In Sri Lanka: Explaining the Tamil Tigers

Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers (LTTE) are considered a terrorist organization by 32 countries. Their soldiers wore cyanide vials for consumption upon capture.

They invented the suicide belt and pioneered the use of suicide bombing as a tactic.

They also pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks and forcibly kidnapped and inducted child soldiers. Over 5,000 child soldiers have been reported.

According to Jane's Information Group, between 1980 and 2000 the LTTE carried out 168 suicide attacks causing heavy damage on economic and military targets.

Women were used extensively in the Tamil military.

According to the F.B.I, "the LTTE has perfected the use of suicide bombers, invented the suicide belt, pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks, murdered some 4,000 people in the past two years alone, and assassinated two world leaders - the only terrorist organization to do so."

The Sri Lankan government has battled the Tamil Tigers on two fronts for almost three decades: on the battlefield and in the arena of world opinion. No one thought they could win militarily, but they did.

In the days of the conflict's end, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon appealed to the Tigers to stop using children as hostages, to stop recruiting child soldiers, and to stop putting children in harms way.

The U.N. Security Council issued a statement, "We demand that the LTTE immediately lay down arms, renounce terrorism, allow a U.N.-assisted evacuation of the remaining civilians in the conflict area, and join the political process."

The U.N. acting representative for Sri Lanka, Amin Awad, said that 6,000 civilians had fled or were trying to flee, but that LTTE was firing on them to prevent them from escaping.

In spite of the use of children by the Tigers as soldiers and hostages, the Sri Lankan military was able to defeat them slowly, surely - and cautiously.

First they won militarily, and then they won diplomatically in Switzerland, as Sri Lanka held off an attempt by the European Union to call for an investigation of so-called human rights abuses.

Although the Sri Lankan government has succeeded in stopping the former colonial powers from lecturing them in Geneva, sentiment runs deeply against Sri Lanka from London to Toronto, and even down into New York and Washington.

As an American who has been actively involved with Sri Lanka since the Tsunami, I have never understood this.

I am beginning to. The Tamil Tigers not only created the world's most powerful terrorist organization -- the only one ever to have a full army, navy, and air force -- but they created a network within the 1.2 million Tamil Diaspora that is almost as powerful.

British Tamils have protested Sri Lanka's ending the Tigers.

Disturbingly, another factor may also be involved. Racism. I often wonder why the Fight Against Terrorism seems to be a white man's fight, and when in the word's of Teddy Roosevelt, our "little brown brothers" stand up for themselves, somehow charges of abuse and rights violations are leveled by the West.

When the U.S. invaded Iraq, with the full cooperation of the U.K., many civilians were killed. As have been killed in Afghanistan. Not to mention abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

Perhaps the specter of a developing nation conquering terrorism is galling to us in the developed world, knowing Osama Bin Laden has eluded our best efforts to capture him.

We seem to suffer from Empty Nest Syndrome. We need to accept that our former colonies have grown up - and can now stand for themselves.

LTTE Sea Tiger supply freighter sunken by the Sri Lanka Air Force.

The Tamil Tigers were defeated despite being far better organized than Al-Qaeda. The Tigers had branches that included:

Sea Tigers - the Tiger navy, including submarines, which is said to have destroyed 50% of the Sri Lankan Navy's coastal craft.

Air Tigers - the Tiger air force, used for bombing Colombo. The LTTE became the first non-state organization to establish an air force.

Black Tigers - the Tiger suicide commando unit.

Tiger Intelligence - the intelligence wing.

Tiger Police - the Tamil Eelam police was a key factor in maintaining law and order. It was also an integrated arm of the LTTE armed force.

Tiger Courts - the LTTE judicial had district courts, high courts, a supreme court, and even a court of appeal.

Voice of Tigers - the LTTE ran its own radio and television stations.

Bank of Tamileelam - the LTTE also ran using Sri Lankan rupee.

This apparatus was used to ethnically "cleanse" Muslims from northern Sri Lanka from 1985-1992. It was also used to kill many Tamils who cooperated with the Sri Lankan government.

A LTTE Sea Tiger fast attack boat before the conflict ended.

Over the past thirty years' conflict, fought by the Tigers, Tamils were allowed to flee Sri Lanka and apply for refugee status in Canada, the U.K., and other nations friendly to humanitarian causes.

These refugees -- 1.2 million strong -- now vote. About 300,000 in Canada, another 300,000 in the E.U., with an additional 200,000 in the U.S. A Canadian official has confided to me in Colombo that his government fears the Tamil-Canadian vote.

