Liberation Tigers

Liberation Tigers
▪ 1999

      Formed in 1972, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), with an estimated strength in 1998 of about 9,000 guerrillas, had fought since 1983 to establish an independent Tamil state, Eelam, in the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka, where most of the country's Tamil minority resided. One of the world's most sophisticated and tightly organized insurgent groups, the LTTE during the 1970s carried out a number of guerrilla attacks. Following large-scale violence that broke out in Sri Lanka in July 1983 in retaliation for the killing of 13 soldiers by Tamil guerrillas, the LTTE launched a full-scale "armed revolutionary struggle" against the government. By May 1985 the LTTE was in control of Jaffna and most of the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Sri Lanka, and by 1986 it had eliminated most of its rival Tamil groups.

      The LTTE lost control of Jaffna in October 1987 to an Indian peacekeeping force (IPKF) that had been sent to Sri Lanka to assist in the implementation of a complete cease-fire. Following the withdrawal of the IPKF in March 1990, however, the Tigers grew in strength and conducted several successful guerrilla operations. These included an August 1992 land-mine explosion in Jaffna, which killed 10 senior military commanders; the May 1993 assassination of Sri Lankan Pres. Ranasinghe Premadasa; and a January 1996 suicide bomb attack on the central bank of Colombo, which killed 100 people.

      Although the LTTE and the government resumed peace talks in January 1995, at which the LTTE indicated that it would be willing to accept some form of self-government instead of full independence, by April of that year the talks had broken down, and the Tigers unilaterally ended the truce. Fighting has not ceased since that time, and the Tigers have rejected government proposals. In 1998 the Tigers remained a credible force, as demonstrated by their ability to resist government attempts in 1997-98 to take control of the strategic road linking the Jaffna Peninsula with the rest of the island. Although the LTTE had recently indicated an interest in resuming negotiations with the government, Tiger activity seemed likely to continue.

CLAUDE RAKISITS

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Universalium. 2010.

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