Sri Lanka updates request to the EU to list LTTE front organizations as terrorist entities

(August 01, Brussels, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Government of Sri Lanka on 28 July 2011 updated its request to the European Union (EU) to list front organizations of the LTTE 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 18 July 2011 published in the official journal of the European Union on 19 July 2011, 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 07 December 2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view 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 6 July 2011, 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 12 July 2011.

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 of Sri Lanka 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 2011, 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.