EU ban will not isolate LTTE from expatriate Tamils

Colombo, May 31: The Tamil Tiger rebels have said the European Union ban on the organisation as a terrorist outfit ''would not isolate'' them from the Tamil expatriates, instead would ''increase their continued support and financial contributions to the liberation struggle''.

''If the European Union considers that our organisation could be isolated from the expatriate Tamil people living in the European nations by preventing their political and financial support to us, then it will be a major historical mistake,'' the Jaffna-based Uthayan newspaper today quoted LTTE's London-based chief negotiator and political strategist, Anton Balasingham as saying.

Reacting to the EU ban on the Tamil Tiger rebels, Mr Balasingham has stated the LTTE was ''not surprised, though it is sad and dismayed'' by the EU decision.

He has also said ''the expatriate Tamils, who are hurt and equally angered by the state-biased EU ban on the LTTE, would defeat the sinister motive of the ban by intensifying their support to the LTTE and the liberation struggle led by them''.

However, Mr Balasingham has said that the LTTE ''will essentially participate'' at the proposed talks in Oslo on June 8 and 9 as it deals only with the safety and operational activities of the Nordic truce monitoring mission.

On Monday, the EU included the LTTE on the EU list ''for the application specific measures to combat terrorism'', under which specific measures such as freezing of funds and financial assets or economic resources would be taken.

''The EU has taken a wrong decision based on the vicious propaganda campaign by the government, without understanding the true side of our freedom struggle. This may affect the peace process, but our liberation organisation, which has successfully faced several such barriers in the past, would not be shaken by this ban,'' Mr Balasingham has been quoted as saying.

Describing the EU ban as ''ill-timed and diplomatically inappropriate'', he has said that the EU ban has come at a time when both the government and LTTE are blamed for the surge of current violence and while the LTTE was still holding the four-year long ceasefire agreement and to the peace process.

Claiming that the EU blacklisting of the LTTE would ''severely undermine their status of parity in peace negotiations and would inevitably affect the bargain power of the Tamil people'', he has expressed his fears that this might encourage President Rajapakse's government ''to adopt a hardline militaristic approach that might eventually push the country towards a bloody war,'' Mr Balasingham has said.

The LTTE's reaction has come a day after the government firmly ruled out a military option to the prolonging ethnic conflict, but expressed its hope the EU ban would push the rebels to re-enter the negotiating table.

UNI