Sri Lanka requests UK to ban LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 July 2000, 21:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka has a made a formal request to Britain to have the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam proscribed under the new Terrorism Law passed recently in United Kingdom, states a press release issued Friday by the Foreign Ministry Office in Colombo.

Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar made this formal request to the UK Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Peter Hain when he called on Mr Hain in London on Friday.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the proscribing of organisations rests with the Home Office. As such, Mr Hain told Mr Kadirgamar that the British government would consider the request and pass on the details to the Home Office Minister Jack Straw.

The press release from the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said that the UK minister had agreed to consider all matters pertaining to the request and to maintain a continuous dialogue with the Sri Lankan authorities.