Cablegate: Finland Will Not (yet) Support Listing the Ltte As

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

260946Z Sep 05

C O N F I D E N T I A L HELSINKI 001015

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2015
TAGS: PGOV KTFN PTER PREL CO FI
SUBJECT: FINLAND WILL NOT (YET) SUPPORT LISTING THE LTTE AS
A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION

REF: STATE 172115

Classified By: POLCHIEF GREGORY THOME, REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).

1. (C) PolChief delivered subject demarche to Ambassador
Mikko Pyhala, MFA office director for South Asia. Pyhala
noted that the GOF has publicly denounced the assassination
of the Sri Lankan foreign minister and continues to condemn
the LTTE both for other murders attributed to it and for its
use of child soldiers. However, he added, Finland did not
support the listing of the LTTE as a terrorist organization
when the subject came up at a Sept. 7 EU clearinghouse
meeting, and would not do so at an upcoming Oct. 10 meeting.

2. (C) Pyhala explained that the GOF has engaged in its own
direct mediation effort with the LTTE, to include hosting
visits for LTTE leaders to Finland. Finland also
participates actively in the 52 member Nordic monitoring
mission in Sri Lanka. Via these avenues, Pyhala said, the
GOF has made progress in convincing the LTTE to be more
forthcoming toward the peace process. Were Finland now to
support listing the LTTE as a terrorist organization, the
GOF's ability to influence both the LTTE and the overall
peace process would be lost. As such, Pyhala concluded,
Finland is not yet ready formally to abandon its diplomatic
efforts, even though it has, de facto, frozen all contact
with the LTTE for now in the wake of the Kadirgamar
assassination. Pyhala agreed that the LTTE continues to
engage in tactics that make it difficult to work with it in
good faith, and he emphasized that the GOF would not rule out
listing LTTE at some point in the future.
MACK

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