|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
SRI LANKA ENVOY SAYS TODAYS GLOBALIZATION MAKES ONE COUNTRYS TERRORISM THE PROBLEM OF OTHERSBy Walter JayawardhanaIn todays world context if terrorism exists in one nation it
inevitably becomes a problem transcending borders becoming an overwhelming
security challenge for the whole region said Jaliya Wickramasuriya,
the Sri Lanka Consul General in Los Angeles, addressing the World Affairs
Council of Orange County in Southern California. In a world that is increasingly growing smaller because of rapid
globalization, security challenges need to be viewed in a global perspective,
rather than regional, because of the profound effect of global inter-dependence
Wickramasuriya said. He said, In the current context, the most overwhelming security
challenge that nations within and beyond Asia face, is terrorism. The
reason is that if terrorism exists in one nation, it inevitably becomes
a regional and subsequently a global threat, because, through its very
nature, terrorism has the tendency to transcend borders. He said not only it killed neighboring Indias Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and encouraging extremist elements in South India for a separate state it has now spread its tentacles to neighboring Malaysia to destabilize the country using anarchist elements in the Malay Peninsula. As a result, the LTTE has been proscribed as a terrorist organization in many of the worlds democracies, such as India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and the twenty-seven member European Union. The LTTE sustains its terrorist activities through $200-300 million raised mainly in Western countries through such means as intimidation and extortion, narcotics trade, human trafficking, arms smuggling and a host of other business transactions. Through its money laundering network, the LTTE transfers these funds to other locations and use them mainly for procuring weapons, and influencing policy makers in targeted countries. Foreign funds apparently collected for charity, are diverted for terrorist purposes. This is a security challenge that many Asian nations are forced to grapple with today. The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, or the TRO, an LTTE linked charity,
is under investigation in many Western countries. On November 15, 2007,
the United States designated the TRO as an LTTE front organization and
froze its assets. As Jeffrey Breinholt, Deputy Counter-terrorism Chief
at the US Department of Justice said, terrorists are constantly looking
for new methods to avoid detection and secure funding. The Consul General
further said, this is another irksome challenge for Asian nations, as
limited resources place an added burden on their abilities to protect
themselves against the challenge of trans-national terrorism. For many
nations, such security challenges have become more diverse and multifaceted
in an interconnected world, and they increasingly face secessionist,
ethnic and other intra-state tensions, Wickramasuriya added. He further said the scope of the terrorist threat makes it clear, that no single country can hope to succeed, in fighting the war against terrorism, alone. As President George Bush has reiterated over and over, the global threat of terrorism requires a global strategy and a global response. Sri Lanka knows the value of international cooperation in fighting terrorism. Neither the arrests of LTTE activists in New York, Baltimore, Indonesia and Guam in 2006, nor the Sri Lanka Navys successful destruction of eleven vessels carrying arms and ammunition to the LTTE within a space of thirteen months since September 2006, could have happened without close and consistent international cooperation in fighting terrorism. In engaging the international community to fight terrorism and being
party to the global effort to counter this menace, Sri Lanka has worked
diligently at strengthening its linkages with the international community.
It cooperates with a range of countries in tracking terrorist financing
networks, and monitors over 300,000 financial transactions involving
its bank every month for any suspicious transactions. Sri Lanka, thus
recognizes the value of law enforcement agencies around the world cooperating
with each other and maintaining their focus. Its relentless efforts
have produced considerable results. |
||||||||||||
|
Disclaimer: The comments contained
within this website are personal reflection only and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the LankaWeb. LankaWeb.com offers the contents
of this website without charge, but does not necessarily endorse the
views and opinions expressed within. Neither the LankaWeb nor the individual
authors of any material on this Web site accept responsibility for any
loss or damage, however caused (including through negligence), which
you may directly or indirectly suffer arising out of your use of or
reliance on information contained on or accessed through this Web site.
Copyright
© 1997-2004 www.lankaweb.Com
Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved. |