India would like to return the more than 100,000 Tamil refugees living in the Indian province of Tamil Nadu. Canada, by comparison, plans to encourage "family reunification," bringing those who never escaped over to join those who left years ago.

Sri Lanka has a per capita income of under $2,000 per year. Has the Diaspora been as economically motivated as it has been politically? I would rather have had the economic support of Canada than live in Jaffna under the Tigers.

The Tamil Tigers, known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), were formally established in 1976. Its leader, killed two weeks ago in the north of Sri Lanka, was Velupillai Prabhakaran. The Tigers were a successor to the Tamil New Tigers, active since the late 1950s.

In death, Velupillai Prabhakaran, two weeks ago.

The Tigers maintain to this day an enormous war chest -- funded by extortion to their own people combined with drug running -- and the race to control it following the death of their leader has been intense.

According to many experts, a significant portion is obtained through criminal activities, involving sea piracy, human smuggling, drug trafficking, and gunrunning.

The Tigers are estimated to have raised $300 million annually. Let us see these Tamil organizations in Europe and North America now contribute to helping rebuild Sri Lanka's devastated North and East coasts.

Tamil-Canadian demonstrators against Sri Lanka in Toronto.

One man who hopes to assume the Tiger throne, "K.P.", is listed by the Interpol as being one of the world's most dangerous terrorists.

K.P. allegedly masterminded the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India.

The Tamil Tigers links to international terrorism were legendary. They worked closely with the Palestine Liberation Organization and trained members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Southern Lebanon.

The LTTE was involved in the 1990s in training the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), both of which are closely linked to al-Qaeda.

The Times of India has written about the alleged nexus between al-Qaeda and the LTTE, and claims that "[al-Qaeda links with the LTTE] are the first instance of an Islamist group collaborating with an essentially secular outfit."

It was rumored that the Indonesian group Jemaah Islamiya, which has known links to al-Qaeda, was trained in sea-borne guerrilla tactics by LTTE Sea Tiger veterans.

Reports have stated that the Tamil community in Norway, at the behest of the LTTE, sold fake and stolen Norwegian passports to al-Qaeda members.

Tamil-Norwegian demonstrators against Sri Lanka in Oslo.

There are several Tamil political parties today in Sri Lanka. These parties are actively engaged in the political fabric of the nation and warmly welcomed as part of the recovery process. Fourteen members of Parliament are Tamil already.

The only hope for the Tiger's future legitimacy is to claim to renounce violence and embrace the democratic process in Sri Lanka. One former Tamil sympathizer in London has written, 'our liberator became our Pol Pot.' Too little too late.

And the hatred continues. One angry commenter to my last story in the Huffington Post hoped the LTTE remnants would assassinate Sri Lanka's president and defense minister. In the U.S., threatening the life of the president is a prisonable offense.

The Sri Lanka government has no intention of allowing one of the world's largest terrorist organizations back into its nation -- anymore than the U.S. would allow Bin Laden to renounce violence and run for the U.S. Senate.

Comments

[Nadika Munasinghe]

Dear Mr Jim Lunce

Your Article is like a breath of freash air. Thanks for giving credit where it is due. Please keep up the good work. Looking forward to reading more of your article. I am Naika Munasinghe from Sri Lanka.

[PeacelovingHuman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyAn0vw70G8&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIsxB-tGBRY&NR=1

Do you think Buddhist racist monks let all the people (tamil, christian, muslim, sinhala) live in peace in SL. People don't even dream and celebrate that war is over. very soon see the final chapter of the war.

[No-more-ltte]

He hee, weather its "fascist Buddhist regime" or not Sri Lanka government kick LTTE's but into the grave!! Get use to it!

[jferdy5]

Good perspective Jim. But there's one issue Tamils don't want to address: Tamil nationalism. They dislike Indians from northern India, any religion that isn't Hinduism, and other languages. Central to Tamil nationalism is the construction of the "Tamil race" which argues that the differences between Tamils and Hindi/Northern Indians//non-Tamil speakers/M­uslims/Bud­dhists/any­one is not just cultural or linguistic: its biological. As well, you'll see a lot of "Tamil nativism" in the posts here: people arguing that Tamils are the original "natives" of the area and everyone else is an invader or oppressor. Other political forms of Tamil nationalism include Hindraf (in Malaysia), where they use the "Hindu" label when it's politically expedient, and in India, try looking up an Indian Tamil nationalist named "Vaiko" who called for a "race war" and a "blood bath" in India if Tamils didn't get a separate (ethnically pure) nation state. This earned him the moniker "Vaiko the psycho." Sure, you could argue that many Sinhala dislike Tamils, but I suspect that Tamils have long disliked Sinhala (and anyone else, for that matter) long before.

