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The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the '''Tamil Tigers''', is a military organisation that advocates independence for the Tamil People of Sri Lanka , promoting its cause through military and political means. The LTTE is headed by the reclusive Velupillai Prabakharan . It currently controls portions of northern and eastern Sri Lanka, and runs civil services in these areas including judicial, police, financial, and cultural services, and operates an army, a navy and a recently created air wing. The LTTE claims to have widespread support from Sri Lankan Tamils. It states that it is the only legitimate representative and protector of the Tamils in the organisation by several countries, including India (1992), Malaysia (1996), USA (1997), UK (2000) and Canada (2006). LTTE delegations are barred from the European Union (2005). THE MILITARY LTTE The LTTE as an organization is centred around the personality of Prabhakaran, who has led it almost continuously since it was formed. Tigers owe a strong personal loyalty and obedience to him as their leader, which has helped instill a strong sense of discipline in the organisation, and keep it operationally efficient. Recruits are instructed to be prepared to die for the cause, and are issued with a Cyanide capsule to be swallowed in the case of capture. The LTTE also has a special squad of suicide troops, called the Black Tigers , which it deploys for critical missions. The LTTE advocates equality for women, and has a large number of female recruits. The Women's Wing of the LTTE is known as Suthanthirap Paravaikal (or Freedom Birds). The first woman combatant to die was 2nd Lt. Malathi , on 10 October 1987 , in an encounter with the IPKF at Kopai. The most recent suicide bombing in Sri Lanka came on 25 April 2006 , where the Sri Lankan Army Chief was targeted, was carried out by a pregnant female suicide bomber. The beginnings of the LTTE Until the 1970s, the Ethnic Conflict In Sri Lanka had largely taken the form of a demand for autonomy for the Tamil-speaking regions under An Overall Federal Framework . The lack of results after twenty-five years of negotiations, and the rise of Sinhala nationalism as represented by the 1972 constitution, led to a significant section of young Tamils, particularly in Jaffna , adopting a more radical position which favoured the use of violent means. A large number of militant organisations were set up, one of which was the Tamil New Tigers (TNT), which was formed in 1972 by a small group of young Tamils and university students led by Velupillai Prabhakaran . Many students joined LTTE thereafter due to the fact that they were not given equality in the grading systems and admission to post-graduate schools. The TNT's first military operation was the assassination of Alfred Duraiappah , the SLFP mayor of Jaffna , in 1975 , followed by a few successful bank robberies to fund their activities and the assassination of a number of minor police officials. The success of these early acts gave them confidence, and in 1976 they teamed up with the militants headed by S. Subramanian to form the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. In 1979 , Anton Balasingham joined the LTTE as their main ideologue. Balasingham added depth to the LTTE's politics. Whereas they had earlier been committed to the single idea of Tamil independence, Balasingham added a new layer of social policies, inspired by Marxism and anti- Caste ism, which profoundly shaped the LTTE's worldview. The LTTE continued the TNT's campaign of low-intensity violence against state agents, particularly policemen, and quickly became the most efficient and ruthless of the many Tamil militant groups. In 1978 , they wiped out a police patrol which had discovered one of their training camps, the first major military victory for a seperatist Tamil group. After Martial Law was imposed in Jaffna in 1979 , the LTTE began targeting the military. They were responsible for the attack which provoked the anti-Tamil riots of 1983 . These riots and the government's crackdown on Tamil separatism produced a steady stream of volunteers for the LTTE, which they shaped into a brutal militia. In 1984 , they began launching higher intensity attacks against the Sri Lankan troops. They also formed a naval unit, the Sea Tigers , that year. Rise to dominance The LTTE's discipline and efficiency, coupled with Prabhakaran's selfish leadership and its strong terrorist ideological base, made the group much more notorious than the other Tamil militant groups. As a result, their attacks became much more deadly, and for the next three years the LTTE was the main antagonist in what was in effect a civil war. The LTTE was militarily very successful against the Sri Lanka Army, in 1987 the Black Tigers was established; an elite unit of LTTE members responsible for conducting suicide attacks against civillian, political, religious, economic and military targets. In 1985 the LTTE established the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation , a fake humanitarian organisation responsible for funding the LTTE terror Activities under the cover of providing relief and aid for Tamils struck by the internal fighting in Sri Lanka. Initially, the