EU retraction of listing: if uncontested, may give LTTE a free hand

By Manjula Fernando

“A freeze on LTTE assets will hurt its ability to milk funds from Tamil expatriates,” said observers following the decision by the European Union to list the LTTE as a banned terrorist organisation within the territory of 25 countries in 2006.

The ban which came about as a culmination of a decade old campaign by the Sri Lankan State and the European Commission's own research, froze the assets of the group, putting a noose around its fund raising activities that pumped up the ruthless LTTE terror war.

The assassination of former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar by an LTTE sniper in August 2005, was the last nail in the coffin that sealed the LTTE's fate in the European Union.

Unfortunately after eight long years the listing is to be retracted.

As the news broke out on Thursday in Luxembourg, ‘the General Court of the EU annuls, on procedural grounds, the Council measures maintaining the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the European list of terrorist organisations’, the LTTE has already begun celebrating.

Classification

The ruling, if not contested, may give a free hand to the LTTE to extort money from the Tamil expatriate community in a total of now 28 countries. Since 2006, the EU has expanded by three new members – Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. The ruling was given in a case moved by the LTTE in 2011.

With the ruling the LTTE stand a chance to be exempted from the ‘EU list relating to frozen funds of terrorist organisations'. But, the Court has not made any implication revoking their classification as a terrorist organisation, an External Affairs Ministry official affirmed.

In short, the LTTE has filed action in the European Court of Justice challenging the validity of certain measures (which take the form of sanctions - including the freezing of assets) imposed on the LTTE by the EU Council, on the footing that it was an internationally known terrorist organisation, a senior official at the Attorney General's Department explained.

At the conclusion, the Court arrived at a finding that the European Council in deciding on measures against the LTTE, including freezing of assets, due process has not been followed. In continuing the LTTE listing the Council has taken into consideration judgments of Indian Courts.

The Court has agreed with the approach that such Indian courts can be considered as ‘competent foreign domestic authorities’ but has ruled that the Council must re-assess the situation and rectify procedural shortcomings.

Assets

It is on this footing that the EU Court has annulled the measures, but has temporarily kept alive the effect of the measures imposed, such as the freezing of the assets. This has been done to facilitate the Council to ‘reassess the situation’ and possibly ‘adopt new measures’ having followed the correct procedure or appeal to the EU Court of Justice, which has appellate power over the EU Court, a senior official of the AG's Department said.

The Court of Justice of the EU in Luxembourg.

The defendants; the EU supported by the Netherlands, the UK and the European Commission - have been granted two months to appeal or rectify the procedural flaws to try and re-impose the measures against the LTTE.

A press release from the General Court of the European Union which announced the judgment said, despite the ruling the assets remained frozen temporarily to ensure effectiveness of a possible future action.

The LTTE tried to convince the Court that their confrontation with the Government of Sri-Lanka was an ‘armed conflict’ within the meaning of international law, subject only to international humanitarian law and not to anti-terrorist legislation. ‘

This argument did not hold ground as the Court maintained that ‘EU law on prevention of terrorism also applies in armed conflicts within the meaning of international law'.

Verdict

The lawyer who represented the LTTE's interests in the case, Attorney Victor Koppe of Amsterdam-based law firm Bohler Group, argued that the LTTE no longer used military means to achieve its goals in the post-terrorism context.

The Indian Deccan Chronicle in a story dated October 17, said the verdict of the European Court was music to Eelam campaigners in the Tamil Nadu. Tamil politician and LTTE campaigner Nedumaran had already demanded that the Central Government should take a cue from the EU ruling.

Victor Koppe also defended five LTTE activists who were accused of raising Euro 130 million for terrorism funding in a case before a Dutch Court three years ago. The Court in a verdict delivered in October 2011 ruled all five guilty as accused and sentenced them two to six years in prison.

Dutch police arrested the five men in June 2010 after an investigation into the LTTE organisation.

The prosecution told Court, ‘Fund-raisers used threats to wrest money from the Tamil community in the Netherlands.

That continued even after the military crushed the Tigers and killed its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in May 2009. Groups of fundraisers would repeatedly visit the homes of Tamils and threaten that they would not be allowed to visit their relatives in Sri Lanka if they did not pay up.’

Assistance

It echoed a stance reiterated by the Sri Lankan Government, the LTTE front organisations continued to operate among the 800,000 Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora community, majority of whom scattered in the Europe, even after the LTTE's military defeat.

The Dutch case was built up on a USB stick that contained the LTTE’s 2010 financial plan, seized from one of the convicts, Selliah, whom the court described as “an unmissable link” in the LTTE.

The Sri Lankan Government supported the EU in its listing of the LTTE and has provided information supportive of the regulation to facilitate the continuation of the ban. In a release issued on Thursday, the External Affairs Ministry said, ‘the Government remained committed to provide the European Commission and EU Member States any further assistance and information available, to maintain the LTTE as a brutal terrorist organization'.

It cautioned, ‘The ECJ decision may have an impact including from a security perspective, on the large majority of Sri Lankans living in EU territory, as well as EU citizens of Sri Lankan origin, who are likely to come under pressure once again by pro LTTE activists'.

The Court case to revoke the LTTE listing within the EU is a clear signal as to how desperate, strong and organised the LTTE international campaign which strive to revive their ‘dormant’ outfit. The cases moved by the LTTE were classified as T-208/11 and T-508/11 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Vs Council. A senior official in the External Affairs Ministry said although the LTTE was banned in the EU in 2006, they shifted their operations to front organisations which kept changing their nom de guerre from time to time to mislead the local authorities. Their activities have continued unabated under various fronts such as Tamil Youth Organisation and Tamil Coordinating Committee.

Funding

The official said there were many such fronts that it was hard to keep a tab on each and every one them and lifting of the EU ban will certainly embolden their campaigns and put lives of moderate diaspora members at risk. Sri Lanka in a bid to shut funding sources of LTTE recently banned 16 voluntary diaspora organisations identified as LTTE fronts and 424 individuals.

The Island reported on Friday that an alleged key LTTE front Global Tamil Forum (GTF) had urged intervention by the UK at the UN Security Council to prevent the Government from ‘exploiting the Security Council Resolution 1373 of 2001 (UNSCR 1373)’ to ban these groups and individuals. International terrorism expert, Prof. Rohan Gunaratne said, “With the same ruthlessness and deceptiveness the LTTE operated in Sri Lanka, it is now functioning overseas.”

He said the LTTE cells are reorganising in Canada, US, UK, EU, and in Australia to seek legitimacy. The LTTE approaches are not limited to lobbying politicians and human rights organisations but also identifying the gaps and loopholes in legal frameworks and penetrating them.

Opining that Governments worldwide must reflect on how terrorists use, misuse and abuse the criminal-justice and prisons systems to their advantage, he cautioned, "the de-proscription of the LTTE by EU serves as a warning to the Europeans and others governments."

LTTE cells are planning similar cases in Canada, US, UK, and India where the LTTE is still blacklisted.