COLOMBO, 30 March, 2021, (TON): Sri Lanka will ban all groups who promote the LTTE ideology or separatism in Sri Lanka. Cabinet co-spokesman Udaya Gammanpila said that Sri Lanka is not prepared to engage with such groups or individuals.

Speaking at the post Cabinet press conference today, Gammanpila said that Sri Lanka does not recognize the term diaspora.

He said that diaspora is a Greek term used when Jews were expelled from Israel. "Nobody has been expelled from Sri Lanka. There is no diaspora as such," he said.

Gammanpila said that Sri Lanka will closely engage with the expatriate community but will ban any group or individual who promotes the ideology of the LTTE. "The LTTE is proscribed in Sri Lanka and separatism is banned under our Constitution," he said.

The Minister said that anyone who prop ages the ideology in Sri Lanka or overseas and anyone who promotes separatism will be banned. The Government has already banned a number of Tamil diaspora groups, including some influential organizations based in the UK.

Some of the groups were banned in 2014 but were de-listed by the Government in 2015. The Global Tamil Forum (GTF), British Tamil Forum (BTF), Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), Australian Tamil Congress (ATC), National Council of Canadian Tamil, Tamil Youth Organization, and the World Tamil Coordinating Committee have been proscribed by the Ministry of Defense.

They have been banned under Regulation 4(7) of the United Nations Regulations No. 1 of 2012.