FOLLOWING PATTEN’S VISIT AND BIRTHDAY SPEECH FOREIGN PROSCRIPTIONS OF THE LTTE SHOULD BE REMOVED SAYS MINISTER
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
December 01, 06.30 AM:Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Cabinet Minister Periyasamy Chandrasekaran had announced all foreign countries including the United States that had banned the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should lift their proscriptions of the terrorist group after the delivery of Velupillai Prabhakaran’s “Hero’s Day Message”, that revealed his true position the Sinhalese daily Divaina reported.
The “Hero’s Day Message” given in connection with his 49th birthday was delivered just after the visit of European Union’s Foreign Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, visiting Kilinochchi , the Tamil stronghold, amidst the terrorist leader’s birthday bash, wishing him many happy returns of the day.
European Union has already lifted the proscription of the terrorist group. European diplomats, especially the Norwegians, are reportedly campaigning currently for the removal of the sanctions imposed by many countries including the United States and Britain under their terrorist laws against the separatists of Sri Lanka. The campaign to remove the proscription of the terrorist group was initiated by Foreign Minister Tyrone Fernando, just after the formation of the United National Front government. He had also attacked Former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar for starting an international campaign to ban the LTTE as a terrorist group.
Quoting Minister Chandrasekaran the Divaina reported that the powerful Tamil politician said that the LTTE leader’s speech came at a time when racist Sinhala organizations were spreading “false propaganda” against him. He said his national leader’s birthday message caught the attention of all the people in the South
He said if the government did not provide the interim administration demands of Prabhakaran, which had been described only as a step away from a separate state, Prabhakaran would not hesitate to start his struggle for separation from Sri Lanka and the international community would give their fullest cooperation to him.
Chandrasekaran reportedly said the Tamil Tigers honored ethical values and democracy and they should be correctly understood by the international community. Therefore, those countries that listed the LTTE should remove the name of the organization from the list of banned terrorist groups and lift the proscription of the organization
