Velupillai Prabhakaran was the founder and leader of theLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers), a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. For over 25 years, the LTTE waged a violent secessionist campaign in Sri Lanka
Tamil Eelam
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'.
As a nation, Tamils have the inalienable right to self-determination, a universal principle enshrined in the U.N. Charter that guarantees the right of a people to political independence.
Apart from the right to self determination, the Tamil Eelam may also be justified in terms of international law under the concept of reversion of sovereignty and the concept of effectiveness.
Before a succession of western nations (including the Portuguese, Dutch and the British) ruled the island, there were two distinct kingdoms on the island, the Tamil Kingdom in the north and the Sinhala kingdom in the South.
For ease of administration, the British amalgamated the two distinct nations into a single entity with its capital in Colombo. The British gave Ceylon independence in 1948, handing over control of the entire island to a Sinhalese government, based in Colombo, which renamed the island Sri Lanka.
The Sinhala state's oppression of the Tamil people began in various forms almost immediately, attacking everything that defined the Tamils as a nation.
A series of laws that discriminated against Tamils were implemented. These included making Sinhala, instead of English, the only official language of the country, i.e. Tamils could not be employed unless they learnt Sinhala. The educational structures were altered to restrict Tamil admissions to higher education. Investment in Tamil areas was minimised.
Recruitment of Tamils into the security forces was restricted. The Sri Lankan security forces are almost exclusively Sinhalese. The security forces have been responsible for and continue to carry out human rights abuses and atrocities against Tamil civilians on a genocidal scale.
Sinhala colonisation of traditional Tamil areas was started in the fifties, and was intensified in the eighties with the security forces wiping out Tamil villages and replacing them with Sinhala settlements. Colonisation continues unabated.
Anti-Tamil rioting, with the active participation of the Sri Lankan security forces, has claimed thousands of Tamil lives. Thousands more suffered torture and rape.
As the Tamil people sense of helplessness deepened, Tamil politicians advocated a separate Tamil state. In 1977, the Tamil United Liberation Front resolved in its Vaddukoddai Resolution to campaign for political independence on the basis of the Tamil nation's right to self- determination.
At the general elections of 1977, the TULF demanded a clear mandate from the Tamil people to launch a national campaign to establish the sovereignty of the Tamil homeland. These elections were effectively a referendum the Tamil speaking people voted overwhelmingly in favour of secession.
The Tamil call for independence was met by island wide anti-Tamil rioting. The Sri Lankan government forced all elected MPs to take an oath that they would not seek a separate state.
With all democratic ways to achieve equality having failed repeatedly, an armed struggle for independence began, led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). International Law recognises that the armed resistance of the Tamil people to Sri Lankan rule is lawful and just.
Today, the LTTE has evolved into a military and political organisation representing the aspirations and hopes of the Tamil people.
Formation of LTTE:
The birth and growth of the armed resistance movement should be analysed within the historical development of the Tamil struggle for self-determination. The Tamil struggle for self-determination has an evolutionary history of nearly half a century. It is a history characterized by state repression and resistance by the Tamils. The political struggles in the early periods were peaceful, democratic and non-violent but later assumed the form of armed resistance as the military repression of the state intensified into genocidal proportions.
Sinhala state repression against the Tamils began to manifest in concrete forms following the independence of the island in 1948, when the British colonial masters transferred the state's power to the Sinhala dominated parliamentary system. By discriminatory legislation and by other measures, successive Sinhala majority governments unleashed a systematic form of oppression that deprived the Tamils of their linguistic, educational and employment rights. Gradually and systematically, the thrust of state oppression affected the sphere of economic and social life of the Tamils. In the meantime, the state-aided aggressive colonization in the Tamil areas not only deprived them of their rights over their historical lands but also altered the ethnic composition of the population rendering the Tamils a minority in certain traditional Tamil regions. The features of Sinhala state oppression clearly indicated a devious plan calculated to destroy the national identity of the Tamil people.
As the Sinhala state oppression and discrimination unfolded in its ugly forms threatening the national identity, the Tamil parliamentary political leadership responded with mass political agitations. Adopting Gandhi's concept of 'ahimsa', the Tamil leadership organized non-violent campaigns demanding justice and fair play from Sinhala rulers. In the early sixties, the 'satyagraha' (peaceful picketing) campaigns attracted huge masses of people in massive demonstrations symbolizing a national uprising against the state. The Sinhala Government reacted with military violence and terror, brutally crushing the non-violent peaceful campaigns of the Tamils. Instead of looking into the genuine grievances of an aggrieved people, Colombo Governments adopted a harsh policy of military repression. Such high-handed tactics of terror made the people realise the futility of the non-violent campaigns.They realized that a repressive racist state adopting the methods of brutal violence attached no respect to the moral and spiritual values underlying non violent struggles. The Tamil people became frustrated and lost hope in both the parliamentary system which functioned under the tyranny of the majority and the non-violent struggles which were systematically crushed by the tyranny of the military. In desperation, the Tamil leadership sought political negotiations to resolve the conflict. Sinhala leaders entered into agreements but soon abrogated the pacts when Sinhala chauvinistic forces opposed reconciliation with the Tamils. The event that climaxed the state oppression against the Tamils was the new Republican constitution of 1972 which was a blatant attempt to legalize and institutionalize Sinhala chauvinism at the cost of alienating the Tamil nation from unitary constitutional politics. This event brought about radical transformation in the nature and structure of the Tamil political struggle.
