Call on UK to lift ban on LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 December 2006, 13:01 GMT]
A petition to the British government to lift the proscription of the LTTE and to recognise the Tamil people’s right to self-determination has received the support of two ruling party Parliamentarians and trade union officials in UK.

Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, MPs from the Labour party have signed the petition, along with officials from several trade unions including UNISON, RMT and CWU.

The text of the petition follows:

The Sri Lanka government is carrying out an undeclared war against the Tamil people who have been struggling for more than two decades for the legitimate right to self-rule.

The government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, elected on a Sinhala chauvinist basis in November 2005, has consistently breached the 2002 cease-fire agreement with the LTTE. They have been conducting aerial bombardments, specifically outlawed under the agreement. In August, the Sri Lankan air force destroyed an orphanage in Sencholai, killing 50 children.

The anti-war opposition has been put under extreme pressure. Tamil MP Nadaraja Raviraj was gunned down in Colombo on November 9 and other activists have received serious death threats.

External support for the Mahinda regime is essential in allowing it to carry out this war mongering. The Sri Lankan army leadership is trained at the British army training school at Sandhurst while the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) are banned as a supposedly “terrorist” organisation across Europe.

We therefore call on our governments and international institutions to lift any bans on the LTTE and to demand that the Sri Lankan government:

• End the aerial bombardments;
• End the disappearances and stop support for paramilitaries;
• Open the A9 road and other access routes so that essential humanitarian supplies can get through to the Tamil areas in the north; and
• Re-open negotiations with the LTTE for a just solution acceptable to the Tamil people.

External Links:

UK:

No war in Sri Lanka