Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
World Tamil Association (WTA)
World Tamil Movement (WTM)
Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils (FACT)
Ellalan Force
On 17 May 2009 Sri Lanka's rebels announced they would be laying down their guns to prevent what they call further unnecessary slaughter of Tamil civilians by government troops. The island nation's military says it has defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, ending a long civil war, and has rescued nearly 200,000 trapped civilians. Sri Lanka's government congratulated itself on a job well done, defeating terrorism and rescuing all civilians from its clutches. The country's disaster-relief and human-rights minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe, spoke to reporters in the capital. "The military phase is over. The LTTE has been militarily defeated. Now the biggest hostage rescue operation in the world has come to a conclusion," Samarasinghe. "The figure I have here is since 20th of April, 179,000 hostages have been rescued."
Tamil rebels began an armed uprising in 1983, after they complained of discrimination against the minority Tamil community. The rebels said they want wide-ranging autonomy for Tamil-dominated areas under their control in the north and the east.
The Tamil people of the island of Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka) constitute a distinct nation. They form a social entity, with their own history, traditions, culture, language and traditional homeland. The Tamil people call their nation'Tamil Eelam'. Founded in 1976, the LTTE was the most powerful Tamil group in Sri Lanka and used overt and illegal methods to raise funds, acquire weapons, and publicize its cause of establishing an independent Tamil state. The LTTE began its armed conflict with the Sri Lankan Government in 1983 and relied on a guerrilla strategy that included the use of terrorist tactics. The group's elite Black Tiger squad conducted suicide bombings against important targets, and all rank-and-file members carried a cyanide capsule to kill themselves rather than allow themselves to be caught. The LTTE was very insular and highly organized with its own intelligence service, naval element (the Sea Tigers), and women's political and military wings.
Strength
There were approximately 10,000 armed combatants in Sri Lanka; about 3,000 to 6,000 formed a trained cadre of fighters. The LTTE also had a significant overseas support structure for fundraising, weapons procurement, and propaganda activities. The LTTE also had its own naval wing designated the Sea Tigers.
Location/Area of Operation
at one time the Tigers controlled most of the northern and eastern coastal areas of Sri Lanka, and had conducted operations throughout the island. Headquartered in the Wanni region, LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had established an extensive network of checkpoints and informants to keep track of any outsiders who entered the group's area of control.
External Aid
The LTTE's overt organizations supported Tamil separatism by lobbying foreign governments and the United Nations. The LTTE also used its international contacts to procure weapons, communications, and bombmaking equipment. The LTTE exploited large Tamil communities in North America, Europe, and Asia to obtain funds and supplies for its fighters in Sri Lanka. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were involved in numerous trans national criminal activities, including partnerships with Pakistani heroin producers/traffickers, alien smuggling, extortion from Tamil families living abroad, and various forms of fraud. All this in order to raise funds for their insurgent activities in Sri Lanka
Activities/Developments
The LTTE integrated a battlefield insurgent strategy with a terrorist program that targeted key government and military personnel, the economy, and public infrastructure. Political assassinations included the suicide bomber attacks against Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993 and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, which was the group's only known act outside Sri Lanka. The LTTE detonated two massive truck bombs directed against the Sri Lankan economy, one at the Central Bank in January 1996 and another at the Colombo World Trade Center in October 1997. The LTTE also attacked several ships in Sri Lankan waters, including foreign commercial vessels and infrastructure targets such as commuter trains, buses, oil tanks, and power stations. The LTTE prefered to attack vulnerable government facilities then withdraw before reinforcements arrive, or to time its attacks to take advantage of security lapses on holidays, at night, or in the early morning.
The LTTE also attacked several commercial ships flying foreign flags in the waters off the north and east of the country. In 1998, threats were directed at domestic air carriers flying between Colombo and Jaffna, and in September of that year, a domestic civilian aircraft flying from Colombo to Jaffna crashed, killing everyone on board. The cause of the accident is still unknown.
