Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is a Marxist Tamil separatist group that began fighting [Page 355]the government of Sri Lanka in 1978. Often referred to simply as the “Tamil Tigers,” the LTTE made a number of grim contributions to the history of terrorism, including the invention of the suicide bomb jacket and pioneering the use of women as suicide bombers. After a 26-year battle with many human rights violations committed by both sides, the LTTE issued a statement in 2009 that the group would be laying down its arms.

Sri Lanka is an island nation located off the southeast coast of India. Sinhalese Buddhists compose about 75 percent of the island's population, while Hindu Tamils, concentrated in the north and east of the country, make up roughly 15 percent. In the early 1970s, following a Marxist-led student rebellion, the Sri Lankan government began to place special emphasis on Sinhalese unity and cultural cohesion. For instance, the 1972 constitution named Sinhala and Buddhism as Sri Lanka's official language and religion, respectively. However, the government's efforts at overcoming divisions within the Sinhalese community only exacerbated existing ethnic tensions between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. The resurgence of Sinhalese chauvinism sparked a comparable rise in Tamil separatism, with calls for the establishment of a Tamil homeland, called Eelam. In 1978 a radical faction of Tamils led by Velupillai Prabhakaran founded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the hope of gaining total independence.

Over the course of its existence, the LTTE was considered one of the most effective guerrilla forces operating in the world, fighting a government force approximately 10 times larger than itself for a generation. Initially, the LTTE exclusively employed hit-and-run guerrilla tactics in its fight against the government, but as the force grew larger, it began to operate in the traditional division-brigade-battalion structure used by most armed forces. Extremely well equipped, with heavy artillery (including antiaircraft rockets and grenade launchers), the LTTE even had its own small navy, the Sea Tigers, which they used for smuggling as well as attacks.

Several unusual attributes of the LTTE attracted international interest. The LTTE had a large number of women in every division, many of whom rose to command positions. Its use of child soldiers in combat, some as young as 12, brought condemnation by the United Nations. But perhaps most unusual was the LTTE's Black Tiger division, a specially trained squad used for terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings. Black Tiger assassins killed dozens of Sri Lankan politicians, including then-president Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993; Industry Minister C.V. Goonaratne in 2000; Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in 2005; and several other members of parliament in 2008. In 1991 a LTTE suicide bomber murdered the prime minister of India, Rajiv Ghandi. At all levels, LTTE members showed an unusual willingness to die for their cause. Fighters were issued cyanide caplets, which were worn on a chain around their necks, and many chose to swallow the capsule rather than be taken prisoner. The LTTE was equally careless of others’ lives; in addition to the suicide bombings, the organization sometimes massacred innocent villagers to draw army forces away from the scene of its operations.

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