The conflict in Sri Lanka has become a contentious issue for Tamil Nadu voters, who go to the polls on May 13 th, and as such has become subject to various political promises. It is a state with a nearly 90% ethnic Tamil population. India’s large Tamil Nadu province lies directly across the Palk Straits. The LTTE’s best hope for a unilateral military intervention to stop the war and save the Tigers is India, but even there the odds are extremely small. Even though a UN report has recently described the conflict as a ‘bloodbath’, it is extremely unlikely that it will be addressed by the Security Council due to China and Russia’s shared belief that the conflict represents an internal matter, and thus no threat to international peace and security. Whatever punitive measures that Tamil protests can elicit from foreign governments, they will not be coordinated through the UN Security Council. In Washington DC, a group of around 150 protesters converged on the White House, while a similar scene has played out in central London where hundreds of protesters broke through police barricades and disrupted traffic. Ongoing Tamil protests in Toronto have disrupted downtown traffic as a means of pressuring the Canadian government to act over the war in Sri Lanka. Overseas Tamil communities have taken up positions on the front lines of the propaganda war. Given the absence of journalists and aid workers in the war zone, there is no way to consistently verify the claims of either party. Likewise, the Sri Lankan government attempts to minimize and reverse such characterizations long enough so that they can finish off the Tigers before an international intervention can stay their hand. In an effort to ferment international outrage, LTTE representatives report on the conflict in the most gruesome and inhumane terms possible. Upon the arrival at such a delicate military situation, both sides subsequently turned their attentions toward winning the international propaganda war. An estimated fifty thousand refugees are also trapped inside the Sri Lankan Army encirclement. A far cry from 2006 when the Tigers controlled nearly one third of Sri Lanka, they are now penned in from all sides. The Sri Lankan Army has driven the Tigers back into a swathe of land about the size of Central Park in northeast Sri Lanka. As such, their survival now hinges on a worldwide propaganda war. Location/Area of Operation: The LTTE is based in Sri Lanka and India.įunding and External Aid: LTTE's financial network of support continued after the LTTE's military defeat in 2009 and employed charities as fronts to collect and divert funds for its activities.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) find themselves up against a wall with no hope of launching a conventional counter-attack against the Sri Lankan Army. Strength: The group's exact strength is unknown. Additional members were arrested in Malaysia and India in 2015, one of whom was accused of exhorting other Sri Lankans to fund and revive the LTTE. and Israeli diplomatic facilities in India, were arrested in Malaysia in 2014. There have been no known attacks in Sri Lanka attributed to the LTTE since 2009, but a total of 13 LTTE supporters, several of whom had allegedly planned attacks against U.S. In May 2009, government forces defeated the last LTTE fighting forces, killed members of its leadership including leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, and declared military victory. In early 2009, Sri Lankan forces recaptured the LTTE's key strongholds, including their capital of Kilinochchi. Despite its military defeat at the hands of the Sri Lankan government in 2009, the LTTE's international network of sympathizers and financial support has persisted.Īctivities: Although largely inactive since 2009, the LTTE was previously responsible for an integrated insurgent strategy that targeted key installations and senior Sri Lankan leaders.
Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.ĭescription: Founded in 1976 and designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on October 8, 1997, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is a Tamil secessionist group in Sri Lanka. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. United States Department of State, Country Reports on Terrorism 2017 - Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, 19 September 2018, available at: