Here was an organisation that assassinated leaders from India and Sri Lanka without any compunction but begged the international community to arrange an “honourable” exit for its cornered LTTE chief in May 2009. Here was an outfit that dubbed Tamils who advocated truce as “traitors” but actually ended up raising white flags when it could no more take on the Sri Lankan military might.

Here was a group that mercilessly killed any Tamil who was ready to shake hands with the Sri Lankan state, but was more than ready to embrace Colombo when its own end was near. The sheer hypocrisy of the Tigers and its leadership and the manner in which they lorded over the mass of helpless and trapped Tamil civilians in the northeast right till its own demise cannot and will never be forgiven by the victims. Indeed, one factor which is valid today didn’t even exist when the LTTE was taking baby steps in the world of militancy.Ī major reason why another LTTE will never emerge is the LTTE itself. None of the above is true today, except perhaps for the still lingering feelings among sections of Tamils of being discriminated by a Sinhalese-dominated state. As long as the violence was mostly confined to Sri Lanka’s northeast, the West was not too bothered. Terrorism was not too dirty a word in the 1980s, more so if the victim country was in the Third World. Training camps came up in India, which provided a shady umbrella under which everyone – moderates and militants – could take shelter. All this earned him a certain following which in turn helped him to grow.Īlso read: Graphic Violence: An Innovative Way of Representing the War in Sri LankaĪfter the 1983 anti-Tamil riots in Colombo, the Tamil militants found sanctuary in Tamil Nadu. Life was a constant struggle then, and many nights Prabhakaran went to bed hungry. In his formative years, Velupillai Prabhakaran and his small band of young men were ready to dent the Sri Lankan state bit by bit and escape by sea to Tamil Nadu whenever the situation became too hot for them in Jaffna. That was also the time when Sri Lanka was not a militarised nation, and its army, despite quelling the 1971 JVP insurrection, lacked the killer punch it later acquired. The LTTE took shape in certain historical circumstances when large sections of Tamils felt disadvantaged. Insurgent groups (call them military or terrorist outfits if you like) are not born in a vacuum. There can be nothing more fanciful than this. Recently, a group of Tamils met over the web and pledged to renew the struggle to carve out a traditional Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka, that too with India’s help. Periodically, one hears from Sri Lanka or sections of the Tamil diaspora that the foundation of another LTTE may be needed to continue the unfinished battle for Tamil Eelam. Those who admired and those who suffered at its hands will both remember the Tigers for what it did to them and how it turned the once idyllic island nation of Sri Lanka into a land of blood and gore.

Of course, the LTTE will live in the minds of many, both Tamils and non-Tamils. Ever since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was militarily crushed in May 2009, it has been asked repeatedly: Can the group be resurrected by Sri Lankan Tamils? I insisted then and I insist now: the LTTE is dead for ever.

Tamil eelam pics