Sri Lanka halves list of banned Tamil groups

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has halved the number of Tamil diaspora groups banned by his predecessor for having links with the LTTE, as part of his efforts to reconcile with the ethnic minority community.

Eight such groups were delisted according to a gazette notification on November 20, but the ban was retained on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was defeated by Lankan forces in 2009 after a bloody three-decade civil war.

According to the notification, the government has lifted bans on British Tamil Forum, Canadian Tamil Congress, Australian Tamil Congress, Global Tamil Forum, National Council of Canadian Tamils, Tamil National Council, Tamil Youth Organisation and World Tamil Coordinating Committee.

In March 2014, 16 organisations and 424 individuals were proscribed by the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime after the outfits were accused of raising funds for the LTTE. But the latest gazette notification bans only eight organisations and 155 individuals.