Sri Lanka bans overseas groups for terror links

The Sri Lankan government Tuesday banned 16 groups operating overseas for their alleged terror links, the country's defence ministry said.

Defence ministry spokesman Ruwan Wanigasooriya said that the ban was enforced under UN Security Council Resolution 1373 which was implemented following the September 2001 terrorist attack in the US, Xinhua reported.

He said that apart from the Tamil Tiger rebels, the government has listed 15 other groups operating overseas.

Among those listed are the Global Tamil Forum, the British Tamils Forum and the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam.

"Under the ban, legal action will be taken against anyone having links with those groups," he said.

The ban also lists four influential Tamil diaspora activists -- Perinbanayagam Sivaparan alias Nediyavan, Reverend Father S.J. Emmanuel, Visuvanathan Ruthirakumaran and Sekarampillai Vinayakamoorthy.

The move comes after most of these groups had been successful in their heavily funded campaigns to convince foreign countries to back a US-sponsored resolution at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva last week.

The UNHRC was meanwhile informed by the Sri Lankan government that the Tamil Tigers were regrouping in the north of Sri Lanka after their defeat in the 30-year war in May 2009.