Liberation Tigers Of Tamil Eelam Research Articles

Post-Conflict tourism development in Sri Lanka: implications for building resilience

The 30 year war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had a considerable impact on the country's tourism industry. Yet, despite the war, the industry continued to exhibit a high level of resilience and since the end of the war international visitation has increased rapidly. This study, using a comprehensive review of literature and a series of interviews, examines the impact of the war on the industry as well as the government's post-conflict responses. Despite the rapid increase in international tourism numbers various concerns have been raised that government policies are likely to advantage large tourism operators and developers at the expense of small businesses in the informal sector. The development of the industry may also be at the expense of livelihoods of poorer members of society in other industries. A concentration on large-scale developments may reduce the resilience and therefore sustainability of the industry.

Reconciliation through the Devolution of Powers in Post-War Sri Lanka: A Special Reference to Debates on 13thAmendment of the Constitution

Reconciliation is a more forward-looking process of healing divisions between and within communities. It requires recognition of others’ grievances and experiences and changes in policies that may have worsened the conflict or prevented greater cohesion. In the history of ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, ethnicization of politics and politicization of ethnicity have become very common. The politicization of ethnic and religious revivalism as also assertion of various ethnic and regional identities is posing serious problems for the integrity of Sri Lanka. Post-colonial Sri Lanka followed strategies of modernity and economic progress. However, the modernization and development process led to the centralization of development progress. The negative connotation of such centralization was the manifestation of discriminatory attitudes in terms of ethnicities and region. Discriminatory distribution of rights and privileges together with the arbitrary attitude of power elites led to a feeling of deprivation among minority ethnic groups. The Sinhala elites largely failed to strengthen the democratic institutions by decentralizing political economic power. Instead, they responded by strengthening and using coercive powers to preserve regime interests against minorities which paved the way for a civil war. Four years since the end of civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Sri Lanka is farther from reconciliation than ever. Devolution of power to the north and east is essential to for sustainable peace. It has become no less urgent with the defeat of the LTTE; indeed, the end of the war and the return of normalcy in those areas make real power sharing all the more important. In this context, the government has essentially rejected the need for any political solution or power sharing with the Tamil-speaking-majority in North and East under the 13th amendment. This is a remarkable change from previous governments. The current chaos on devolution creates uncertainty and, therefore, Thammasat Review  108 it is difficult to outline the future moves of the present government. But despite such problems, prospects for reconciliation through devolution should remain hopeful. This study focuses on the current crisis of the 13th amendment of the constitution of the Sri Lanka. The prime objective of this study is to critically analyze the ongoing debates over the devolution of powers to minority under the 13th amendment. The fundamental questions of this research are the following: why does the present government deny provision of a reasonable devolution of power to minorities and its impact on reconciliation among the multi-ethnic society of Sri Lanka. This research is a critical one based one interpretive analysis in which both quantitative and qualitative data have been used. Here, the stated purpose is being examined by studying both primary and secondary materials. This secondary data have been collected from books, reports, journals, news papers, official documents and research articles Key Words: Ethnic Conflict, Politics of Sri Lanka, Reconciliation, Devolution of Power

Socio-economic reintegration of former LTTE combatants in Sri Lanka: self-employment, sustainable incomes and long-term peace

Based on individual interviews with male and female ex-combatants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have reintegrated into society through a Sri Lankan government sponsored self-employment loan scheme, this study evaluates the success of these ex-combatants in adapting to their new way of life. The paper fills a significant gap in international literature on self-employed ex-combatants and is one of the first studies on ex-combatants of the LTTE after the end of the war in May 2009. The study finds that the ex-combatants have largely been unable to improve their economic wellbeing, and therefore experience economic difficulties. Many have been unable to undertake their micro-businesses successfully due to injuries, poor skills, and inadequate access to markets and loans for other purposes. Though most were happier than they were during their time with the LTTE due to the ‘absence of fear’ and improved family life, they were dissatisfied with their current economic situation. Importantly, the study found a strong correlation between economic wellbeing and their perception of long-term peace. Thus, the paper recommends that more effort be made to ensure that economic difficulties are dealt with to ensure sustainable peace in the country.

Sri Lanka's Competitive Tamil Network Dynamics: How to Explicate the Rise of the LTTE?

