FM Ali Sabry commends UK’s continued proscription of LTTE

Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry has applauded the United Kingdom’s decision to uphold the proscription of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terrorist organisation. 

In a statement posted on the social media platform X, Sabry highlighted the LTTE’s international network’s strategy to influence foreign governments into lifting the ban. “The LTTE’s international network’s approach and strategy is to get foreign Governments to de-proscribe the LTTE so that they could revive the LTTE,” Sabry wrote.

The UK Proscribed Organisations Appeals Commission, an independent court headed by a high court judge and supported by two retired senior diplomats, ruled against the de-proscription of the LTTE. The decision was made on 21 June confirming that the UK will continue to maintain the LTTE on its list of banned organisations.

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), which advocates for an independent Tamil state in north-east Sri Lanka, had appealed to the UK to lift the ban on the LTTE. While the TGTE itself is not proscribed in the UK and pursues its objectives through non-violent means, the LTTE remains a banned entity.

The LTTE, which waged a three-decade-long armed conflict to create a separate Tamil homeland in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, remains banned in several countries including Sri Lanka, India, UK, USA, Canada, Malaysia, and EU nations. Sri Lanka first banned the LTTE in 1998, lifted the ban in 2002 to facilitate a Norway-led peace process, and re-imposed it in 2008 following the collapse of peace talks and resumption of hostilities. The LTTE was ultimately defeated militarily by the Sri Lankan Government in 2009.