Anti-terrorist judge comes down hard on Tigers

The renowned Chairman of the French Anti-Terrorist Judges, Jean Louis Bruguiere yesterday declared that LTTE activities, even in the area of logistics need to be repressed and the French Government had acted on that basis.

Addressing the International Conference on Countering Terrorism held in Colombo this week, Judge Bruguiere, said that “in April this year the French Government had dismantled a vast network of Tamil militants who actively supported the LTTE, notably at the financial level.”

The three day conference on the theme ‘Terrorism: A Challenge to Democratically Elected Governments’ which ended yesterday, brought together renowned terrorism experts, as well as those from the academia and the media, of 23 countries including Australia, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, the United States and Vietnam. It was also widely attended by the diplomatic community.

Judge Bruguiere, the guest of honour at the conference, said that in fighting terrorism, we owe it to ourselves to reinforce our international cooperation at every level, notably by adopting multilateral or bilateral conventions in the field of judicial cooperation as well as extradition. He went on to explain that an organization like the LTTE is a terrorist organization like any other and that its activities even in the area of logistics, have to be repressed with the same vigour as terrorist networks operating on our [French] soil and threatening us directly.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, said he hoped that the deliberations of this Conference would, among other matters focus on the need for states to go beyond merely adopting conventions, but would convert these into tangible action by developing enabling legislation and taking concrete action against those including terrorist front organizations operating from their soil.

The Minister also emphasized the urgent necessity to develop robust modalities to address the growing threat of terrorism that faces the Indian Ocean states, noting that in recent times many acts of terrorism had taken place in the region.

Also addressing the conference, Dr. Gerard Chaliand, the former Director of the European Centre for the Study of Conflicts, and one of the earliest writers in the field of terrorism said that “the most important thing about the LTTE is that it is a totalitarian movement fighting in a country which is democratic,” and therefore, it should not be granted an independent state. “The independence they [LTTE] ask cannot be granted and should not be granted, not only because no State is willing to accept such a blow to its sovereignty but also because, like the Shining Path or the Khmer Rouges, the LTTE under the leadership of V. Prabhakaran is a totalitarian movement, which has transformed its groups into a killing machine,” he said.