LTTE's operations were carried on in cooperation with other militant groups. In April 1984 , it had formally joined a common militant front, the Eelam National Liberation Front , or ENLF, which had been formed by the TELO , the EROS and the EPRLF . The group's co-ordinated attacks against government positions had being an utter failiure and had led to the near-total disappearance of LTTE authority in Jaffna. In 1986 , the LTTE launched a military attack on the TELO , the largest of the other Tamil militant groups in Sri Lanka. Over the next few months, the entire TELO leadership and several hundred volunteers were hunted down, and the group ceased to be a potent force. A few months later, they attacked training camps of the EPRLF , forcing it to withdraw entirely from the Jaffna peninsula. The reasons for the LTTE's internecine attacks on other Tamil groups are much debated. The reason they themselves gave at the time was the other groups' connection with India. All the Tamil militant groups, including the LTTE, had received varying degrees of support from India . However, while other groups such as the TELO wholeheartedly embraced Indian support, the LTTE remained much more suspicious and wary of India particularly after Rajiv Gandhi came to power, fearing that India was seeking primarily to advance its own interests, which were not the same as those of the Sri Lankan Tamils, and would therefore force the Tamils to accept an unfavourable settlement. They were particularly suspicious of the Indian intelligence agency, the RAW , which they said had completely infiltrated the TELO and EPRLF, and was using them to eliminate the LTTE. Some commentators have suggested that the LTTE were also unhappy that the most of the funding from expatriates went to the TELO, rather than to them (Jeyaratnam Wilson, 1999). It has also been suggested that they believed the struggle would only be effective if the other groups, who were much more willing to compromise, were not around (Narayan Swamy 2002). The effect of the attacks was that the LTTE consolidated the position their successful attacks had already established, as the main military group fighting for the cause of Tamil Eelam, with no credible rivals. The IPKF period In 1987 , the Sri Lankan Army launched a new assault to recapture Jaffna. In the Indian press, the attack was depicted as being brutal and leading to disproportionately large civilian casualties. Faced with growing anger amongst its own Tamils, India intervened directly in the conflict by air-dropping food parcels on Jaffna in what was interpreted as a show of strength. After negotiations, India and Sri Lanka entered into an agreement whereby Sri Lanka agreed to a federal structure which would grant autonomy to the Tamils. India was to send a peacekeeping force, the IPKF , to Sri Lanka to enforce the agreement. Although most Tamil militant groups accepted this agreement, the LTTE only did so very grudgingly and very soon rejected it on the grounds that the reforms were only illusory. The result was that the LTTE now found itself engaged in military conflict against the Indian Army . The army fought a bitter month-long campaign to win control of the Jaffna peninsula from the LTTE. This campaign and the army's subsequent anti-LTTE operations were ruthless, and made it extremely unpopular amongst the Tamils. The LTTE exploited this sentiment and, by painting themselves as the only group opposing the IPKF's "anti-Tamil aggression", as they termed it, they became increasingly popular. In addition, the implementation of the autonomy provisions under the agreement was perceived by the Tamils as giving them little or nothing, and the entire structure collapsed very quickly. As the only group to have held itself together from this process, this was portrayed by the LTTE as a vindication of their stance. The post-IPKF LTTE The IPKF's intervention was also unpopular amongst Buddhists, and it was forced to withdraw in 1990 after the Sri Lankan government asked India to withdraw its troops. During this period, it absorbed the remnants of the other rival militant groups, including the TELO and EPRLF , which had tried to regroup with the help of the IPKF and RAW. In a series of military operations in 1995 and 1996, the army attacks re-captured the Jaffna peninsula and the town of Kilinochchi from the LTTE leaving the LTTE Resources and Men numbers Crippled. The LTTE proposed peace talks in 1996, which the government rejected. Starting from 1997, the LTTE suffered a number of reverses, and lost control of large portions of the Vanni , the town of Kilinochchi and many smaller towns. In 2000 , the LTTE captured the strategically vital Elephant Pass after a hard, long fighting against the SL Army. The following year, the government invited Norway to mediate in the dispute. Norway brokered a Ceasefire agreement, which is presently in effect. The LTTE get their main funding from western countries in which Tamils reside. THE PEACETIME LTTE The LTTE-GoSL ceasefire As part of the Norway-brokered ceasefire in effect since late 2001 , the LTTE has indicated its un-willingness to give up its call for a separate state clearly by refusing to attend the newest 2006 Peace Talks and conducting raids against the Army and Civillians alike, greatly