While de-listing six Tamil international organisations, including the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), and 317 individuals as part of this year’s review, the government has added 55 new individuals and three more organisations to the banned list, according to informed sources.
According to a gazette notification signed by Defence Ministry Secretary General on July 28 of this year,
The ban on the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), Australian Tamil Congress (ATC), World Tamil Coordinating Committee (WTCC), Tamil Eelam Peoples Assembly (TEPA), British Tamil Forum (BTF), and Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) imposed by (Rtd) Kamal Gunaratne has been lifted.
In Sri Lanka, there were 18 entities listed as banned organisations.
At the same time, a ban on 317 people out of 577 people has been lifted. Suren Surendiranan, the GTF’s spokesman, is also among those delisted.
The ban on fifteen organisations, including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), TAMIL Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ), and Save the Pearl, was maintained.
According to UN Resolution 1373 (adopted in 2001), UN member states should appoint a Competent Authority, which should make recommendations to the Minister of the respective country regarding the removal of any person, group, or entity designated from the List every year after reviewing each entity and individual.
A senior military official told the Daily Mirror that the listing or de-listing process should be carried out after a thorough investigation into those entities and individuals, and it should be reviewed every year.
“It is completely dependent on law enforcement authorities and has nothing to do with politicians,” the official confirmed. “Each country should clearly produce evidence about those entities/individuals whether they financed terrorism or not during each year.”
In response to the reason for de-listing the influential Tamil diaspora organisation Global Tamil Forum, the official confirmed that there was no evidence that the above organisation financed terrorism-related matters during the previous year.