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Sri Lanka tells Europol Seminar:

Time to act against LTTE fronts

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the EU, Belgium and Luxembourg Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha said sufficient evidence was available that the operations of front organisations are an integral part of the LTTE as seen in recent action against the LTTE fronts in the US and Canada.

Taking concerted action against such entities who act for, or on behalf of, or at the behest of terrorist organisations, is an obligation countries have voluntarily undertaken under the numerous UN conventions on terrorism. Doing so also casts on countries the obligation to implement these provisions equally, to all terrorist entities across the globe, he said.

Ambassador Aryasinha was addressing an Europol seminar, organised within the framework of EU-US cooperation on December 9 and 10 in the Hague, Netherlands, on Time to Act:The LTTE, its Front Organisations, and the Challenge to Europe.

He observed that this was probably the first time such a wide-ranging international group of experts had chosen to devote an entire two day seminar which focused on the worldwide activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

This underlined the seriousness with which the law enforcement and criminal justice communities in these countries are watching developments relating to the activities of the LTTE and its front organisations.

In a detailed analysis of the origins of the LTTE, the trajectory taken by the group in its global operations, he said the actions of LTTE front organisations: the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO); the World Tamil Movement (WTM); the Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC); and others, form an integral part of the LTTE overseas infrastructure directed by the LTTE’s international Secretariat in the Vanni.

While acknowledging the action taken in the US and Canada to proscribe LTTE front organisations, the TRO and the WTM, Ambassador Aryasinha said the Sri Lankan Government regretted that at sufficient attention was not being paid in Europe to the activities of the LTTE front organisations, despite their activists being arrested and scheduled to stand trial in France, the UK and Italy and TRO accounts being frozen in the UK and Denmark.

Elaborating on front organisation involvement in fund raising, money laundering, criminality, “Thamil Cholai” schools, Satellite TV/ Radio and internet networks, telephone card business, he said it was vital for the international community, including the EU, to interdicted these activities.

Furthermore, with respect to engagement in propaganda, glorification of terrorism and martyrdom, the Ambassador said, it was imperative that the EU come to an early determination as to where the right of freedom of expression ends and the European Council’s recently sanctioned regulations to curb terrorist related acts of glorification of terrorism and martyrdom begins.

He called for the early EU listing of the TRO and other LTTE front organisations in Europe, greater vigilance, cooperation in intelligence sharing and cooperation in the field of criminal justice.

The seminar brought together representatives from 15 EU Member States, as well as from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, USA, Switzerland and Interpol, as well as representatives from other European Institutions; Eurojust and SitCen (the European Union (EU) Joint Situation Centre), for an assessment of the activities of the LTTE and its front organisations.

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