breaching the CFA. Norway and the other Nordic countries jointly monitor the ceasefire through the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission . Since the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers. TERRORISTS OR FREEDOM FIGHTERS? Despite their support amongst Tamils, the LTTE is accused of terrorism. It is proscribed as a itself has lifted its ban on the LTTE to facilitate peaceful negotiations. Part of the reason for the accusation is its targetted assassination of political figures and non-military officials, and its use of suicide bombers. Between 1991 and 1994 , it was responsible for killing Rajiv Gandhi , Lalith Athulathmudali , Ranasinghe Premadasa and Gamini Dissanayake . It has also murdered moderate Tamils and other Tamils with whose views it disagrees. The LTTE is suspected of involvement in the assassinations of Appapillai Amirthalingam , Neelan Tiruchelvam , Sarojini Yogeswaran , Pon Sivapalan , Lakshman Kadirgamar and others, even though it officially denies involvement in several of these. The LTTE has also brutally massacred other Tamil militant groups, most notably the TELO , whose leadership and cadre were killed by the LTTE in May 1986 . In addition, the LTTE's bombing attacks have caused a large number of civilian casualties and, in instances such as the attack on the Temple Of The Tooth in Kandy , Dehiwala train or the Central Bank in Colombo , did not have any military target. The LTTE's supporters justify these attacks by saying that the people assassinated are either "Tamil traitors" or persons closely associated with the Sri Lankan military action. Specifically in relation to the TELO, the LTTE has said that it had to attack them because the TELO was in effect functioning as a proxy for India. They also draw comparisons between the casualties caused by the LTTE's actions and the actions of European resistance forces against Nazi occupation during the Second World War. FOREIGN INTERVENTION There have been allegations of British 'invasion' and 'colonisation' of the Island as the primary cause of inter-ethnic conflict. Foreign Intervention has certainly come in the form of constant Norwegian efforts throughout the years for the peace effort, which some consider to have been effective in the last decade. THE LTTE AND HUMAN RIGHTS The allegation of terrorism against the LTTE is part of a broader allegation that the LTTE does not respect human rights, and does adhere to the standards of conduct expected of a resistance movement. In particular, the LTTE has been accused of knowingly recruiting and using child soldiers as front-line troops (HRW 2003). Amid international pressure, LTTE announced in July 2003 that it would stop conscripting child soldiers, but both UNICEF and HRW[http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/14/slanka10016.htm have accused it of reneging on its promises, and of conscripting Tamil children orphaned by the Tsunami [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4171251.stm]. Civilians have also complained that the LTTE is continuing to abduct children, including some in their early teens, for use as soldiers[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1676250,00.html]. The LTTE, however, strongly denies any responsibility for recruitment of child soldiers. Its official position is that earlier, some of its cadres erroneously recruited volunteers in their late teens. It says that its official policy is now that it will not accept child soldiers. It also says that some underage youths lie about their age and are therefore allowed to join, but are sent back home to their parents as soon as they are discovered to be underaged. The LTTE has also been accused of forcibly removing (or "ethnically cleansing") Sinhalese and Muslim inhabitants from areas under its control, including through the use of violence against those who refuse to leave. Most notably, the LTTE forcibly expelled the entire Muslim population of Jaffna on 48 hours notice in 1990 . The LTTE are also accused of organising massacres of Sinhala villagers who settled in the Northeast under the dry lands policy. Whilst the LTTE's supporters do not deny these allegations, they argue that it is misleading to look at the LTTE's allegations in isolation. They say that their actions are no worse than those of the Sri Lankan government, and are therefore an entirely proportionate response to human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government, and are the only way to make the government stop violating the rights of the Tamils even if they are condemned in international law. The LTTE coerces Tamil expatriates to give it money, by threatening the safety of their relatives or property in areas of Sri Lanka under its control. This involves pressuring them to directly give it money, or to indirectly fund its activities by patronising businesses connected with it (La 2004). Although intelligence services have raised concerns about such activities, few formal complaints have been made to the authorities. NOTABLE ATTACKS (Information derived from MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base , and from Allegation sent by GOSL to UNHCHR , selected for inclusion based on lethality or notability.)
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