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A British ban on the Tamil Tiger guerrillas in Sri Lanka will not jeopardise the ongoing peace process, a visiting European Union delegation said on Saturday. "Terrorism must be condemned for what it is ... The LTTE has been banned in several countries, including the US. So we do not see any problems (for the peace process) if they are banned in Britain," said Gerard Collins, leader of a visiting European Parliamentary delegation at a news conference in Colombo. "The ban should not affect peace talks," Collins told a press conference stressing that the 15-member EU has requested the British government to ban all terrorist organisations. The EU parliament has also urged the governments of the member states to take steps to proscribe organisations operating in their territory which continue to provide financial and other support to LTTE activity in Sri Lanka. The delegation, responsible for relations with South Asia and SAARC arrived in Colombo last Monday [19] and held a series of meetings with politicians, clergy, the military and NGOs. They also visited Jaffna where delegates met the war-weary civilians. The Sri Lanka government has been pressing Britain to proscribe the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who maintain their "International Secretariat" in London. Collins further said that it is vital to bring the antagonists to the negotiating table and warned that the process could take years to bear fruit and there would be many obstacles along the way. The team of delegates who visited the embattled northern Jaffna peninsula said their first impression was that people there were resilient and he saw a "relaxed and calm atmosphere" as people interacted with security forces. However people living in these war-torn areas taste the bitter fruits of a seventeen-year old ethnic conflict which has already taken the lives of over 60,000 people. And it is a big challenge for peace-envoy Eric Solheim to get both the SL government and the LTTE to iron out all enmities and agree to a truce.
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