by Dushy Ranetunge
Lord Naseby last Friday urged the British government to crackdown on the LTTE which is responsible for approximately 160 suicide attacks in Sri Lanka. Addressing the British House of Lords, Lord Naseby said the LTTE must be rooted out.

Naseby, the joint chairman of the all-party Sri Lanka parliamentary group said that accordingly to a study carried out by University of St. Andrews, about 250 suicide attacks had been reported in the past 20 years. Most of them had taken place in Sri Lanka.

"I have campaigned hard to have the LTTE proscribed. Thankfully, earlier this year the Government responded to that campaign. But an Act of Parliament is not enough as other speakers have pointed out. Only last week the chief spokesman for the LTTE, Anton Balasingham, chose London as the venue for his international statement that his organisation would have nothing to do with a cease-fire and nothing to do with a peace conference. I ask this question of Her Majesty’s Government: if the LTTE is a proscribed organisation, as are a number of the fundamental organisations, why is such an individual over here and why is he allowed to make such a statement? Why are such organisations still allowed to operate? I raise this because I suggest that they ought to be rooted out. Following on the experience of last Tuesday, I hope that a lesson will have been learnt and the issue taken even more seriously."

Mr. Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Inverness West): the leader of the Liberal Democrats recalled "An American writer once observed that the terrorist attempts to wash an impure world clean with the blood of innocent victims. The impurity here is the dreadful deed of the terrorist. On that, this House stands shoulder to shoulder in full support of our American cousins."

There have been various reports on contact between the Sri Lankan Terrorist group the LTTE and the terrorist outfit of Osama Bin Laden including a recent visit by LTTE explosives experts to Afghanistan. While Osama Bin Laden’s suicide bombers obtained flight training in Florida, several LTTE suicide bombers have received flight training in the United Kingdom. An Australian micro light manufacturer has confirmed to Australian Law enforcement authorities that the LTTE have purchased several micro light aircraft from them, presumably for aerial suicide bomb attacks. With Micro lights, terrorists will be able to target security sensitive infrastructure with low probability of radar detection. It was LTTE forgers based in the Far East who provided forged passports to the earlier bombers of Osama Bin Laden who entered the United States and planted vehicles full of explosives in the World Trade Centre, in an earlier attempt to blow up the two towers. Both groups are actively collecting funds in most western countries, particularly Canada.