The LTTE was pursuing an almost moderate strategy, suicide attacks/assassination attempts on the Foriegn Minister, Army Commander, Defense Minister, dissidents, military targets, etc. Those acts were all cease-fire violations, killing more bystanders than actual targets, but they were not the raw, civilian flesh-rending terrorism of yore. However, the LTTE has now begun what they started a bonafide and terrifyingly random campaign of terror against average citizens in the South. Suicide bombers have blown up civilian buses in Meetiyagoda and Nittambuwa, killing at least 22 very normal people and wounding over 110. These are attacks on buses, which is not the mode of transport for military or VIPs. This is terrorism, plain and simple. These are planned attacks on innocent civilians by the LTTE.
Attribution
Right now the bombs are attributed to the LTTE. They typically deny all attacks, even when ruled guilty by international organizations (SLMM, EU). The only alternative would be a nationalist group trying to blame the LTTE, but they’re simply not as trained at bombing, nor do I think they would adopt those tactics. The timing is also pointed, the attacks coming after the LTTE warned of retaliation for air raids. It’s not to stretchy to say that this is an LTTE bombing, but people will debate.
Mode
This was an attack on civilians. My friend is in Hikkaduwa (without a phone) and I’m honestly kinda scared. Average people take the bus. I take the bus to Kandy and (If I remember correctly) it costs like Rs 150, or $1.50. The people on the bus are going home, or going to work, or doing mundane business. They are average people, even poor, and elites with jobs and petrol allowances don’t take the bus. Not that anyone is less deserving of life, but what the fuck.
In the Meetiyagoda/Peraliya bombing they report to have found parts of a female suicide bomber. The Nittambuwa reports don’t say (to my reading). Tamil Net reports a time bomb. These were murderous and maiming attacks on innocent civilians. The attack on Peraliya is just cruel, that being the site where almost 1000 died in that eerie tsunami train. Tamil grievances or not, killing average people on the bus is wrong. Nothing makes it right.
Motivation
I dunno, but the LTTE has been attacking the South, especially Galle. They staged a purely symbolic raid on the Naval base, and now two remote attacks on the Matara-Colombo road and Nittambuwa. These are bumblefuck places with no strategic value, so pure terror is the only value. The LTTE is trying to scare average people and possibly provoke an ethnic backlash, spiralling into deeper bloodshed. So far Sri Lankans have not given the intended reaction, which is commendable (and telling). Like, perhaps Tamils can live here if the LTTE just lets the tensions go down. Of course, less tension and discrimination means less tyrannical LTTE with war powers, so they’re not exactly motivated towards peace, or a better life for anyone.
In Short
Terrorism is a much abused word and I try not to bandy it, but this is pretty clear. The LTTE is attacking innocent civilians on buses. That is terrorism and it is wrong. No other events justify killing a father on his way to work, or a daughter on the way to school. It is simply not right. I’m so sorry for their families, and I’m so worried. One for my friend, and two because the LTTE seems to be clamoring for escalation so bloody and so loud.
yeah, democracy… one in which members of parliaments and journalists can be shot dead with impunity, university deans get kidnapped (by the way all tamils)… you do not want to call sri lanka a democracy just because people are required to vote once in while… you may remember that adolf hitler, too, was voted into office in an election… but was his regime a democratic one?
Ggg, I agree that very little was achieved before the ’80s and the taking up arms by the Tamils. I also, for the record, think that uprising was justified, just as it is justified that that GoSl suppress it. However, just as the Tamils recognised that peaceful protests were failing, they must now recognise that violent terrorism has also largely failed. It has, however, achieved something — convinced the Sinhalese that the Tamils are willing to fight and must be taken seriously. So why not move on. Use that achievement to come to a diplomatic solution AND recognise that that solution will take many years of negotiations. No one is asking for unconditional surrender here. The LTTE should’ve used the threat of violence and not violence. Once you use your trump card and fail, you’re screwed.
The Tamil diaspora can put the most pressure on the LTTE, and ensure the change that’ll benefit the NE Tamils. Instead, they’ve turned their backs on Eelam. They’re throwing cash & rhetoric at the problem and hoping it’ll solve itself.
However, the LTTE (and by proxy the Tamils) have now lost that opportunity in the short term. The inability of the LTTE to hold the East ensures that the GoSL will be now less concessionary. Therefore the NE Tamils will have to ride out the current cycle of violence, and hope that the LTTE will be able make its way back to the table and not fuck up again.
“what is the alternative then? disbanding the ltte and simply watching the state (re-) instituting all those discriminatory policies it implemented BEFORE the ltte emerged?”
No one is unreaalistic enough to expect the LTTE to be disbanded, but the Tamils need to ensure that the LTTE truly represents their needs and aspirations (not just their race), and goes about getting thosse in an effective manner. Not by squandering lives for no gain.
