Some years ago it was politically correct to start a presentation of the LTTE by characterising it as a “ruthless” organisation. Many intellectuals have fallen in line with this trend, including myself. It was a kind of entry ticket to sober academic and human rights’ circles. Today, under American influence, “ruthless” has been replaced by
The following summary tries to explain in short why the LTTE wants and needs to visit European, and generally Western countries. The LTTE motivations are two, educational and political. Coming to the educational motivation, the LTTE delegations in Europe took much trouble in educating themselves about different systems of state building and about democracy. Just
In answer to the massive demonstration and numerous petitions of predominantly Tamil refugees living in Europe against the travel ban of official LTTE delegations announced by the EU presidency on September 26, 2005, the EU commissioner for External Affairs, Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner in an Open Letter of December 22, 2005 underlined the continued concern of the EU
