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. |