EU re-proscribe LTTE due to Govt.'s Diplomatic intervention
European Union (EU) had reimposed the ban on the LTTE due to the positive diplomatic intervention of the Government, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ajith P. Perera said today while addressing a media conference at the Government Information Department.
He pointed out that the EU court had not lifted the ban on the LTTE during the previous government due to its ineffective diplomatic process.
He said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had written to the EU to reconsider the ban on the LTTE as the then leader of the opposition.
Minister Perera said that the European Union has responded positively to the request made by Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and to the intervention made by Foreign Affairs Ministry with the EU to reimpose the ban on the LTTE and as a result, the EU had reimposed the ban and added that it was a great diplomatic victory of the country.
The Judgement of the General Court of the European Union last year had annulled measures taken by the Council of the European Union to designate the LTTE as a terrorist organisation and the freezing of their funds.
The General Court of the European Union, on 16th October 2014, on procedural grounds, annulled the European Council measures maintaining Sri Lanka's defunct Tamil Tiger terrorist group, LTTE on the European list of terrorist organizations but allowed measures to keep their assets frozen.
The government gives priority to national security in finding political solutions for the national crisis, he stressed.
