AUSTRALIAN RESPONSE TO SRI LANKA CONTACT GROUP

C O N F I D E N T I A L CANBERRA 001311 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/28/2016 TAGS: MARR PHUM PINS PREL PTER AS SUBJECT: AUSTRALIAN RESPONSE TO SRI LANKA CONTACT GROUP EXPERTS MEETING INVITATION REF: A. STATE 140812 ¶B. STATE 107231 ¶C. CANBERRA 888 ¶D. STATE 94541 Classified By: Acting Polcouns John W. Crowley, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (U) This is an action request. Please see para 6. ¶2. (SBU) Poloff met with Nigel Stanier, Executive Officer for South and West Asia, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on August 28, 2006, to follow up Ref A invitation for Australia to participate in the Contact Group's expert level meeting in Washington on September 27. ¶3. (C/NF) Stanier expressed surprise upon learning of the August 24 meeting, and to hear that no Australian Embassy representative had attended. The Australian Embassy in Washington had earlier relayed advice from unnamed contacts in the Department that the Contact Group initiative "had been overtaken by events," he said, giving Canberra the impression that the initiative had been suspended. ¶4. (C/NF) Noting Foreign Minister Downer's strong personal interest in the deterioration of the ceasefire in Sri Lanka, Stanier said the GOA would plan to send a representative, if not from Canberra then from the Embassy in Washington, to the September 27 meeting. On the question of Australia's confirmed participation in the Contact Group, he said the GOA is not yet ready to commit, pending additional details about how the Contact Group will operate, but wanted to have a presence at Contact Group meetings. ¶5. (C/NF) On the status of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE),Stanier said the GOA had not yet made a decision whether to go beyond its current sanctions (asset freezing and travel restrictions) against the LTTE and to list the LTTE as a terrorist organization under its domestic laws. Recent developments in Sri Lanka had "encouraged" the GOA to lean more strongly in that direction, however. He cited as examples the increase in LTTE-perpetrated violence and some disturbing indications that it was targeting non-Sri Lankan interests, such as the recent attack on the Pakistani High Commission. ¶6. (SBU) ACTION REQUEST: There appears to have been some disconnect between the Australian Embassy and the Department regarding the Contact Group. Embassy would appreciate Department's assistance in contacting the Australian Embassy to offer a briefing on the Contact Group's activities, or, alternatively, providing us with the name of a contact we can pass to the Australian Embassy through DFAT. OWENS