Terrorism poses threat to national security:
‘Australia should ban those with terrorist links’
Sri Lanka’s massive diplomatic triumph at the recent CHOGM Summit in
Perth, Australia, continues to reverberate with influential sections of
the Australian political spectrum and media coming to the defence of the
Sri Lankan Government.
They claim that the protests against the Sri Lankan Government based
on human rights issues were unfortunately leaving out the “key villain”
– the LTTE – out of the story.
A report published in the leading daily The Australian quotes former
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as saying that “It’s a wonderful thing
the Sri Lankan government won that war - I have always regarded the
Tigers as absolutely a terrorist organisation.” Downer said; “I have no
doubt the Tigers raised a lot of money in Australia.”
The report, written by The Australian’s foreign editor Greg Sheridan
said the priority for foreign governments should be to assist Sri Lanka
in economic development, which is the dynamic most likely to aid
reconciliation.
The article recalled the sheer brutality of the Tigers: “Is it easy
to forget how bloody the Tigers were. In their 2 1/2-decade campaign,
some 70,000 people died.
The Tigers pioneered the suicide bomber, conducting hundreds of such
attacks and using a woman with a suicide vest to murder India’s Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
They also murdered a Sri Lankan President. By any measure, the Tamil
Tigers were as deadly, unscrupulous, murderous and committed to
terrorist attacks on innocent civilians as al-Qaeda or the Taliban are.
Sheridan said that the Tigers were authoritarian under the leadership of
Vellupillai Prabhakaran.
“They murdered Tamil and Sinhalese civilians, within the areas they
controlled and within Sri Lanka generally.
They used civilians as human shields, engaged in forced recruitment,
routinely bombed civilian targets, used child soldiers and refused to
let civilians leave the combat zone. They also engaged in sectarian
attacks against Muslims.” The report also quoted international
anti-terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna. “After the conflict ended and the
LTTE was decimated in Sri Lanka, they still had a presence overseas.
They have been involved in bank fraud and people-smuggling to get
their members overseas, especially to Australia and Canada. Australia
should not permit anyone who is connected to any terrorist organisation
to settle in Australia because that will affect Australia’s security.”
The article takes Australian authorities to task for failing to
proscribe the LTTE in Australia.
“This is not because the Howard government did not regard the Tigers
as terrorists. But the inside bureaucratic story is complex and reflects
poorly on Australia as an episode where ethnic politics impeded serious
counter-terrorism.”
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