EU travel ban on LTTE, a constructive step - The Hindu

After years of equivocation, the European Union has finally woken up to the terrorist character of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), India's prestigious national daily The Hindu said yesterday in an editorial.

"That it took the brutal assassination of Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar for the EU to realise this is no consolation, but it could mean his death was not totally in vain," the editorialist wrote.

The editorial: "Through the decade Kadirgamar served Sri Lanka as Foreign Minister, he spearheaded a campaign to have the LTTE declared a terrorist organisation internationally. While the United States and Britain banned the group, Europe with its large Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora held back, professing the belief that positive diplomacy could better influence the Tigers.

Like many others in the international arena who believed the LTTE must be given a chance to prove itself in the Norway-facilitated peace process, the EU has been disappointed at its intransigence, its insistence on being acknowledged as the "sole representative" of the Tamil people, and the anti-human extremes to which it would go to achieve its secessionist goal.

The first sign of EU disillusionment came when its observers criticised the LTTE's conduct in North-East Sri Lanka during the 2004 parliamentary elections.

The EU declaration of September 26 condemning the "continuous use of violence and terrorism" by the LTTE as "unacceptable" methods of achieving political goals is its strongest statement yet.

The declaration makes it clear that designating the LTTE as a terrorist organisation is under "active consideration."

Whether the LTTE is eventually banned or not, the EU decision not to receive any delegation from the group in member countries with "immediate effect" will bite. It is a reality check on the prospects of peace, which are predicated on the willingness of the LTTE to accept a negotiated federal solution within the territorial integrity and unity of Sri Lanka.

After the February 2002 ceasefire, the Tiger strategy of building up international legitimacy included sending top cadres on junkets abroad, mainly to European countries, where they were received by high-ranking government officials.

As recently as March 2005, the group's political wing leader, S.P. Thamilchelvan, flew to Brussels to confer with EU officials; he also met Ministers of the Belgian Cabinet.

All this helped the LTTE project itself as an entity with which the international community did business despite Interpol notices on its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, a proclaimed fugitive from the Indian law, despite its grisly record of liquidating political rivals as well as civilians, and despite other abominable practices, starting with the recruitment of child soldiers.

The travel ban, and the agreement among EU member-states that each will take additional measures to restrict the group's activities, are constructive steps towards ending the impunity with which the Tigers have functioned for far too long."