Origins and trajectory of LTTE terrorism
 

The LTTE’s genesis could be traced to 1974 when Velupillai Prabhakaran formed the Tamil New Tigers (TNT), at a time many other Tamil youth groups also took to arms.

However following Indian mediation in 1987 and the agreement of the Indo- Sri Lanka Accord which granted significant powers to the Tamil speaking areas of Sri Lanka, while all other terrorist groups joined the political mainstream, the LTTE stubbornly persisted with its terrorist tactics demanding a separate ‘Tamil Eelam’ a mono-ethnic state for the Tamils in an area which covers over 28.7 per cent of the landmass and 60 per cent of the coastal belt of the country. From 1987-1990 it fought the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) and ever since has engaged the Sri Lankan security forces in armed combat.

The aims and objectives of the LTTE.

a. The Strategic Aim of the LTTE is to gain absolute control over the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka, in order to establish a “traditional homeland” exclusively for Tamil people with self-determination and autonomy. They say “the thirst of the Tamil Tigers is Tamil Eelam” (a separate state).

b. The Political Aim of the LTTE: Politically the LTTE makes every effort to establish a separate administration system in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, which includes the authority to have its own Armed Forces, Police, Judicial, Economic and Political system for the Tamils. This in short is a blue print of a separate state.

‘Traditional homeland’ becoming a dream for the LTTE

c. The Military Aim of the LTTE : The military strategy of the LTTE is to formulate a standing force comprising land, sea and air forces, in order to act in the interest of the LTTE Leader to achieve its strategic objective, namely the establishment of ‘Tamil Eelam.’

Organisational chart of the LTTE

The LTTE leadership is organised along a two-tier structure: a military wing and a subordinate political wing. Overseeing both is a central governing committee, headed by LTTE chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

This body has the responsibility for directing and controlling following subdivisions; namely, Sea Tiger wing (headed by Soosai), Air wing, (headed by Kennedy), Military wing (headed by Banu and Theepan), a highly secretive intelligence wing (headed by Pottu Amman), and a political office (headed by Nadesan).

The central governing committee also has an International Secretariat (headed by Castro), which is in charge of the outfit’s global network and its international propaganda and fund raising operations. These operations are the lifeblood of the LTTE and are mainly coordinated by the LTTE’s front organisations, most prominently the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) and the Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC).

Atrocities committed by the LTTE

The LTTE’s ruthlessness and violence is largely unparalleled by any other terrorist organisation and since the inception of its struggle, the LTTE has left behind a trail of atrocities.

Most significantly, The LTTE is the only organisation to have assassinated two national leaders in two different countries. In May 1991, the LTTE assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India and in 1993, the LTTE assassinated Ranasinghe Premadasa, the President of Sri Lanka.

The LTTE also made an abortive attempt to take the life of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in December 1999. Besides the killing of Sinhalese and Muslim politicians, the largest segment of the LTTE’s assassinations have been directed against the Tamil community itself, where nearly two generations of moderate Tamil politicians and academics of Sri Lanka including former Opposition Leader A. Amirthalingam,

Tamil intellectual and constitutional expert Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, the Deputy Secretary General of the Government Peace Secretariat Ketheeshwaran Loganathan (who incidentally was a member of the Tamil delegation to the very first round of talks the GOSL had with Tamil militants in Thimpu, Bhutan in 1985), and successive Mayors of Jaffna Ms. Sarojini Yogeswaran and Mr. Pon Sivapalan.

Their only fault appears to have been the refusal to yield to the tyranny of the LTTE and abandon the democratic path. Today the Tamil community of Sri Lanka has been left bereft of moderate and democratic leaders due to the methodical process of elimination adopted by the LTTE during the past three decades.

It has also engaged, inter alia, in indiscriminate attacks against civilian populations or individual civilians, among its some 70,000 victims largely innocent women and children. It has conscripted children into its fighting cadre and forced them to engage in armed activities.

