Ruling out talks with the LTTE till the outlawed outfit agreed to disarm, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has accused Britain of double standards in dealing with the global menace of terrorism.
The President, who was in London to attend the 'mini-summit' of the Commonwealth this week, asked the British government to take effective steps to prevent the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from raising funds in the UK which are sent back home for buying weapons.
Indirectly accusing the British government of adopting double standards, Rajapaksa said: "You can't have two different attitudes towards terrorism. I don't agree that
there are good terrorists and bad terrorists. There is only one kind of terrorist."
There are about 150,000 Tamils living in Britain, mostly in North London. The Sri Lankans estimate that 70 million pounds is sent home every year.
"These are not voluntary contributions. The money is taken by force usually a percentage of their income. The money is sent back to buy weapons. London is not the only place,
money is also sent from Europe, Canada and other places," Rajapakse told The Times.
Rajapakse said that he was taking steps to protect human rights. He blamed his government's poor international reputation on "clever propaganda" by the Tamil Tigers.
"We have failed in the propaganda war," he confessed.
Rajapaksa insisted that in spite of the cost in lives and damage inflicted to Sri Lanka's tourist trade he would not resume peace talks with the Tamil Tigers until the organisation agreed to disarm.
"When they are weak they call on the international community to arrange a ceasefire. During this period they train and rearm and then fight back. This time if they want to talk they should disarm first," Rajapaksa said.
Sri Lankan President Rajapakse described the LTTE leader Prabhakaran and his coterie as blood-thirsty killers.
"This man and the three or four henchmen around him are blood-thirsty killers. They have no feelings. It is very difficult to deal with them."
At least 70,000 people have been killed in the civil war that the LTTE has fought since 1983 for a separate state for the Tamils in the island nation, alleging marginalisation of the minority community for decades by successive governments dominated by the Sinhalese.
Reports of fighting in the country have increased in recent months amid government's declaration to crush the LTTE by the end of the year.
Fighting, which has escalated in the past two years, further flared after the government in January pulled out of the 2002 cease-fire pact with the rebels.