LTTE move rebuked by EU Parliament

EU: A major attempt by the LTTE lobby in the European Parliament to convince the international community that the EU's decision to proscribe the LTTE as a mistake failed as they couldn't garner support of the EU Parliament Members to cast their vote against the Resolution on Sri Lanka.

According to sources, the LTTE lobby failed to get EU Parliament Members to stand against EU Member States to proscribe the LTTE and to undermine action taken against the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO).

The EU Parliament on September 7, adopted a Resolution on Sri Lanka with 56 Members voting in favour of the resolution and 26 voting against.

"The resolution refutes the popular line by LTTE propagandists and certain Nordic lobby groups that the peace process plunged into trouble due to the EU listing," sources added.

According to diplomatic sources, Robert Evans, British Member of the EU Parliament of the PSE group, who has been working very closely with the LTTE lobby groups has spearheaded the move along with the Nordic Green Group to get the Members of EU Parliament against the LTTE proscription by the EU and to show that it was a mistake.

Contrary to attempts by the LTTE lobby, the EU Resolution further recognises that the LTTE should remain to be proscribed and calls on the EU Member States and the wider international community to implement the proscription.

According to sources, the Resolution is also critical of the LTTE's insistence on the withdrawal of EU nationals from the SLMM and sends a clear message to the LTTE that the international community does not accept its intransigence and should learn to compromise.

Evans, according to sources, had sought to introduce a condemnation on the decision to freeze the accounts of the TRO in Sri Lanka in contrary to the British (Labour) Government's action to freeze the TRO account in the UK (through the Charity Commissioner) two years back.

Through this Resolution, the EU Parliament for the first time has recognised the pluralistic nature of Tamil representation and calls

On Prabhakaran and Karuna to resume peace negotiations on a constructive basis with the Government of Sri Lanka.

The EU Parliament has welcomed President Mahinda Rajapaksa's

Decision to invite an independent group of eminent persons to inquire into recent killings, disappearances and abductions in Sri Lanka while to an extent correcting former SLMM Chief's biased report on the murder of 17 aid workers in Muttur.

The Resolution has given more objective characterisation on aid workers killing by deploring the killing and acknowledging the Government's initiation of a full investigation and the participation of Australian forensic experts.

The Resolution while calling for a bipartisan approach against terrorism and addressing legitimate Tamil grievances, which is supported by President Rajapaksa, places confidence in working

Towards this end in a democratic manner by recognising Sri Lanka as one of Asia's longest standing democracies.

The Resolution also indicates to the Government that whilst

Taking anti-terrorist action, pro-devolution measures must also be taken.

It also welcomes the President's commitment to maximum devolution. The resolution also called for human rights and humanitarian norms by all parties to the conflict as a fundamental building block in an enduring resolution of the conflict.

The Government immediately after the CFA was signed, was very much committed to the inclusion of human rights in the agenda for negotiations and sought the contribution of former head of Amnesty International Ian Martin.

However, the moment human rights was likely to be included in the agenda, the LTTE unilaterally withdrew from talks in April 2003.