Sri Lanka has called on Asia- Pacific nations for cooperation to counter terrorism particularly the threat posed by the LTTE which uses the region for its arms procurement and funding.
Addressing the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore over the weekend Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said there needs to be closer and active cooperation in sharing intelligence, exchanging of information and comparing of developments vis-à-vis and related activities.
02 June 2008: Daily Mirror
Sri Lanka has called on Asia- Pacific nations for cooperation to counter terrorism particularly the threat posed by the LTTE which uses the region for its arms procurement and funding.
Addressing the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore over the weekend Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said there needs to be closer and active cooperation in sharing intelligence, exchanging of information and comparing of developments vis-à-vis and related activities.
While stressing, among other measures, the need to ban LTTE front organizations the Foreign Minister claimed that the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), which operated in the UK, had astutely portrayed themselves as those who were raising funds to uplift the livelihood and empower the people of the North and the East of Sri Lanka.
“The fact of the matter remains that not a single cent had gone to the said locations but to fund the war chest of the LTTE. It is often stated by many experts in terrorism that similar to fish which cannot live without water, the terrorists cannot live without funds. It may be presumptuous for me to state to an august gathering such as this, the front organizations, which extend financial and other assistance to terrorists need to be banned and proscribed at the earliest. This is imperative and all countries need to implement these measures if we are to counter terrorism. On this note, I earnestly and unequivocally request countries in the Asia Pacific in particular, to ban such suspicious front organizations, after conducting due diligence of their conduct,” he said.
He also went on to say there needs to be a greater priority and focus extended to the functions of policing and vigilance in the usage of our varied sea lanes by terrorists for the smuggling of illicit arms, drug trafficking and people smuggling.
Sri Lanka’s experience, he said, is that LTTE’s arms shipments transit through many countries in the region, very often with absolutely no cognizance to the authorities in those countries and so in order to deter and impede these arms supplies by sea there needs to be greater assistance and cooperation among countries in the Asia-Pacific region, in particular.
“Other areas of deep concern are money laundering and hawala banking functions. Needless to say in order to address these issues with the highest degree of efficacy and success, pro-active cooperation and concerted efforts of countries in the region is needed.
On the same note, financial institutions in these countries, including central banks, should play a pivotal and instrumental role in markedly deterring such illegal and illegitimate transactions executed by terrorist groups. In this regard, financial institutions should strengthen their regulations and make them more transparent, thus diluting any ambiguous and illegitimate transactions,” the Foreign Minister added.
Minister Bogollagama said the Government’s resolve is to clear the north of the country of the LTTE and restore democracy to these parts of the country, whilst at the same time leaving the door open for the LTTE to disarm and enter the democratic process.
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