Sri Lanka to contest EU delisting of LTTE as terrorist organisation

Colombo: Sri Lanka's EU Ambassador Rodney Perera is to travel to Strasbourg on Monday to attend the EU parliament's plenary session and to mobilise two key committees, foreign affairs and security and defence.

Sri Lanka will contest the decision by a European Union Court to delist the LTTE as a terrorist organisation and will send an envoy to Strasbourg to lobby the EU against the order.

Sri Lanka's EU Ambassador Rodney Perera is to travel to Strasbourg on Monday to attend the EU parliament's plenary session and to mobilise two key committees, foreign affairs and security and defence.

He will also lobby the European Council to challenge the Court's ruling. Last Thursday, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the LTTE would no longer be kept on the Council's designated terrorist list.

It was however based on a fundamental procedural ground. The said annulment would be maintained temporarily for a period of three months where a reassessment would be made.
Sri Lankan government would be able to appeal against the decision within two months. The EU ban of the LTTE came in 2006.

Apart from the EU, the LTTE is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the USA, India, Canada, the UK and Sri Lanka.

The LTTE was engaged in an "armed conflict" with the Sri Lankan government forces for nearly-three decades, but were defeated in 2009 following the death of its chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.