Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera on Thursday stressed that he would not allow the European Union's ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to be lifted despite the European Court of Justice (ECJ) recommending the ban should be dropped.
“I worked hard to bring this ban in 2006 when I was the foreign minister, with the full backing of the US amid lot of struggle. We will do the same in the future to keep the LTTE ban on," he said in an interview to Ceylon News.
Stating that the 10 year ban "cannot be removed so easily", Mr Samaraweera said, "there are many who are involved in trying to get the LTTE deproscribed in EU nations."
"However, they have not been successful so far. Last month, the US took steps towards extending the LTTE banWhenever there were efforts to get the ban removed, Sri Lanka intervened to stop it by providing the necessary information. We will continue to do it."