Although much has been written on the dynamics of insurgencies and counter-insurgences, little has been said about how rivalries amongst non-state armed groups fuel intra-state conflicts. Utilizing the case of Tamil militant groups in Sri Lanka between the early 1970s and 1990, this article assesses the factors that enabled the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to effectively outbid its numerous Tamil rivals in order to monopolize the independence struggle against the Sri Lankan state. Tracing both training and tactics of major Tamil militant groups, I argue that up until the mid-1980s rival groups were not only superiorly trained but also tactically savvier than the LTTE. Indeed, the Tigers copy-pasted many of their early tactics from competing groups and only started to dominate the struggle as a highly capable organization after it brutally annihilated and absorbed its major rivals. Thus, for a non-state armed group to be effective in a competitive theater it rather focusses on rudimentary violence against its non-state rivals instead of launching highly innovative assaults against the state.

Book Review: Asia and the Pacific: When Counterinsurgency Wins: Sri Lanka's Defeat of the Tamil Tigers

Book Review: Asia and the Pacific: When Counterinsurgency Wins: Sri Lanka's Defeat of the Tamil Tigers

Touring “Terrorism”: Landscapes of Memory in Post‐War Sri Lanka

AbstractThe Sri Lankan state's power to narrate the war and characterize the enemy is an expression of “triumphalist nationalism” and is a selective remembering of war. Based on photographs taken during several field visits to these sites by both authors between December 2012 and January 2014, we analyze the relationship of war and tourism and how a particular Sinhala nationalist remembering of the war and landscape of memory are being constructed in post‐war Sri Lanka.Today, Sri Lanka is a former war zone where the Government's troops defeated the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers) and ended 26 years of violent conflict in May 2009. The end of the war came at a huge cost to civilian life in the northern part of the country; the UN estimates that over 40,000 people were killed, most of whom were Tamils who form the majority in Northern Sri Lanka. Despite the end of military conflict, war continues by other means, and its representation encapsulates a nationalist politics of victory that at once vilifies the defeated LTTE “terrorists” and excludes Northern Tamils from the Sri Lankan polis. The LTTE's former hideouts, training facilities, weapons, and vehicles are now tourist sites on display for public viewing.

In the path of heroes: second-generation Tamil-Canadians after the LTTE

This paper explores how second-generation Tamil-Canadian university students have modified their ‘cultural heritage’ in the period after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009. Using a generational framework suggested by the work of Karl Mannheim, I show that the events of May 2009 situated second-generation Tamil-Canadian political activism as a response to the ambivalence of their parents to the conflict in Sri Lanka. Second-generation Tamil-Canadians are also shown to have altered the key LTTE symbol of the Maaveerar (great hero) to better fit a transnational social field that is framed by the new realities of post-LTTE Sri Lanka and by intolerance to imported conflict in Canada. I argue that the Tamil second generation is highly engaged with the politics of their cultural identity, and that this engagement may have a lasting influence on transnational Tamil identity and on the political status of the Tamil community within Canada.

Making Tigers from Tamils: Long‐Distance Nationalism and Sri Lankan Tamils in Toronto

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in Toronto and its relationship to the Tamil separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Taking the case of the Sri Lankan Tamils, oft‐cited as the example par excellence of long‐distance nationalism, I argue against naturalizing diasporic ethnonationalism to investigate instead how diasporas are fashioned into specific kinds of actors. I examine tensions that emerged as an earlier elite Tamil movement gave way to the contemporary migration of much larger class‐and caste‐fractured communities, while a cultural imaginary of migration as a form of mobility persisted. I suggest that concomitant status anxieties have propelled culturalist imaginations of a unified Tamil community in Toronto who, through the actions of LTTE‐affiliated organizations, have condensed the Tigers and their imagined homeland, Tamil Eelam, into representing Tamil community life. While most Tamils may not have explicitly espoused LTTE ideology, as a result of the LTTE becoming the backbone of community life, Tamils became complicit with and reaffirmed the LTTE project of defending “Tamilness” militarily in Sri Lanka and culturally in Toronto. I suggest that the self‐presentation of diasporic communities should be analyzed within specific histories, contemporary conflicts and fractures, and active mobilizing structures.

Negotiated peace versus victor's peace: the geopolitics of peace and conflict in Sri Lanka

In examining the failure of the 2002 peace process between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), this essay argues for the need to go beyond the power dynamics of the local actors. The peace process was dismantled and military victory by the Sri Lankan government made possible not so much by the Sinhala nationalist discourse, which opposed administration of development aid by the LTTE, as by the global security discourse associated with geo-strategic interests. The EU-led development discourse, which was informed by the liberal internationalist ethos, could have facilitated resolution and transformation of the conflict. In its place a security-based, realist discourse was prioritized in South Asia by the UK and US governments, particularly after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. This was the discourse which provided the material basis for the Sinhala nationalists to consolidate their power in pursuing a military victory. The post-war era is marked by geopoliticization of the human rights discourse, deepening the conflict. This essay explores the correlation between the liberal peace model, human rights, international relations and geopolitics.