It was during this specific historical juncture, that the armed resistance movement was born on Tamil soil with the determination to fight for political independence from alien domination. The armed struggle emerged as a historical development of the Tamil struggle in response to the determined efforts of the Sinhala Government to subjugate the Tamils. The Tamils took up arms when they were presented with no alternative other than to defend themselves against a savage form of genocidal oppression, when peaceful forms of democratic political agitations were violently repressed, when constitutional paths and parliamentary doors were effectively closed, when Sinhala ruling elites callously rejected the demands for justice and equality. Therefore, the Tamil armed struggle for political independence and self-government is the historical product of decades of racist oppression and injustice.
On May 5, 1976, the TNT was renamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), commonly known as the Tamil Tigers.
Religion was not a major factor in his philosophy or ideology, indeed the ideology of the Tamil Tigers emerged from Marxist-Leninist thought, and was explicitly secular. Its leadership professed opposition to religion.[ Their focus was on a single-minded approach toward the attainment of an independent Tamil Eelam.
Prabhakaran's first and only major press conference was held in Killinochchi on April 10, 2002. It was reported that more than 200 journalists from the local and foreign media attended this event and they had to go through a 10-hour security screening before the event in which Anton Balasingham introduced the LTTE leader as the "President and Prime minister of Tamil Eelam."
A number of questions were asked about LTTE's commitment towards the erstwhile peace process and Prabhakaran and Dr. Anton Balasingham jointly answered the questions.
During the interview he stated that the right condition has not risen to give up the demand of Tamil Eelam. He further mentioned that "There are three fundamentals. That is Tamil homeland, Tamil nationality and Tamil right to self-determination. These are the fundamental demands of the Tamil people. Once these demands are accepted or a political solution is put forward by recognising these three fundamentals and our people are satisfied with the solutions we will consider giving up the demand for Eelam." He further added that Tamil Eelam was not only the demand of the LTTE but also the demand of the Tamil people.
Prabhakaran also answered a number of questions in which he reaffirmed their commitment towards peace process, quoted "We are sincerely committed to the peace process. It is because we are sincerely committed to peace that we continued a four month cessation of hostilities" was also firm in de-proscription of the LTTE by Sri Lanka and India, "We want the government of India to lift the ban on the LTTE. We will raise the issue at the appropriate time."
Prabhakaran also insisted firmly that only de-proscription would bring forth an amenable solution to the ongoing peace process mediated by Norway: "We have informed the government, we have told the Norwegians that de-proscription is a necessary condition for the commencements of talks.
In 2002, the LTTE dropped its demand for a separate state.Instead, it demanded a form of regional autonomy Following the landslide election defeat of Kumaratunga and the coming to power of Ranil Wickramasinghe in December 2001, the LTTE declared a unilateral ceasefire.The Sri Lankan Government agreed to the ceasefire, and in March 2002 the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) was signed. As part of the agreement, Norway and other Nordic countries agreed to jointly monitor the ceasefire through the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.
Six rounds of peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and LTTE were held, but they were temporarily suspended after the LTTE pulled out of the talks in 2003 claiming "certain critical issues relating to the ongoing peace process".In 2003 the LTTE proposed an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA). This move was welcomed by the international community but rejected by the Sri Lankan President.[74] The LTTE boycotted the presidential election in December 2005. While LTTE claimed that the people under its control were free to vote, it is alleged that they used threats to prevent the population from voting. The United States condemned this act.
The new government of Sri Lanka came into power in 2006 and demanded to abrogate the ceasefire agreement, stating that the only possible solution to the ethnic conflict was a military solution, and that the only way to achieve this was by eliminating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil. Further peace talks were scheduled in Oslo, Norway, on 8 and 9 June 2006, but cancelled when the LTTE refused to meet directly with the government delegation, stating its fighters were not being allowed safe passage to travel to the talks. Norwegian mediator Erik Solheim told journalists that the LTTE should take direct responsibility for the collapse of the talks.Rifts grew between the government and LTTE, and resulted in a number of ceasefire agreement violations by both sides during 2006. Suicide attacks military skirmishes, and air raids took place during the latter part of 2006.Between February 2002 to May 2007, Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission documented 3,830 ceasefire violations by the LTTE, with respect to 351 by the security forces. Military confrontation continued into 2007 and 2008. On January 2008 the government officially pulled out of the Cease Fire Agreement.
Current status of Srilanka
It is now apparent that the Government and the Sinhala people behind the Government are working towards elimination of National Identity of the Tamil people, firstly by destroying any claim to any separate area, secondly by destroying culturally and finally by Physical liquidation.
The Massacre in June and July should act as a warningto the world at large. 'So far, several countries who are aware of the oppression and violence against the Tamils while sympathising with the plight of the Tamils were of the opinion it is only an "internal matter". Some Governments even help in the development of Sri Lanka. In particular they are helping to develope the Mahaweli basin, the completion of which scheme will inevitably lead to the destruction of the TAMIL NATION.
Sri Lanka Government is building Army camps in the entire North and East for the purpose of oppression of the Tamil people. It was reported that a new large camp was started in the North. Only a few months back an Army camp was started in Batticaloa District in the Eastern Province. While countries in the world are giving aid for "development" Sri Lanka Government is spending money for the oppression of the Tamil People, and the destruction of their National Identity.
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