[PeacelovingHuman]

To pineapple58 and other fans of terrorist GOSL. you people agreed before 543 BCE, there is no Buddhism in illankai, illankaitheepam or Thamaraparani (previous names for the current SL which name changed by sinhala extremist government). Read Ramayana, then you will know before 543 BCE, Hinduism was in this country. To other comment, Tamil diapora, sent a ship load of aid supplies, GOSL sent back that ship.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8087817.stm

All tamil people from europe and north america like to go back there and rebuild our ownland. GOSL won't welcome and campaigning all europian and north american tamils are terrorist. Read below link, what happened to sinhala people, To tamil people?

http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090607/onthespot.htm

Do you think war is over? not really, when SL have disagreement with India, Then you will see the final chapter of the war. That is not so far. wait and see.

Jim Luce wants to retire and spend rest of the life in a paradise. He choosed the place.

[No-more-ltte]

Grow up friend!! Sri Lanka need to be Sri Lanka, and should not infect by the LTTE and radical terrorists ideology! You may consider go to Sweden and ask for a separate state!

BTW, I got to know Prabakaran is fighting for a separate state in HELL, you may want to join with your radical friends for that fight.

[PeacelovingHuman]

You know what I am against LTTE. Prabakaran is the one brought the tamils to this situation today. Prabakaran killed most of the tamil leaders an also people. I don't see any different between Prabakaran and rajapakse brothers. Prabakaran uses suicide bombs. rajapakse brothers white van attacks. we are growing friend. you people are not growing and not changing since 1956. you can destroy people who is telling or writing the truth. but you cant destroy the true history. friend I am talking here human being. you understand if you have brain and grown up

[MARKHAMRIC]

Great article - congrats to the author. Finally we get a glimpse of the higher level issues versus the 'he said, she said' rethoric that we hear especially from the Tamil diaspora. The global fight on terrorism has won a major battle for sure. I am certain that many countries are studying how this was even possible and are secretly celebrating but envious of the success of the conflict. There is huge Tiger wealth remaining and wonder who will step up to claim the prize.

[Asanka]

Excellent article. Cleverly and deliberately whitewashing all the crimes committed by the Sinhalese and their Sri Lankan govt for 60 years. All the discrimination, murders, rapes, ethnic cleansing by the Sinhalese and their Sri Lankan govt on Tamils for 60 years have been cleverly and deliberately omitted by Mr.Jim Luce probably at the request of Sri Lankan govt. Opposing brutal ethnic repression and genocide is terrorism for Mr.Jim Luce. Sinhalese and their Sri Lankan govt who wants to completely annihilate all the Tamils from Sri Lanka will be extremely happy with this article.

[pineapple58]

wow...excellent article.
I see that some of the pro-LTTE sympathizers want you to go back in history back to the 40s and 50s...in that case if you are interested in readying please do think about reading the years before that. Sri Lanka's Great Chronicle - The Mahavamsa will help you understand more about this complex problem. Here's a few links you might be interested in Jim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sri_lanka#cite_note-25 - Wiki on History of SL
http://lakdiva.org/codrington/ - Short History of SL by H.W. Codrington
http://mahavamsa.org/ - The Great Chronicle of SL

To the Tiger Diaspora - I'm noticing that all you people do is complain and nit pick at everything the SLgov is unable to do. Here's an idea! ....Why don't you all go down there and help these people(IDPs)! Go and give the food/clothing/and other things they need!

There's a huge gap between what's needed and what's actually getting done in the camps. Fill the GAP!...the sinhalese in the south have started doing this. ...The brotherhood train from Matara all the way to Vavuniya were able to get food/medic­ine/shelte­r worth up $25mil!

The SL AirForce airlifts 200,000 rice packed meals from Colombo daily.

Funny how you don't anything good that is happening in SL in western media, except from Jim Luce and the excellent work he's doing there! Bravo!

[Deepan Dev]

I didnt certainly expect this from the huffington post, to post this article which just support the facist buddhist regime, which has involved in genocide of the innocent tamils, and potrayed tiers as rebels they are nobel in their cause please know the history before posting these kind of articles.