“At least, the ltte managed to create a de facto state, i.e. there are areas in the island where the state has completely lost its sovereignty to the ltte”
Bandits and gangsters can achieve much the same (and have). It doesn’t make that area a de facto state. Also, a state is recognised by its ability to defend its territory and people,, something the LTTE cannot do.
“By the way, you could pose your question differently: after 25 (50) years of trying to quell the liberation struggle of the tamils, what has the state achieved? lost about 60% of the northeast, thousands of young soldiers killed and maimed, ”
Soldiers know the risks. And we’re all volunteers. We don’t need to conscript women or kidnap kids. Armies exist to defend the state with its blood and the blood of its enemies. In 25 years the state has prevented the separatists from gaining their goals, while ensuring the rest of the country outside the NE lives in relative (3rd World) peace & prosperity. On the other hand, the Tamils are suffering far more than they did before. It’s time to change, and only the Tamils can make that change.
David,
I do understand your point and agree that both the ltte and the state should find a compromise, that negotiations are better than violence. But, actually, the ltte (and the state) did cease to fight in 2001, and a negotiated settlement was pursued by it.
The problem is obviously that the ltte and the gosl cannot agree on how much “autonomy” should be given to the northeast- and there is simply no “objective” way to determine the amount of autonomy the northeast is entitled to. You cannot expect the ltte
to accept ANY offer the gosl makes just for the sake of peace. And you cannot expect the ltte to negotiate for an indefinite period of time without any tangible results because the gosl can live with the status quo- which implies economic development in the south and continuied occupation of the north. But the ltte cannot do that since all they have ever tried to do was to change the status quo.
So what has the ltte achieved through negotiations for the tamils in the last 4 years? How long should they negotiate even though it seems to be fruitless endeavour until they are allowed to go back fighting?
Your impatience with the progress made in the four years of the CFA are significant, ggg, for it’s similarity to that of the LTTE’s. But did you seriously think it’d be all sorted in four years? Look at Israel/Palestine or N Ireland. It takes decades of negotiation. Even if progress via diplomacy is slow, it’s still better than war, particularly if you are on the losing side. You yourself said that the LTTE had a de facto state, and that situ was most evident during the CFA. Now, that’s being lost.
What’s wrong with negotiating indefinitely if in the interim you’re able to achieve your goals and your people are’s situ is being improved? Even if you don’t want too negotiate forever, you must be realistic in your time frames. Nations are not created in a year or four. And when you say you won’t negotiate anymore (as the LTTE did after the Washington donor conference), you throw away your options.
Right now, the LTTE cannot come back to the tablle without massive loss of face, and it seems unable to hold back the GoSL militarily. The LTTE has squandered through its impatience all the sacrifices made by its troops in the late ’90s and early ’00s. There will be more revolts of the Karuna mode, and the sooner the better.
Look up “collateral damage”, son.
The difference is the lack of intention, and the non-existence of a policy on the part of the GoSL, whereas with the LTTE there is a clear policy.
This week the the Sri Lankan army injured 14 people (3 critically) in a grenade explosion at the BMICH. Was this terrorism?
please save eastern tamils from pro jaffna LTTA racissts.
thanks
Maran
Batticaloa
Whoever it was who made the decision to display live ordnance at the BMICH should be put up for the Parama Weera Darwin Award.
Well, it is not my impatience that is relevant here… However, I would credit the ltte, which has been in the liberation business for quite a long time, with not only a comparative but also with an absolute advantage over me and, indeed, you in judging if (continued) negotiations or a return to armed struggle is the most promising means to achieve tamil aspirations. sometimes you simply have to put some trust in your leaders, that they have a somewhat better grasp of the larger picture than you…
True, but if after 25+ years, your leaders haven’t delivered on their core promises, you need to question if you’ve got the right people in leadership.
Oh, bombing and killings hundreds of Tamils seems like a “collateral damage” to you? How many LTTE’s did you actually kill? Certainly not “hundreds”.
These “collateral damages” have occured a countless number of times during the Singala Governments “war to liberate” the Tamils. I don’t think Tamils except this sort of “liberation” by the Singala Government. Why can’t you do anything whole-hearted to “liberate” the Tamil people?
There are so many excusses and so many ways to Justify killings of innocents. Don’t even try!
By that standard Lord Buddha, I guess the Sinhalese should be crying about being discriminated against for having innocent fisherman blown up outside the Colombo harbour three weeks ago. It’s not racism, Lord Buddha, it’s just carelessness, like the grenade explosion at the exhibition. In dealing with the JVP insurrection in 1987 to 1989 a lot of innocent Sinhalese people were rounded up and killed without trial. No Tamils were affected by that. Was that racism on the part of the government?
Of course not. It’s just a feature of a government and a country that has little respect for human rights. It’s terrible, but it isn’t motivated by racism.
any updates coming ??
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