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British
leaders angry at LTTE terrorism Meanwhile,
the EU’s working group on Asia that met last Wednesday in
Brussels to consider sanctions against the LTTE could not reach
a consensus. The officials are due to meet again in the first half
of October to consider Sri Lanka’s call for action against
the LTTE that is now backed by Britain, the current president of
the EU, a Brussels-based diplomatic source said. He said the British Prime Minister, who is relentlessly pursuing an anti-terrorism campaign, especially after the London suicide attacks in July, was specially moved by the Kadirgamar killing described by him as a brutal and senseless act. A
wide section of the international community now accepts the LTTE’s
involvement in the killing though the Tigers have denied responsibility. Mr. Blair believes that the LTTE should take urgent and unambiguous steps to alter its course of action from the one that it is pursuing now, the London source said. He said that the British Prime Minister believes the international community has a role to play and that nothing should be done to make lasting peace in Sri Lanka less likely to be achieved as a result of actions that jeopardise the peace process. The source said that while the British High Commission in Colombo had in recent years taken a stance somewhat sympathetic to the LTTE, Prime Minister Blair’s unequivocal stance conveyed in his letter to President Kumaratunga has forced the High Commission to change tack. It is not only the British Prime Minister who is taking a strong position on terrorism and the LTTE, a banned organisation in Britain. It is understood that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has also been concerned by the assassination of his Sri Lankan counterpart with whom he had detailed discussions in London a few months ago. Mr. Straw had been presented with a petition by the UK section of the JVP that accused the Tigers of the killing and called for Anton Balasingham’s expulsion from Britain. But there is concern here that reports that accuse the LTTE of violence in Sri Lanka in violation of the Ceasefire Agreement and UN human rights conventions or Tiger activities in the UK are not reaching the highest level of the British Government including relevant ministers, the same source said. Two Saturday’s ago Mr. Balasingham and his wife Adele attended a launch of his book “War and Peace” at which videos, CDs and other LTTE promotional material were sold to raise funds. “Why did the British Government not stop this which was clearly in violation of the UK Terrorism Act 2000 that makes it an offence to promote an organisation banned as a terrorist group?” asked some Sri Lankans. Others argue that the British Prime Minister cannot be aware of every little event and that it is the task of mandated departments such as the Home Office and the Police to take appropriate action and for such information to be communicated to No 10 Downing Street. Meanwhile a group named “Concerned Persons Against Terrorism” that protested to the Zoroastrian Funds of Europe charity against loaning one of its premises to another charity called White Pigeon to commemorate the TRO has succeeded in its efforts.The event publicised with pamphlets that showed a clearly demarcated separate territory in Sri Lanka, scheduled for September 24 at Alexandra Avenue has been cancelled. “We have asked the organisers to find another venue,” a spokesman for the Zoroastrian Fund told The Sunday Times. |
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