Bomb attacks remained the greatest terrorist hazard. The LTTE attempted or carried out numerous political assassinations or attempts. In 1999, suicide bombings resulted in the death of 30 persons and injury to 143 others in Colombo, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Jaffna and Medawachchi. In January 2000, a suicide bomber killed more than a dozen and wounded several passers-by when she detonated her bomb outside the Prime Minister's Office after being detected by security personnel. In March 2000, as many as eight LTTE terrorists attacked a government motorcade traveling on a major Colombo thoroughfare, killing 25 people and wounding many others. In June 2000, a suicide bomber assassinated the Minister for Industrial Development in a Colombo suburb. Twenty-one others were killed and 60 people were injured in the attack. In October 2000, two American and one British women and their Sri Lankan driver were seriously injured in their vehicle in Central Colombo when an LTTE suicide bomber confronted by police exploded his device rather than surrender. Three policemen were killed. In October 2001, an LTTE suicide bomber stopped by police in the vicinity of an election rally in Colombo detonated his device rather than surrender, killing five people and injuring 16 others.
In addition to individual suicide bombers, vehicle-mounted bombs were used by the LTTE. Major hotels have been directly affected by terrorist activities and could be again because of their proximity to likely economic, government and military targets
In January 1998, the Temple of the Tooth, an important religious and tourist site in Kandy, was subjected to a truck bomb; eight people were killed, and the temple, nearby businesses and an historic hotel were damaged.
Small bombs were frequently placed against infrastructure targets such as telephone switchgear or electrical power transformers. Public buses have also been the targets of terrorist attacks. In September 1999, bombs were detonated in buses in separate incidents in Negombo and Badula. In one week in February 2000, seven separate explosions of bombs left on public buses in Colombo and other cities killed three and wounded over 140 people. Bombs have also been found on trains and on train roadbeds, resulting in one death and injuries to over 50 people.
In May 2000, the Sri Lankan Government activated provisions of the Public Security Ordinance, giving certain government authorities sweeping powers to deal with threats to national security. The next month the LTTE gained a signifigant victory in taking the Elephant pass army garrison, located in a town on the Jaffna Peninnsula.
In February 2002 the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government signed a cease fire agreement brokered by Norway. As of June 2003 the agreement appeared to be dissolving. The LTTE claimed the government has done little to address rebel concerns and deliver on the promises made during the six rounds of peace talks. The LTTE wanted to draft an independent Tamil administration, while the Sri Lankan government was willing to go only as far as granting financial autonomy. The impasse came as involved parties planned to meet in Tokyo for a Sri Lankan financial aid conference.
Sri Lanka's president Chandrika Kumaratunga took over three government ministries, including the defense ministry, and suspended parliament in a move analysts say was aimed at weakening her political rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Now that the president is in control of the defense ministry, analysts say it is unclear if the president is in charge of the peace plan or if it remains in the hands of the prime minister. Given the president's hard-line approach to peace negotiations, her actions cast doubt on whether the nearly two-year-old ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels from would hold.
The peace process had been going ahead. The ceasefire agreement held for 20 months - this had never happened before in Sri Lanka. And for the first time since the armed conflict started, the LTTE put down in writing and sent a proposal. The proposal from the Tigers was a five-year plan for self-government in parts of Sri Lanka where there is a majority of ethnic Tamils. It was supposed to be discussed during the next round of negotiations. President Kumaratunga criticized the proposal, which she said amounts to virtual separation of Tamil areas from the rest of Sri Lanka.
In late January 2004 Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels warned that a newly-formed political alliance, including the country's president, could lead the country back into war. The alliance said it planned to review Norway's role as peace mediator between the government and the rebels. Tamil Rebel leader Anton Balasingham called the political alliance formed between President Chandrika Kumaratunga's Sri Lankan Freedom party and a hard-line Marxist group an "anti-peace pact." Balasingham accused the new alliance of taking "confused" positions on a serious national issue, and said this could create conditions for a resumption of the country's two-decade-long civil war. The alliance said it did not want a return to war, and supports continued negotiations with the rebels.
An aide to President Kumaratunga said the "excessive internationalization" of the conflict had endangered the country's sovereignty. Norway played a leading role in the peace process between the rebels and the government. It mediated a truce between the two sides, and helped facilitate six rounds of talks between them since. But the Norwegians put peace talks on hold in November 2003, after a political dispute between President Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe left doubts about who in the government managed the peace process. The crisis was triggered by the president's takeover of three ministries from the prime minister's government. The president and prime minister are of different parties, and in Sri Lanka they are elected separately. The Norwegians said the peace process could only continue once it was clear who is in charge. But they continued to supervise the fragile ceasefire. The rebels said the political bickering in Colombo was undermining the truce, and asked the international community to put pressure on the government to resume negotiations.
