KAMALIKA PIERIS

The Eelam wars (1983-2009)  between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), arose over the issue of self-determination for Sri Lankan Tamils and the separation of the Northern and Eastern provinces from the rest of the country. The goal was a separate state.

 The Eelam war was not a guerilla or terrorist war, it was  a Civil War. Civil War takes  place when  a group of citizens take up arms against the government to obtain exclusive control of a part of  the land. The fighting takes place inside the state, in the territory which is to be separated from the rest of the state. It is  war between  the  state  and a group of  citizens  who  want to secede from the state, taking a slice of territory with them.  A civil war is  therefore an internal war. A civil war can become  a high-intensity conflict   if  the    state army  faces  a  well equipped rebel army. Civil war  could  be caused by  outside forces manipulating a separatist tendency within the  targeted territory.

The Geneva Conventions do not provide a definition of Civil War. The Final Record of the Diplomatic Conference of Geneva of 1949 (Volume II-B, 121)  instead  introduced the concept “Non-international armed conflict” .    Geneva  Conference said that for  “Non-international armed conflict”     the party in revolt must be in possession of a part of the national territory. The insurgents  must exercise de facto authority there .The insurgents must be  belligerent and the legal government  must  conduct  military action   against the insurgents.

Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Convention  also   used the term “Non-international Armed conflict”   instead of Civil War,  when speaking of  an  armed conflict between the state and non-state  groups  .The term “non-international armed conflict”   was   widely used  thereafter to refer to  Civil War because   it is the term used in Common Article 3 .

International Committee of the Red Cross, however,  recognized ‘Civil War’ and said that  for a civil war to take place, the party that is opposing the government  must possess an organized military force, it must have a central authority ,it must be in possession of  territory and  be waging war from inside it.

 Analysts and commentators studying the Eelam War use both  Civil War” and “Non-international armed conflict”   to describe the Eelam War. Legal commentators   take the position that  the  Eelam war is a non –international armed conflict.”  The conflict in Sri Lanka is a non –international armed conflict,   they  said.   

Others call it a Civil War. S.I. Keethaponcalan  in Post war dilemmas of Sri Lanka  (2019) said  Eelam war is a civil war it is between a sovereign state and a non-state armed group. It was a domestic war.    Nithyani Anandakugan  titled her essay in   Harvard International Review . August, 2020 as The Sri Lankan Civil War and Its History Revisited”.  

However, some  commentators reject the notion that the Eelam War was   Civil war. They argue that this was Non-International Armed Conflict  certainly ,but not amounting to Civil War .The reason was that  the  LTTE  killed  its own kind. LTTE killed many  Tamils. Does that qualify for the war   to be called civil”,  asked one observer. The answer is that   LTTE killed in  order to gain power and thereafter to  retain power. There was no protracted internecine war.

 This  anti-Civil war  attitude is based on the romantic notion that Civil War is between two  deeply united  factions spontaneously  opposing each other. They are thinking of  the  American Civil War  where the pro slavery ‘Union ^‘  and the  anti slavery ‘Confederacy ‘ fought each other, we imagine, in deep unity.

The separatist  intention is clearly shown in  Tamil politics. Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi, established in 1949 ( ITAK)  indicated through its name that   it was set up for the creation of an independent state. IIllankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi, means  Lanka Tamil State Party.” The word  ‘Arasu ‘ can be interpreted as ‘king,” “ruler,” “monarch,” or “sovereign”, said the dictionary. The word carries connotations of authority . Kadchi means ‘party’ . ITAK said that its name in English was ‘Federal Party’. That was to  hide its separatist  strategy. The Tamil word for federal is Kūṭṭāṭci” .

 The    militant groups  formed in the north in the  1970s were also separatist .  They   all wanted Eelam. The names   of the  five leading  groups were: Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP).Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF),  Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS)  Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)  People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE),  and Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO). 

However,  the Government of  Sri Lanka    did not  officially declare the Eelam war as  Civil war or  Non international Armed Conflict.   The  Government    called  the war a ‘terrorist’ war. Government  says there is no ethnic problem but only a terrorist problem, noted Ben Bavinck. [1]

The Military also spoke of the  enemy as terrorists.  Ours was a war waged against a terrorist outfit by a legitimate government, said  Sarath Weerasekera.[2]  The  memoirs written by the miliary leaders, such as the memoir by Kamal  Gunaratne,   always  spoke of  ‘terrorists’. The soldiers were also told that they were fighting terrorists, whom they called  ‘terra”.

When the War ended in 2009, President Mahinda Rajapaksa  went to Jaffna, spoke in Tamil and  said the war was against ‘Terrorism’ and not the ‘Tamil people.’  In 2019, Sri Lanka‘s High Commissioner for UK, said the conflict in Sri Lanka was not with the Tamil community, but against terrorism by the LTTE.[3]  

In 2020, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN,  speaking at the Security Council Open Debate on Peace building, said that action by the Sri Lankan security forces during the conflict was against a group designated as a terrorist organization . It  was not aimed at any community in the country.[4]

However, Shenali Waduge  observed that the UN   never officially designated the LTTE as a terrorist organization  . UN declared  Al Quaida and Taliban terrorist organizations  through Resolutions 1267 and 1373,[5] but not LTTE .

There is no  agreed definition of terrorism.  Violent and criminal acts planned for a political or ideological purpose are  considered ‘terrorism’.    Terrorism    thrives on the creation of fear  and intimidating the public.   

The Tamil Separatist Movement did not like the label of ‘terrorist.’ When  Anne Abeysekera visited Jaffna in 1994   she was asked,  Why  does your President say there is no ethnic problem , only a terrorist one. [6] LTTE also  objected.  LTTE  has said repeatedly that they were not terrorists. LTTE  was not interested in  merely  frightening  the public. LTTE never limited itself to hit and run tactics.  LTTE‘s mission was Eelam, nothing less.  They were fighting a separatist war.

 LTTE has continued to say this. The European Political Sub division of the LTTE ,  based in Denmark, appealed in January 2019  to  the European Union   asking the EU to lift the proscription of the  LTTE as an international terrorist organization.

LTTE stated that  it  had  participated in a legitimate armed conflict with the aim of ensuring the right of the Tamil people to self-determination. They were not a terrorist organization . EU agreed. The way LTTE’s armed forces were organized and their manner of conducting operations, met all the requirements laid down by international law for recognition as ‘combatants’, said EU, while extending the proscription. ( continued)

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[1] Ben Bavinck Of Tamils and Tigers Pt 1 p  307

[2]  https://www.sundaytimes.lk/250406/sunday-times-2/sanctions-and-sri-lankas-failure-to-address-human-rights-allegations-a-self-inflicted-crisis-a-response-594264.html

[3] Island 1.12.19 p 1

[4] Island 15.2.20 p 4  .

[5]  Shenali Waduge https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2025/06/11/sri-lanka-2009-post-war-to-present-un-precedents-bias-international-injustice/

[6]  Anne Abayasekara Telling it like it is vol 1 p  51