The last estimate by UNICEF before the current round of fighting was 5,700. In an attempt to establish mono-ethnic regions the LTTE has engaged in ethnic cleansing when in October 1990, with two days notice, the LTTE decided to evict approximately 75,000 Muslim people from Jaffna, and Mannar (these Muslims now numbering about 100,000 are housed in 162 refugee camps in several districts).

The same year, 1990, they deployed Chlorine gas weapons in Kiran in the Batticaloa District. In July 2006 by closing the sluice gates of Mavil Aru, the LTTE used water as a weapon of war, an abominable practice outlawed by international humanitarian law.

The LTTE had also succeeded in destroying many religious, economic and military infrastructure facilities in the country including the Central Bank in 1996, with far reaching consequences. Its July 2001 attack on Colombo Airport was one of the most destructive acts of terrorism in aviation history- destroying or damaging 26 aircraft, half of the national airline’s commercial planes and a quarter of the air-force fleet.

GOSL’s response to LTTE terrorism

i. Sri Lanka’s legislative responses to LTTE violence and the definition and criminalisation of terrorism.

Viewed in the back drop that the international community is yet to arrive at a consensus regarding the definition of ‘terrorism’, and the debate that continues as to when ‘liberation’ (which is lawful) ends and ‘terrorism’ (which should be unlawful) begins, the challenge faced by Sri Lanka’s legislative and criminal justice systems in dealing with the growing phenomenon of LTTE terrorism merits attention.

Even as states debate as to whether a ‘State’ could be held liable for perpetrating terrorism, or whether only ‘Non State Actors’ could be held accountable for terrorism, certain terrorist activities such as hostage taking, terrorist funding, terrorist bombings, have been defined in international law and criminalised.

* In line with this approach adopted by the international community and in keeping with the security situation that prevailed in the late 1970s, the Government of Sri Lanka through Parliament defined and criminalised certain specified terrorist activities, without venturing into defining ‘Terrorism’.

* During the initial stages, legislative measures were incorporated into Regulations promulgated under the Public Security Ordinance (commonly referred to as Emergency Regulations) which were enacted by the President and subsequently ratified by the Parliament.

These regulations and the impact created by their promulgation enabled the Security Forces and the Police to deal with the emergency of politically motivated acts of violence unleashed by separatist armed militants, whom Sri Lanka identified right from the beginning as ‘Terrorists’.

In the face of the ascendance of the LTTE, in 1978, the Proscription of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Act was enacted. It proscribed the LTTE as an organisation, and criminalised becoming a member of the LTTE and aiding and abetting it. This law was later repealed to facilitate peace negotiations with the LTTE.

* In 1979, the Prevention of Terrorism Act was enacted. This law did not define ‘terrorism’. It criminalised a range of terrorist activities such as (a) assassinations and murder, (b) possession, manufacture, importation, transportation, and use of explosives and weapons, (c) causing mischief to government property, etc.

Though Sri Lanka continued to face the brunt of brutal terrorism for over 25 years, Sri Lanka had not defined or criminalised terrorism until the end of 2006.

* On December 6, 2006, the President of Sri Lanka acting in terms of the Public Security Ordinance, issued a proclamation proscribing terrorism. This proclamation (published in the Government gazette) is referred to as the Emergency (Proscription of Terrorism and Specified Terrorist Activities) Regulations 2006.

These regulations contain a definition of terrorism, and make engaging in terrorism an offence punishable with 10 - 20 years imprisonment. Here ‘Terrorism’ is defined as any unlawful conduct which:

(a) Involves the use of violence, force, coercion, intimidation, threats, duress, or (b) Threatens or endangers national security, or (c) Intimidates a civilian population or a group thereof, or (d) Disrupts or threatens public order, the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community, or (e) Causing destruction or damage to property, or (f) Endangering a person’s life, other than that of the person committing the act, or (g) Creating a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or a section of the public, or (h) is designed to interfere with or disrupt an electronic system, and which unlawful conduct is aimed at or is committed with the object of threatening or endangering the territorial integrity or sovereignty of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka or that of any other recognised sovereign nation, or any other political or governmental change, or compelling the government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to do or abstain from doing any act, and includes any other unlawful activity which advocates or propagates such unlawful conduct.

To be continued