By Dushy Ranetunge

On Monday the British Terrorism Act 2000 came into force. All major newspapers and television stations in the United Kingdom on Monday gave coverage to the Act coming into effect and speculated that the LTTE(Sri Lanka), GIA(Algeria), FARC(Colombia), Palestinian Islamic Jihad(Israel), Al-Gamaat al-Isamiyya(Egypt), Hizbollah (Lebanon), al Qaida(Afghanistan), Revelutionary Organisation 17 November (Greece), PKK(Turkey), Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Front (Turkey) among others terrorist groups which will face expulsion from the United Kingdom.

The Act gives powers to Ministers to add names to a blacklist that already includes the IRA and UVF and other proscribed Irish terrorist groups.

The Home Office has not taken a decision yet as to which groups would be included in the list of foreign terrorist organisations and are currently considering the list of foreign terrorist organisations in the US State Departments list.

The delay in releasing the British list of foreign terrorist organisations is being attributed to security and legal considerations.

Concerns were heightened after Scotland Yards anti Terrorism units last Tuesday carried out dawn raids in London and foiled at attempt to release deadly nerve gas in the London Underground, public transport system. Six men believed to be members of the Algerian terrorist group the GIA are expected to be charged in court under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The raid was carried out on information received by the British intelligence service MI 5 and Scotland Yards Special Branch.

Any organisation added to the list will have the right to appeal to a new independent tribunal called the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission which has not yet been set up.

Once the name of an organisation has been added to the list it would be an offence for anyone to be a member of that organisation, to support such an organisations financially, to display its emblems, in public or to share a platform at a meeting of three people or more either in public or private with someone belonging to such an organisation.

The Act will counter money laundering , financing of foreign terrorist groups, incitement in Britain to commit a terrorist act abroad, to provide weapons training, or recruitment.

In addition to the "real" IRA, Britains large Muslim ethnic minority has become a recruiting ground for Islamic fundamentalists. Several batches of British Muslims have travelled ethnic hot spots in the east and trained and fought beside several Islamic terrorist groups and recently a suicide bomber who blew himself up in Kashmir was discovered to have been a night clubbing British Muslim from Birmingham who was recruited by the fanatics.

On receiving Royal assent to the Act on 20th July 2000, Home Secretary Jack

Straw had stated "Every act of terrorism is a cowardly and barbaric crime.

This new Act responds to the need for specific powers to combat the wide ranging and evolving threats from terrorism, yet properly ensures that the individual’s rights are preserved." "The Act sets in place an appropriate and effective range of provisions which is proportionate to the reality of the threat that we face and is of practical operational benefit. It provides the police and security forces with the necessary powers to deal with terrorism and sends a clear message to terrorists and their supporters that their activities will not be tolerated. It will also enable us to co-operate more fully in the international fight against terrorism."

"In passing this Act, the UK Parliament sends a positive statement of our intent to combat terrorism whenever and wherever it arises with every legitimate means at our disposal". On the 15th of January 2001 a code of practice for Authorised Officers providing guidance on the use of the powers for police officers, customs officers and immigration officers to seize, detain and seek the forfeiture of suspected terrorist cash was placed before parliament.

Most of the foreign terrorist organisations listed by Britain were not a threat to British interests at present. But once Britain lists them as terrorists, they will automatically become a threat to the United Kingdom. In addition to Balasingham, leaders of other fundamentalist Islamic terror groups operating out of Britain have made serious threats against Britain. Extremist Islamic groups based in London have condemned the Terrorism Act as a Western conspiracy against Islam.

In addition to a new heightened security threat, Britain has decided that it will only list organisations which can be proven in a British court of law that they are terrorists.

Without the list of foreign terrorist organisations, the Terrorism Act 2000 will not have its full effect as the Act refers to the proscribed list of terrorist organisations.

Britain’s new stand on terrorism alongside the United States will expose its High Commissions, diplomatic personnel, civilians and infrastructure world wide to possible terrorist attacks. Britain will have to adopt various strategies to reduce and manage this new threat level. There are signs that this threat analysis and containment has already begun.