They said that the government must intervene and stop fundraising by LTTE front organizations, combat terrorist activities to ensure the safety of its citizens, in line with the Australian government's stand against international terrorism.

The demonstrators demanded the Australian Government and its people to proscribe the terrorist outfit under the Criminal Code Act 1995.

In Australia, the LTTE is gazetted as a terrorist organisation, only under Australia's obligations to the UN Charter. The LTTE is yet to be included in the list of terrorist organisations banned under the Australian Criminal Code.

This has allowed them to continue their operations including fund raising through fake charity fronts and by the extortion of Tamil expatriates. Terrorism experts have pointed out that the LTTE is siphoning millions of dollars every year from Australia.

The key objectives of the rally held in front of the Australian Federal Parliament in Canberra were to urge the Australian Government to make it a criminal offence to have contact or promote LTTE objectives in Australia in addition to the ban. The demonstrators also called upon the Government to condemn the LTTE's barbaric killing of civilians.

They urged the International Criminal Court in the Hague to prosecute the LTTE hierarchy including Prabakaran, Balasingham, his wife Adele and Thamil Chelvam for crimes against humanity and genocide and prosecute the LTTE hierarchy for using children as soldiers and sex slaves.

The demonstrators pointed out that the LTTE is already banned as an international terrorist group in many countries including the US, UK, Canada, India, Malaysia and all the countries of the EU.

But in the light of over 3,000 calculated violations of the "ceasefire" by the LTTE including the assassination of Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, deliberate massacres of civilians and the suicide bombing at the Sri lanka Army headquarters, the EU decided to ban the LTTE a few weeks ago, the demonstrators said.

There are 19 groups listed as terrorist organisations by Australia under the Criminal Code, 1995. The protesters appreciated the presence of Senator Bob Brown, the Leader of the Australian Green Party, Labour Party members Alan Griffin (Member for Bruce) and Anna Burke (Member for Chisholm).

MP Alan Griffin condemned the ongoing use of child soldiers by the LTTE and emphasised the need to put an immediate stop to it.

He said that what Sri Lanka needed was peace and an immediate stop to the killings, to set a conducive environment for dialogue between the Government and the LTTE. Some of the organisers briefed Liberal Party member Malcolm Turnbull, the Secretary for Water advising the Prime Minister, of the LTTE killings and the situation currently prevailing in Sri Lanka. The protesters also met the Senior Advisor to the Attorney General Ms. Gemma Haan and handed over a petition with 2300 signatures seeking the banning of the LTTE.

The protestors thanked the Member for Canning Don Randall on behalf of the Sri Lankan community for his hard hitting anti LTTE - pro democracy speeches given in the Parliament over the last month.

Randall, the Chairman of the Australia-Sri Lanka Parliamentary Friendship Group had sought to educate the members in the Australian Parliament about the murderous conduct of the LTTE and alerted the Parliament to the dangers of the LTTE to the Australian community at large when he sought its ban under the Criminal Code Act 1995.

Dr. Jayasuriya (President of SPUR Vic), Jayantha Meemanage, P.T. Perera, Dr. Wanigaratna, Ms.Nimna Rupasinha and many others addressed the crowds condemning LTTE terrorism.