Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry.
Credit: X/@alisabrypc
Colombo: Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry has hailed the decision of the UK government to continue to maintain the LTTE under the proscribed list, saying that the move will thwart every plan of the former armed group to revive itself in the island nation.
In a post on the social media platform X, Sabry said that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) international network’s approach and strategy is to get foreign governments to deproscribd it so that they could revive the group once again.
The decision by the UK authorities to carry on with Sri Lanka’s LTTE under the proscribed list has thwarted the group's plans to revive them in Sri Lanka, Sabry said in his post on X.
"The LTTE’s international network’s approach and strategy is to get foreign governments to deproscribd the LTTE so that they could revive the LTTE," he added.
On June 21 it was announced that the UK proscribed organisations appeals commission had ruled against deproscribing the LTTE and will continue to keep the ban on the former armed group who ran a three decades old bloody armed conflict to carve out a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east regions.
The LTTE remains banned in Sri Lanka, India, the UK, the USA, Canada, Malaysia and EU nations.
Sri Lanka first banned the LTTE in 1998 but revoked its proscription in 2002 in order to facilitate the Norway-led peace process.
With talks breaking down and clashes resuming the ban was reimposed in 2008.
In mid-May 2009 the group was completely defeated in the government’s military campaign which lasted under 3 years.
From the mid-80s until they were decimated in 2009, the LTTE ran a parallel government in parts of the north and east.