The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday said its recent decision to lift sanctions on six Tamil expatriate groups and 316 individuals was taken because they were no longer funding terrorist activities. The remarks came after the Defense Ministry, through an extraordinary gazette number 2291/02 on August 1, lifted restrictions on six Tamil expatriate groups and 316 individuals, which were imposed by the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa since 2014.
In a clarification issued here on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry said the decision was taken after it was found that they were no longer funding terrorist activities. The reasons for the delisting were questioned by Sri Lankan opposition groups.
These six expatriate groups include the Australian Tamil Congress, the Global Tamil Forum, World Tamil Coordination Committee, Tamil Eelam People’s Assembly, Canadian Tamil Congress and British Tamil Forum. According to the blacklisting and removal of individuals, 577 individuals and 18 organizations were blacklisted for the financing of terrorism in the year 2021 under United Nations Rule 1 2012, the statement said.
The Ministry of External Affairs, Attorney General, major intelligence agencies and the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and after several discussions and careful study conducted in the Ministry of Defense by a committee based on reports and listed evidence regarding the financing of terrorism by individuals and organizations Recommendations for removal and removal were submitted, the statement said.
In 2014, the government of then President Mahinda Rajapaksa banned the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and 15 other Tamil diaspora groups for their alleged terror links and for playing a key role during the country’s three-decade-long civil war. . In 2015, President Maithripala Sirisena lifted a ban on these groups to begin talks for efforts to rebuild Tamil areas in Sri Lanka’s northern provinces, which had been ravaged by civil war.
In 2021, the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government again banned these groups and refused to engage in talks with them. Reacting to the removal from the list, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the main Tamil party in Sri Lanka, said in a statement that they welcomed the decision.
However, it is to be noted that others on the list have also been nominated for linking them to terrorism without any evidence and for not following the prescribed procedure. The TNA statement said that we urge the government to continue the process of at least everyone’s re-evaluation and unlawful action. After the war with the LTTE, the Sri Lankan government went on the offensive against the Tamil groups.
Before its collapse in 2009 following the assassination of its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran by the Sri Lankan army, the LTTE launched a military operation for a separate Tamil homeland in the island nation’s northern and eastern provinces. According to Lanka government figures, more than 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts, including three decades of brutal war with the Lankan Tamils in the north and east, in which at least 100,000 people were killed.
International rights groups claim that at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed in the final stages of the war, but the Sri Lankan government disputes the figures.
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