Sri Lanka updates request to EU:
List LTTE fronts as terrorist entities
The Government July 28, updated its request to the European Union
(EU) to list LTTE front organizations (FOs) as terrorist entities, as
they had done the LTTE since 2006. This call was made, as the EU through
Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 687/2011 of July 18 published in
the official journal of the European Union on July 19, re-listed the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terrorist entity.
The EU terrorist re-listings made in terms of article 2 (3) of
Council Regulation (EC) No. 2580/2001 of December 7, 2001 on specific
restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities to
combating terrorism, proscribes organizations listed operating in EU
member countries and freezes the assets.
The regulation noted that, “the Council has carried out a complete
review of the list of persons, groups and entities to which Regulation
(EC) No 2580/2001 applies, as required by Article 2(3) of that
Regulation”, “ has provided all the persons, groups and entities for
which it was practically possible with statements of reasons explaining
why they were listed in Implementing Regulation (EU) No 83/2011” and
“took account of observations submitted to it by the persons, groups and
entities concerned”.
In similar action on July 6, the LTTE was re-listed among the UK’s
“proscribed terror groups or organizations” based on the findings
following a review carried out through the UK Strategy for Countering
Terrorism (CONTEST), and presented to the Parliament on July 12.
In the recent update to its application for listing of LTTE front
organizations handed over through the Sri Lanka Embassy in Brussels
accredited to the EU, GOSL detailed action taken against the LTTE,
activists of the LTTE/ LTTE front organizations, by member states of the
EU, namely Belgium, Denmark, France, The Netherlands, Germany, UK, as
well as other states namely, Canada, India, Norway, Switzerland and USA,
further substantiating the active participation internationally, of LTTE
front organizations in terrorism, including money laundering, financing
of terrorism, and human smuggling activities that continue to be carried
out for, or on behalf of, or at the behest of the LTTE, an EU listed
terrorist organization. It also highlighted action taken by the
government in response to specific requests for intelligence and
judicial assistance received in connection with these investigations
from the relevant authorities of The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark,
Switzerland and Norway.
The GOSL’s submission also draws attention to references made to the
LTTE in the EU Terrorism Trend and Situation Report 2011 (TE-SAT 2011),
published by Europol in April, in the context of fund raising, organized
criminal activities in Europe, use of media networks for propaganda, as
well as the connections between terrorist groups such as the LTTE and
the PKK in organized criminal activities. According to the Report, in
2010 “27 individuals were arrested for terrorist offences linked to the
financing of LTTE in France, Germany and the Netherlands”.
The GOSL has noted that the persons arrested by the European and
other authorities, have all been found to be members of the Tamil
Coordinating Committee (TCC), the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation
(TRO), the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) and/or other LTTE front
organizations, amply demonstrating that the activities of the LTTE front
organizations are carried out for or on behalf of, or at the behest of
the LTTE, which although militarily defeated in Sri Lanka, continues to
be active internationally, particularly through its network of front
organizations, espousing the ideology of the LTTE, using LTTE money and
being manipulated by the LTTE’s surviving leaders. Brussels.
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