From Valvettithurai to Nandhikkadal: Rise and fall of LTTE

THE evolution and growth of the armed struggle for the goal of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka saw many Tamil militant groups emerge across the politico-military horizon.

- By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

There was a time when 34 known outfits — big and small — existed. Among all these, the single organisation that kept the Tamil armed struggle alive for many years was none other than the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) led by Velupillai Prabhakaran from Valvettithurai in the Jaffna peninsula. The LTTE under Prabhakaran fought on relentlessly towards its avowed objective of a separate Tamil State until the very end.

The month of May is significant in the history of the Tamil secessionist armed struggle in Sri Lanka. It was on 5 May 1976, that a section of militant Sri Lankan Tamil youths re-organised themselves into the LTTE with the goal of establishing a separate Tamil State on the Island through an armed struggle. It was on 14 May 1976, that the chief political configuration of the Sri Lankan Tamils re-named itself as the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and adopted a resolution demanding the creation of a Tamil State called “Tamil Eelam” comprising the Northern and Eastern Provinces of the Island.

Decades later in May 2009, the LTTE suffered a total military defeat at the hands of the Sri Lankan armed forces in the Mullaitheevu district of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. Four days in May from 15 May to 18 May were of crucial importance in this regard. On 19 May 2009, South Asia’s longest war came to an end with the official announcement that the LTTE leader Thiruvengadam Veluppillai Prabhakaran was dead. His body was recovered on the banks of the Mullaitheevu lagoon known as “Nandhikkadal”. The LTTE formed in May 1976 was militarily annihilated after 33 years in May 2009.

It can be seen therefore, that the month of May has proved to be of great significance in the Tamil armed struggle for Tamil Eelam spearheaded by the LTTE known as the Tigers. It is against this backdrop that this column, in this third week of May, focuses on Prabhakaran and the rise and fall of the LTTE with the aid of earlier writings.