The militant nationalist group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers, has been waging a violent secessionist movement against the Sri Lankan government since the 1970s. The Tigers main goal has remained the same for the couple dozen years, to break away from the Sri Lankan government that has discriminated against ethnic Tamils and to create a sovereign socialists Tamil state in northeast Sri Lanka.
However years of terroristic attacks, suicide bombing, assassinations, criminal activities, and allegations of attempted ethnic cleansing, has tainted the once pure intentions and turned the LTTE into what the FBI called “the most dangerous and deadly extremists” terrorist organizations in the world.
The Council on Foreign Relations describes the Tamils as an ethic group consisting of over 20 million people that reside in the southern region of India and the northeastern regions of the island, Sri Lanka. According to CFR, Tamils make up an estimated 10% of Sri Lanka’s total population and most of them identify as Hindu and speak a Tamil language. During colonial rule the Tamil minority where perceived to get preferential treatment from British imperials and thus in the wakes of independence Tamils began to be persecuted by the ethnic group Sinhala that makes up more than 80% of the island’s population.
In 1948, Sri Lanka gained its independence with the majority Sinhalese in charge, according to the tamiltigers.net, Sinhalese began incorporating and administering policies based on race, specifically the Sinhala Only Act of 1956, which restricted government jobs to Sinhala speakers, along with making university admissions policies based on race and granting resettlement programs to Sinhalese villagers.
In the years following independence, groups of Tamil politicians began to fight against Sinhalese persecution, pushing for a federal system, proposing a controversial concept of a separate nation they were to call Tamil Eelam. A coalition of political parties united in the Tamil United Liberation Front in 1977 to campaign for a separate and independent state for ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka. This is the time period that Velupillai Prabhakaran founded LTTE, attracting supporters among the frustrated and disenchanted Tamil population.
It began with small local attacks, but evolved into massive attacks targeted to unravel Sri Lanka’s government. The LTTE has established a military like structure with infantry, naval, and air forces. Tamiltigers.net has researched the weaponry and military capability of the Tigers and has determined that a large percentage of weaponry has come from international arms deals working on the black market.
In 1987, LTTE set up Black Tigers a unit of the LTTE responsible for suicide attacks and launched its first suicide attack against a Sri Lankan Army camp, killing dozens of soldiers. The FBI and others say that the Tamil Tigers not only perfected the usage of suicide bombers, but also invented the suicide belt, tactics that are used by other terrorists groups such as al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas. LTTE has taken credit for tons of acts of state terrorism, including the 1993 assassination of Sri Lanka’s 3rd president Ranasinghe Premadasa.
CNN reports over 70,000 people have died since 1983 because of the conflict between LTTE militia and Sri Lankan troops. Sri Lanka also has the second highest number of disappearances according to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, which is blamed on both Sri Lankan government and LTTE because of their abuse of human rights, extrajudicial executions, and massacres of political prisoners.
Velupillai Pirapaharan, the national leader of Tamil Eelam, in his Heroes’ Day Message, 2003 said “our people do not want war. We want peace and we want to resolve our problems through peaceful means”. Pirapaharan emphasizes peace in that quote, but in 2008 the Tigers took credit for more than 20 acts of terrorism.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has focused on making a more aggressive effort to end the Tamil Tigers, starting in November 2008 with attacks against LTTE strongholds. January 2, 2009 marked an enormous victory for Sri Lanka with government forces retaking the city of Kilinochchi where LTTE was running a parallel de facto administration with its own police force, courts, prisons, and taxes.
On January 25th, the government celebrated the capture of the last LTTE stronghold in Mullaittivu. President Rajapaksa declared victory after retaking Kilinochchi, calling for the rebels to lay down their arms. Though major battles were over, Sri Lankan forces spent most of the month of January trying to finish off the remaining rebels, seeking refuge in and around Mullaittivu. Lt. General Sarath Fonseka declared the conflict against the Tamil Tigers 95% over, but LTTE officials have responded with desperate claims to return to practicing guerrilla warfare.