[PeacelovingHuman]

An other fictonal story by pro GOSL. Jim, you need know more about SL history. If you go back to 1948 after British, GOSL brought "Sinhala Languge only" in 1956. That time there were no rebel groups, but 100s of tamils killed by sinhala thugs monitored by police forces. And again in 1958 hunreads killed and displaced by singala thugs and forces. In 1971, Burnt the Jaffna library ( heart of the education for tamil people) By uneducated sinhala forces. What happened in 1977? There were no resistant groupe in this time. thousands of tamil people killed and displaced. In 1983, all world know what happend to tamil people.
As you said, GOSL is doing good job, why not allowing any aid groups and journalist in that places and camps?. Why journalist are get killed, attacked, deported and running away from SL?
Jim, first you need to educate yourself about srilanka and then write article and make money. You were in banking business before you come to this. FYI, read the below links,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8085403.stm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6441067.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6368059.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/photo_galleries/article6382050.ece?slideshowPopup=true&articleId=6382050&sectionName=WorldAsia
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/world/asia_pacific/sri+lanka+20000+civilians+killed/3180857
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/thousands+flee+sri+lanka+bombardment/3141662

[QuantumofSilence]

Excellent Article. Thanks..

[Seneviratne]

Excellent article showing the VERY TRUE picture of recently defeated TAMIL TIGERS. One of the reason why West and Tamils are supporting this brutal terror organization is , their very strong false propaganda and mis-information campaign that has even mislead world leadrs like Mrs Clinton, Mr Obama, and Mr Paul Martin (Ex PM, Canada). Tamil Tigers on their pay roll are working full time to spread false propaganda and brain wash western politicians and also UN.
Only brave and true journalist like you and Stewart Bell (National Post) can educate these Westerners about the danger and the true picture of Tamil Tiger terrrorists since they are still active in Western world. Truth will always win!

[CASC]

Excellent article.

It shows how a terrorist organization has access to the corridors of power in the capitals of the western world. Even in the United States, a highly paid top lobbyist, in Washington, a former assistant attorney general represents the interests of the same terrorist organization by filing frivolous lawsuits against top officials of the Sri Lanka government.

[ModerateSL]

I never thought western writers are so knowledgeble about the Sri Lankan issue.

Those who criticise him shoud do so with credible and objective facts. Not rubbish like 'genocide' or '20,000 civilian deaths during this year'.

[mrhuge]

Well another "expert" who obviously has jumped in the middle, ignoring all the history, listened to some sinhalese hard liner and is now trying to explain to the world. This is how much he know about the subject, the picture with the caption "In life, Tamil supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran" is not even a picture of Prabhakaran. It is a picture of the Soosai, commander of the Sea Tigers.
Next time before you explain to the world, at least get your facts from both sides.

[SandrainSriLanka]

One of the problems with the people who are "incarcerated" in the "concentration camps" is the INGO's which would like to get to some of them and see to it that they get them out of the camps before GoSL. It would be in their interests to get Tiger supporters out of the camps before GoSL can get to them in the camps. If GoSL got to them and found out the extent of the support of, in particular, white Commonwealth/EU nations, there would be more embarrassment than there is at present to the govts thereof.

INGO's have tried to smuggle people out of the camps and contraband into the camps. They also cry for us to return people home before treating their wounds or demining the roads/fields ahead of them. This is not the behavious one expects of democratic nations and certainly not the kind of pressure to bring to bear upon the democratically elected leaders of Sri Lanka. Why have similar concerns not been raised in Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and so on? What are Western govts so keen on hiding in Sri Lanka?

[bellepepper02]

Given that the Sri Lankan government will not allow independent inquiry into whether they have committed human rights abuses against Tamil civilians, we can only rely on logic to figure out the truth.

Why should EU and other Western governments support the Tigers when Tigers have been linking up with and training other terrorist groups, including Al Queda, which are targetted against the West? Why should the West rescue Tigers from Sri Lanka and thereby import terrorists into their own country? Does this make sense to you?

Why does the Sri Lanka government refuse an international inquiry (made up of non-Western as well as Western states) into their human rights abuses if they are innocent?

Why is the Sri Lankan regime not interested in proving that they did not shell hospitals by providing evidence to the contrary, instead of arresting doctors who have made such accusations and thereby silence them?

While a few hundred thousand Tamil civilians are suffering from malnutrition and illnesses in the unhygienic government camps, why is the First Lady and the President's son running to set up a Buddhist temple in the Tamil area of Jaffna when they should be focussed on providing food and care for the displaced citizens? Why the urgency for this? Maybe they are hoping that when the Tamils object to the temple, the SL army can then finish off the Tamils in Jaffna? Is this not instigation to violence?