Mainstreaming Failure or a Small Measure of Success? Observations from a Large-scale Pcia in Post-war Sri Lanka

In May 2009, controversies emerged over Sri Lanka's human rights record in the last stages of the 27-year civil war between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). At the same time, a complex post-war environment characterised by the shifting of government and foreign donor priorities, accelerated economic development and profound socio-political transformations created a difficult context for humanitarian and development interventions. The following is an evaluation of the successes and failures of Peace and Conflict Impact Assessment (PCIA) processes, not only with reference to their original intent, but also by considering their intrinsic relationship with the political and politicised context where they have taken place. This article argues that donor-driven PCIA processes are most effective as intelligence-gathering exercises that can adequately inform decision-making mechanisms at the macro-level while promoting principles of community empowerment at the micro-level. As showcased in Sri Lanka, PCIA has the added potential to breach the narrow confines of its mandate by enabling local communities to make a public claim for justice and accountability.

The Post‐9/11 “Terrorism” Discourse and Its Impact on Nonstate Actors: A Comparative Study of the LTTE and Hamas

In the aftermath of the 2001 World Trade Center bombings, the application of the label “terrorist” to one of the parties in a given conflict can serve to deny political legitimacy, and can make possible the use of extreme measures to deal with them. This article compares the fortunes of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Hamas. Through the use of an analysis of contemporary discourses relating to terrorism, it is argued that, in the post‐9/11 world, successfully ascribing a nonstate opponent as a terrorist permits the use of overwhelming force. The discourse thus becomes a powerful political technology in the hands of state actors, regardless of the justification for its use.

On Success and Failure: Readiness Theory and the Aceh and Sri Lanka Peace Processes

AbstractThis study presents a comparative analysis of two case studies in which attempts were made to resolve intractable ethno-national conflicts: the peace process undertaken in Aceh between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement, which led to the signing of the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding (mou) ending the conflict in Aceh; and the process conducted in the Sri Lanka conflict from 2001 through 2004 between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers, which failed to yield an agreement. The two peace processes will be examined using readiness theory, which focuses on the factors influencing the decision to enter into negotiations. This article also attempts to extend the hypotheses of readiness theory to explore the process of concession-making during the negotiations that took place in the two case studies. The findings indicate that the theory does contribute to understanding the dynamics of the pre-negotiation in both case studies and that applying its hypotheses may contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of the process of reaching an agreement in the Aceh process and of the factors leading to the failure of the negotiations in the Sri Lanka conflict. The analysis also gives rise to some questions that challenge readiness theory and its hypotheses – empirically and methodologically.

Choosing to Die: Suicide Bombing and Suicide Protest in South Asia

Scholars tend to attribute the use of suicide protest and suicide bombing to purely rational considerations. In contrast, I argue that conventional understandings of strategy are too narrow and must be expanded to include emotional motivations for political mobilization. “Complex” strategy directly engages both the calculative and emotive understandings of political action. I develop this theory through a comparison of suicide protests and suicide bombings in South Asia, focusing on the emotional content of this extreme tactic. Suicide protests illustrate the importance of pride, sympathy, fear, and shame in political mobilization. I explore the emotional character of suicide in protest through an investigation of two cases: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka (LTTE) and the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) in India.

Information, rebel organization and civil war escalation: The case of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

Current literature on civil war is well aware of the importance of defection by rebel members for civil war dynamics, including that of ethnic defection. However, scholars have not closely examined the effects of defection on civil war. In this article, I argue that rebel members’ defection and resultant information leaks to the state increase the likelihood of the state’s military escalation through their effects on three aspects of conflict: the efficiency of the state’s offensives against the rebel group; the efficiency of the state’s defenses against rebel group’s offensives; and the level of uncertainty for the state in war. These effects of defection, however, are conditional on the credibility and consequentiality of the information from the defectors. The utilities of the alternative courses of action for the state also matters. The theory is applied to the case of civil war in Sri Lanka to explain the state’s initiation of Eelam War IV, which ended with a swift and thorough state victory. An implication of the theory is that the experience in Sri Lanka is not easily replicable elsewhere. The findings have implications to the studies of the duration and termination of civil war as well as to the studies of the use of violence against civilians.

