The latest cowardly act of the LTTE has led the Government of Sri Lanka to formally ban the terrorist organization. The LTTE on January 26, 1998 attacked one of the holiest temples for Buddhists in the nation, the Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy. (See selected pictures.) The temple, besides being a sacred place of worship, is also considered a national treasure, having both historical and cultural significance. The city of Kandy is also the last kingdom of Sri Lanka, which survived for about 300 years despite foreign occupation in coastal regions of the island. The annual historic pageant conducted by the Sri Dalada Maligawa, Kandy was first started during the reign of King Megavanna (301 to 331 A.D.) The pageant, commonly referred to as the Kandy Perahera, is one of the most spectacular pageants in South East Asia and draws thousands of foreign tourists to the hill capital each year.

Repeated attacks and onslaughts on human settlements and places of national and economic importance by the LTTE led to widespread public demand for the proscription of the group. The Government of Sri Lanka however held back from banning the group in order to keep open the possibility of a negotiated settlement of the conflict. Repeated overtures by the Government for a settlement were thwarted by the refusal of the rebels to lay down arms and come to the negotiating table. Recent bomb attacks on the Central Bank and the Galadari Meridien Hotel, in Colombo placed increasing pressures on the Government to take sanctions against the rebels. Hopes of a negotiated settlement increasingly grew remote and were finally abandoned by the Government following the attack on the Dalada Maligawa.

The United States last year recognized the LTTE (along with 30 other such groups) as foreign terrorist organizations and banned all fund raising and other illegal activities in the U.S. President Clinton, in his State of the Union address last evening (January 27, 1998) emphasized the need for concerted action against international terrorist organizations, referring to them as "international predators".