Curbing diaspora support counter-productive, say Finnish Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 May 2006, 13:11 GMT]
The representatives of the Tamil organisations in Finland, who met the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, after marching 2 km from the Helsinki EU office to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Merikasarminkatu Monday noon, told media that Norway which skillfully executed the facilitator role during the challenging internal opposition from the Sinhala extreme nationalist parties, was now being alienated by the external factors arising from the EU's move to ban the LTTE. More than 170 Tamils took part in Finland where a 250 Tamils live.



Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs official from Asia and Oceania desk, Matti Junnila and Project Assistant, Sami Karhonen, a former Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) official who had served in Vavuniya, received the Tamil delegation comprising Kandiah Gnanadevan, Manchula Mohandas, S. Jebanesan and three other Tamil representatives.

The former SLMM official, who has been on the ground, understood the danger prevailing in Tamil homeland and the involvement of the Sri Lanka military in the extra-judicial killings taking place in the Tamil homeland, said Mr.Gnanadevan.

The Foreign Ministry official, Matti Junnila, explained that Finland would be supporting the Norwegian efforts.

The Tamil delegation explained that the EU move to curb the Tamil support to the political leadership of Tamils in Tamil homeland, would be detrimental to the already tenuous peace process, said Mr. Gnanadevan.