'LTTE international network continues its criminal activities' - Sri Lanka Minister tells HRC

At the fifteenth session of the United Nations Human Right Council that commenced on Monday in Geneva, Sri Lanka with deep concern noted that remnants of the defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) international network continued its criminal activities and its secessionist agenda.

Addressing the HRC, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Plantation Industries cautioned that in several countries the LTTE network has engaged in criminal activities such as extorting money from the Tamil diaspora.

"I would hasten to strike a note of caution against being lulled into a sense of complacency as we have learned that the unlawful activities of the group [LTTE] continue to this day," he said.

Describing few incidents in some countries where the authorities have arrested the LTTE members engaging in unlawful activities, the Minister said the complete removal of Emergency Regulations in Sri Lanka must be considered cautiously.

"Against this backdrop clarion calls for complete roll back of our emergency regulations must be considered," he said adding that the Sri Lanka has taken extensive measurements since the end of the conflict to repeal nearly 80 percent of the provisions in the Emergency Regulations.

The bare minimum that remains are required as safeguards against such ongoing unlawful activities of the LTTE, the Minister told the HRC. < [...]