The US State Department has retained the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on its Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTO) list, despite almost 12 years since the Sri Lankan government claimed to have eradicated the organisation, in a military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.
In a statement released on January 14 2021, the Department of State announced it had amended the designations of Lashkar i Jhangvi (LJ) and ISIL Sinai Peninsula (ISIL-SP) to include additional aliases on the list, stating “These aliases have been added to LJ and ISIL-SP’s designations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) under Executive Order 13224.”
The updated list continues to include the LTTE, which has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in the USA since October 8th 1997.
Last year in the United Kingdom, a landmark judgement from Britain’s Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission found that the Home Office decision to keep the LTTE proscribed as a terrorist organisation was “flawed” and unlawful, and could pave the way for the organisation to be legalised in the UK.
The list of Organisations on the FTO list can be seen here.
