Friday 6, March 1998 - News
Friday 6, March 1998 - News
from Thalif Deen in New York
Friends of Sri Lanka in the US (FOSUS), a group of Americans and Sri Lankan-born US nationals, have lashed out at the British government for continuing to provide a safe haven to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
"We strongly urge the British government to follow in the footsteps of the US and take a stand against a malicious terrorist group by shutting down their headquarters in London and thereby proscribing the LTTE in the UK," FOSUS said in a statement released here.
FOSUS accused the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair of political double standards in the way it treats the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the LTTE.
Unlike the United States, the British government was weak, spineless and vulnerable to political pressure for having permitted the LTTE to base its headquarters in London for over 20 years, FOSUS said.
The FOSUS message was also conveyed to the British Mission to the United Nations at a protest rally attended by over 200 demonstrators in New York last week.
Watched by a lunch time crowd of New Yorkers, the demonstrators carried placards denouncing the British government for its failure to take any action. "Visit London", read one of the more creative placards, "And see Madame Tussauds, the London Dungeons and the biggest horror of them all-- the LTTE".
"A well established worldwide network of Tamil Tiger backed organisations operate out of London to raise well over $1 million dollars a month through numerous illegal activities to fund a bloody campaign of terror that has taken an estimated 60,000 lives to date," FOSUS said.
Since members of FOSUS are mostly Sri Lankan nationals holding US citizenships, the organisation has exercised its legitimate right to lobby US Senators and Congressmen against LTTE activities in the US.
"We want to convey a strong message to the British government for permitting a terrorist organisation to have its international headquarters in London," Ruwan Rajapakse of FOSUS said.
Last year, the United States declared the LTTE a "terrorist organisation" and has outlawed all activities, including fund-raising in the US. "We want Britain to follow the US lead," Rajapakse told the 'Daily News'.
The New York rally was described as the first such demonstration outside the British Mission to the United Nations. The protest has been triggered by the recent bomb explosions by the LTTE both in Colombo and in Kandy.
"Massacres of this nature, carried out by the LTTE terrorists have taken a toll of thousands of innocent civilians, including children," FOSUS said.
FOSUS is also urging Britain to ratify the recent International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings unanimously adopted by the 185-member UN General Assembly last December.
The ratification of the convention will force Britain to change its domestic laws-- including those pertaining to political asylum and fund-raising-- to conform to the UN treaty.
Seventeen countries have so far signed the treaty, including Britain, US, France and Germany. Sri Lanka, which was the first signatory, is also expected to be the first to ratify it.