Shamindra Ferdinando
President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday evening urged the international community to follow the Dutch example in dealing with the LTTE seeking to destabilise Sri Lanka.Addressing a section of the Sri Lankan community based in Australia at the Winthrop Hall in Perth, Western Australia, President Rajapaksa said that there couldn’t be a better recent example than the way the Netherlands had dealt with those raising funds to cause death and destruction in Sri Lanka
.Commending the action taken by the Netherlands government, the President said that a court in the Hague last Friday sentenced five Sri Lankans to six years in prison for helping finance the LTTE.
All five men — who now have Dutch citizenship — were accused of raising funds for the LTTE by extorting money from the Lankan Tamil Diaspora in the Netherlands.
The men were charged with overseeing an international criminal and terrorist organisation involved in arson, bombings and murder. The prosecutors had demanded sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
Sri Lanka recently allowed investigators from the Netherlands to inquire into LTTE operations and went to the extent of giving them access to Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP, one time arms procurer for the organization and the senior most LTTE member currently in custody.
Explaining the circumstances leading to the eelam war IV, the President said that the LTTE had ignored his offer for negotiations in November 2005 and initiated a major ground war in the East. “Today I’m being targeted both at home and abroad for eradicating terrorism, thereby restoring peace in the country torn apart by violence for over three decades,” he said.
Commenting on the recent attempts by the LTTE to move the US and Australian judiciary against the government of Sri Lanka over accountability issues, the Sri Lankan Leader said that those who still pursued the LTTE bid to divide the country on ethnic lines in spite of losing its conventional military capability were targeting him. The LTTE was trying to cause a rift between his government and the international community. It was nothing but a part of their overall strategy to isolate post-war Sri Lanka.
The President thanked the Australiam government for thwarting an LTTE attempt to cause trouble.
Thanking the Sri Lankan community in Australia for meeting the LTTE’s propaganda challenge, the President urged Sri Lankans living all over the world to unite against the on going efforts to cause fresh tensions among the communities.
IS