Skirmishes between LTTE rebels and government forces were decreasing until April 2006 when riots broke out in the northeast and explosions killed 16 people. On 11 May 2006, the LTTE attacked a Naval convoy. The attack was seen as the most blatant violation to date of the 2002 peace agreement. On 16 October 2006, a LTTE suicide attack on a Sri Lankan naval convoy killed 93 sailors and wounded 150 others. Peace talks ceased, and attacks by LTTE rebels and government forces resumed. The LTTE followed up this strike with a suicide attack on a Sri Lankan naval base on 18 October 2006. In Columbo, on 23 October 2006, the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapakse, inked a deal with the United National Party, the opposition, for a common policy for dealing with the LTTE.
With a unified policy in place, Rajapakse entered two-day talks with the LTTE in Geneva on 28 October 2006. The talks, which were the first in eight months, covered the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka. The first day of the negotiations was dominated by back-and-forth recriminations. The second failed due to disagreement on access to the Jaffna peninsula. The talks were deemed a failure and, on October 30, Sri Lankan forces clashed with the LTTE in Jaffna.
In August 2006 following the European Union's (EU's) designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark announced their withdrawal from the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in response to LTTE demands. Subsequently, 37 monitors departed, leaving approximately 30 Norwegian and Icelandic civilian monitors in the country. By mid-year, although the CFA technically remained in force, the SLMM ceased citing specific violations due to a lack of any response to previous complaints. In August government security forces expelled LTTE troops from the east. Military confrontations also occurred regularly in the northern districts of Mannar, Vavuniya, and Jaffna. While civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces, the government also worked closely with Tamil paramilitary groups responsible for gross human rights violations.
November 2006 saw higher intensity fighting between the two sides. On 1 November, the Sri Lankan air force struck rebel targets. Seven days later, the Amnesty International accused Sri Lanka of killing 45 civilians in an artillery strike. Sea clashes occurred on 10 November resulting in the sinking of two Tamil boats. That same day, a pro-LTTE Sri Lankan MP was murdered by unknown gunmen. On 21 November, Sri Lankan aircraft struck a LTTE camp.
Effective 16 January 2008, the government formally abrogated the 2002 Cease-Fire Accord (CFA) with the LTTE, and the conflict intensified during the year. The government's respect for human rights declined as armed conflict escalated. The overwhelming majority of victims of human rights violations, such as killings and disappearances, were young male Tamils, while Tamils were only 16 percent of the overall population. Credible reports cited unlawful killings by paramilitaries and others believed to be working with the awareness of the government, assassinations by unknown perpetrators, politically motivated killings, the continuing use of child soldiers by a paramilitary force associated with the government, disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detention, poor prison conditions, denial of fair public trial, government corruption and lack of transparency, infringement of freedom of movement, and discrimination against minorities.
Government security forces, pro government paramilitary groups, and the LTTE used excessive force and committed abuses against civilians. The government used army commandos known as Deep Penetration Units to conduct operations against the LTTE in the LTTE-controlled Vanni. However, because of targeting errors, some of these attacks claimed civilian victims. The LTTE also used special operatives to conduct infiltration operations against government security forces. LTTE suicide cadres, also known as "Black Tigers," killed civilians in attacks targeted at the opposing military force. The LTTE reportedly used chemical agents, such as tear gas or CS riot control gas, in combat situations.
The LTTE continued to detain civilians, often requiring individuals, including children, to fight government security forces against their will. The Tigers enforced a "one family, one fighter" policy, forcing each family to provide at least one recruit to the LTTE. As 2008 progressed and the LTTE's military position deteriorated, monitoring groups reported more aggressive recruitment by the LTTE, including of older teenagers. The LTTE required individuals to purchase the right to leave LTTE-controlled territory. The LTTE also allegedly used civilians as human shields.
Approximately 3,400 people died in 2006 alone. More than 60,000 people died in Sri Lanka's civil war.