When counterinsurgency wins: Sri Lanka's defeat of the Tamil Tigers

Introduction Chapter 1. The Sri Lankan War in Context Chapter 2. Background to War: State Formation and Identities in Conflict Chapter 3. The Eelam War I-III Campaigns Chapter 4. Eelam War IV: A Military Analysis Chapter 5. Postwar Sri Lanka: Reconciliation or Triumphalism? Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

Divided Leaders, Critical Masses, and the Escalation of Interethnic Violence: Suicide Terrorism Among the Tamil Tigers

By focusing on the intra- and interethnic interactions in Sri Lanka, I show that the intensity of interethnic violence—namely the choice of suicide terrorism by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam—occurs only when the leadership elites of the majority ethnic group are fractionalized and the minority ethnic group relies on its ethnic leadership for its economic well-being. Put differently, the greater intraethnic fractionalization is within the leadership ranks of the majority ethnic group, the greater the willingness of majority group leaders to placate their ethnic brethren and outbid their intraethnic rivals at the expense of the minority ethnic group; and the greater the minority group members’ reliance on their ethnic group leaders for economic resources and upward mobility, the greater their willingness to participate in radical forms of violence such as suicide terrorism.

Encompassing Empowerment in Ritual, War, and Assassination: Tantric Principles in Tamil Tiger Instrumentalities

This study highlights the Tantric threads within the transcendental religions of Asia that reveal the commanding role of encirclement as a mystical force. The cyanide capsule (kuppi) around the neck of every Tamil Tiger fighter was not only a tool of instrumental rationality as a binding force, but also a modality similar to a thāli (marriage bond necklace) and to participation in a velvi (religious animal sacrifice). It was thus embedded within Tamil cultural practice. Alongside the LTTE's politics of homage to its māvīrar (dead heroes), the kuppi sits beside numerous incidents in LTTE acts of mobilization or military actions where key functionaries approached deities in thanks or in preparation for the kill. These practices highlight the inventive potential of liminal moments/spaces. We see this as modernized 'war magic'—a hybrid re-enchantment energizing a specific religious worldview.

Impacts of NGO intervention on poverty reduction: an empirical evidence from rural Sri Lanka

This study examines the level of poverty and NGOs’ poverty alleviation efforts in the context of rural Sri Lanka with an emphasis on the impact of poverty alleviation programmes implemented by ten NGOs in 15 villages in Vavuniya District. The data were collected by household survey from beneficiaries, and key informant interviews with officials from NGOs and government organisations. Fixed effect income estimation method and Probit poverty regression model were administrated to check out whether there is a significant improvement in the economic condition of the beneficiaries. Accordingly, the findings of the descriptive analysis reveal that NGOs’ intervention in the poverty alleviation programmes resulted in the considerable improvement in the living standard of the people in the study area. In particular, household income, level of education, and health facilities seem to be improved after the introduction of the NGO activities in the study area. The results of the statistical estimation indicate that the educational level of the household members has a positive impact on the household income in reducing poverty. On the other hand, internal conflict between government forces and Tamil tiger rebels had hindered the income generating activities of the households and therefore, the probability of being under the poverty has increased.

Cross-Cultural Articulations of War Magic and Warrior Religion

Previous anthropology emphasized symbolic incantations at the expense of the embodied practice of magic. Foregrounding embodi- ment and performance in war magic and warrior religion collapses the mind-body dualism of magic versus rationality, instead highlighting social action, innovation, and the revitalization of tradition, as tempered historically by colonial and post-colonial trajectories in societies under- going rapid social transformation. Religion and magic are re-evaluated from the perspective of the practitioner's and the victim's embodiment in their experiential life-worlds via articles discussing Chinese exorcists, Javanese spirit siblings, Sumatran black magic, Tamil Tiger suicide bombers, Chamorro spiritual re-enchantment, tantric Buddhist war magic, and Yanomami dark shamans. Central themes include violence and healing, accomplished through ritual and performance, to unleash and/or control the power of gods, demons, ghosts and the dead.

Women in the LTTE: Birds of Freedom or Cogs in the Wheel?

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is a preeminent separatist organization fighting for an independent and sovereign Tamil state in the northern and eastern regions of Sri Lanka. LTTE women’s involvement in the leadership and fighting forces of the group has given rise to fierce debates about whether the visibility of females in the LTTE fighting forces represented the ‘true’ liberation of the Tamil women and whether women would enjoy equal rights in the public during the post-conflict period. Actually, the Tamil Eelam is the overarching goal of the LTTE, and the emancipation of women has always been a secondary issue dependent on the liberation struggle. All the existing literature illustrates that the LTTE has been unsuccessful in creating the gender equality within the movement, and suggests that women have the right to achieve their emancipation and empowerment without linking to interests of the nationalist and ethnic struggles.