http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2011/11/06/sec01.asp


Terrorism poses threat to national security:

‘Australia should ban those with terrorist links’

Sri Lanka’s massive diplomatic triumph at the recent CHOGM Summit in Perth, Australia, continues to reverberate with influential sections of the Australian political spectrum and media coming to the defence of the Sri Lankan Government.
They claim that the protests against the Sri Lankan Government based on human rights issues were unfortunately leaving out the “key villain” – the LTTE – out of the story.
A report published in the leading daily The Australian quotes former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as saying that “It’s a wonderful thing the Sri Lankan government won that war - I have always regarded the Tigers as absolutely a terrorist organisation.” Downer said; “I have no doubt the Tigers raised a lot of money in Australia.”
The report, written by The Australian’s foreign editor Greg Sheridan said the priority for foreign governments should be to assist Sri Lanka in economic development, which is the dynamic most likely to aid reconciliation.
The article recalled the sheer brutality of the Tigers: “Is it easy to forget how bloody the Tigers were. In their 2 1/2-decade campaign, some 70,000 people died.
The Tigers pioneered the suicide bomber, conducting hundreds of such attacks and using a woman with a suicide vest to murder India’s Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
They also murdered a Sri Lankan President. By any measure, the Tamil Tigers were as deadly, unscrupulous, murderous and committed to terrorist attacks on innocent civilians as al-Qaeda or the Taliban are. Sheridan said that the Tigers were authoritarian under the leadership of Vellupillai Prabhakaran.
“They murdered Tamil and Sinhalese civilians, within the areas they controlled and within Sri Lanka generally.
They used civilians as human shields, engaged in forced recruitment, routinely bombed civilian targets, used child soldiers and refused to let civilians leave the combat zone. They also engaged in sectarian attacks against Muslims.” The report also quoted international anti-terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna. “After the conflict ended and the LTTE was decimated in Sri Lanka, they still had a presence overseas.
They have been involved in bank fraud and people-smuggling to get their members overseas, especially to Australia and Canada. Australia should not permit anyone who is connected to any terrorist organisation to settle in Australia because that will affect Australia’s security.”
The article takes Australian authorities to task for failing to proscribe the LTTE in Australia.
“This is not because the Howard government did not regard the Tigers as terrorists. But the inside bureaucratic story is complex and reflects poorly on Australia as an episode where ethnic politics impeded serious counter-terrorism.”