Australia to consider listing Tamil Tigers as terror group
Updated
Australia says it will consider a request from Sri Lanka that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam be listed as a terror organisation. But it's told Sri Lanka's visiting Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama that peace in his country cannot be achieved by military force alone.
Presenter: Michael Cavanagh
Speaker: Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith ; Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama
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CAVANAGH : Australia has had diplomatic ties with Sri Lanka for 60 years, two way trade is now worth just over 200 million US dollars and assistance in the form of education, food aid, humanitarian assistance and other projects is worth just over 20 million US dollars, and there is the mutual love of cricket. However the continuing battle between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist rebels the LTTE was also a matter of discussion when the Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith sat down with his Sri Lankan counterpart.
SMITH: We wanted to ensure that there was a very clear understanding that no long term, enduring solution could be found simply through the use of military force. And the bulk of our conversation was the Government strategy to effect or achieve that long term, enduring political peace.
CAVANAGH: The visit comes in the shadow of the recent suicide bombing which killed at least 20 people including the retired major General Janaka Perera and his wife. The former military officer was a one-time high commissioner to Australia, who since his return to Sri Lanka had entered the political fray as a member of the United National Party. The trip has also provoked comment in different arms of Australia's media by members of the Sri Lankan community, the most vocal being those who support the Tamils. Mr Bogollagama says his government is committed to a political solution -- however he again took his government's hardline approach to the separatists.
BOGOLLAGAMA: At the same time terrorism needs to be countered, the manner in which terrorists deserves to be countered. So that is why we have an agenda in countering terrorism whilst we're restoring democracy...The political solutions will come to political issues, but terrorism is overriding the political interest of the country and, therefore, terrorists need to be countered, as they deserve to be countered.
CAVANAGH: That countering of terrorism and therefore its supporters is something that the Sri Lankan minister would also like to be addressed by the Australian government. With Tamil supporters in Australia Mr Bogollagama wants the LTTE to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation in Australia. He pointed out that the U-S, Canada, Britain and 27 member countries of the EU have banned it. Mr Smith says in effect such action has been taken in Australia -- although the next step is being considered.
SMITH: There are two aspects firstly for a considerable period of time, the LTTE has been effectively listed under United Nations arrangements. That effects a freeze on LTTE assets in Australia and it's as a consequence, unlawful for the use of LTTE assets in Australia. Secondly, of course, is the listing or the proscribing of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation under Australian domestic law. As I indicated to the Foreign Minister that is currently under consideration by the Attorney-General.
