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Sri Lanka aims to cut us off from the diaspora - TNA's Shivajilingham

The TNA member and Northern Provincial Council member M.K. Shivajilingham condemned the Sri Lankan government's move to proscribe 15 Tamil diaspora organisations as a deliberate attempt to divide the diaspora and the homeland.

"The Sri Lankan government is trying to cut us off from the diaspora, especially trying to stop political parties, such as the TNA and the TNPF, from engaging with diaspora organisations," Mr. Shivajilingham told the Tamil Guardian.

"By doing this, the government is ultimately trying to ban us from speaking to the diaspora. For example, we took part in the Land Grabs conference organised by BTF (British Tamils Forum), so if they ban BTF, then they can accuse us of taking part in it, and criminalise us too. That's exactly why they are trying to do this."

Describing the move to repress Tamil voices abroad as absurd, Mr. Shivajilingham said,

"Is Sri Lanka now the police force to international countries? They [Sri Lankan state] don't even state what alleged terrorist or illegal activities these organisations have been involved in. The respective organisations need to decide what to do about this, so we can look at how to tackle this going forward."

See related articles:

Diaspora groups reject SL ban, vow to continue struggle (02 Apr 2014)

APPGT deplores diaspora ban, calls on international community to condemn Sri Lanka's actions (02 Apr 2014)

Diaspora ban worsens climate for journalists, NGOs and others working with Tamil groups, says Amnesty (02 Apr 2014)

Proscription of diaspora orgs is to demoralise Tamils in homeland - K. Guruparan (02 Apr 2014)

The proscription of the Tamil Diaspora: War by other means (01 Apr 2014)

Proscription of diaspora orgs 'shameful' says former UK MP, GTF policy advisor (01 Apr 2014)

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