FINLAND WILL NOT (YET) SUPPORT LISTING THE LTTE AS

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