Untitled Document

Front Page

Britain gets tough with Tigers
From Neville de Silva in London
The British Government has issued one of the toughest warnings to the LTTE, even surpassing in tone Washington's statement last March in which it spoke of credible evidence of LTTE violations of the ceasefire agreement.

The British Government statement came after a meeting between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his British counterpart Tony Blair last Wednesday.
"We hope that the LTTE realises that violence has no part to play in resolving the ethnic conflict and that it renounces terrorism once and for all," a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said striking an attitude no different to that of the European Union which too has been supporting the current peace moves and advocating direct talks.

The tough line now being pursued by Britain, the European Union and Washington is the result of talks that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando have had with political leaders during last week's visit to the UK and European Commission in Brussels and also earlier.

But happenings in Britain have prompted the British Government to be doubly hard. It said in its statement: "Before proscription of the LTTE can be reconsidered in the United Kingdom, the LTTE would have to demonstrate a complete and convincing renunciation of terrorism. Any decision on de-proscription would be a matter for the Home Secretary."

This part of the statement has gone largely unnoticed or is thought to refer to LTTE's behaviour outside Britain.

The widespread publicity given in the electronic and print media recently to Tamil gang warfare in London follows the concerns of senior police officers of the Metropolitan Police at the rising violence resulting in killings and arson.
A recent high profile BBC television programme NewsNight that usually discusses important political and social issues, devoted 10 minutes or more to the problem of Tamil gangs fighting it out in London.

The programme said that gang violence in the Tamil community had led to four violent deaths and up to 200 incidents in the past two years.

The police even had notices at the Lords cricket grounds during the first Test asking the public for information on the murder of a young Tamil, Suresh Kumar Selvarajah who was shot dead at his flat in Wembley in April.

Commander Richard Bryan of the Metropolitan Police was quoted by NewsNight as saying that some of those involved in the violence maybe former Tamil Tiger fighters.

Back to Front Page