{"id":108964,"date":"2020-11-23T17:39:40","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T00:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108964"},"modified":"2020-11-23T17:52:26","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T00:52:26","slug":"the-lttes-maaveer-celebrations-packaging-suicide-killers-as-liberation-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/23\/the-lttes-maaveer-celebrations-packaging-suicide-killers-as-liberation-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"The LTTE’s \u201cMaaveer\u201d celebrations: Packaging Suicide Killers as liberation Heroes."},"content":{"rendered":"

Chandre Dharnawardana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The 26th<\/sup> of November is the\nBirthday of the dreaded leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(LTTE) who was shot dead in 2009. Prabhakaran<\/em>\nassassinated the elected leaders of the Tamil community in the 1980s [1],\nmassacred other rival groups, suppressed dissent, and  hijacked the control of Tamil politics,\nto  launch a brutal war against the Sri\nLankan government that lasted some three decades, ending in May 2009.  The whole of Sri Lanka, including the  majority of Tamils who live in the South with\nthe Sinhalese celebrated the event<\/em>. It was recorded as such in film by Poongkothi\nChandrahasan<\/em> [2] the grand daughter of SJV Chelvanayagam<\/em>, the acknowledged\nleaders of the Tamil Nationalist movement. Luckily for him, SJV\u201d  passed away before the rise of Prabhakaran.\nMr. Amirthalingam<\/em>, SJV’s \nlieutenant,  was shot dead by\nPrabhakaran’s agents to pass mantel of Tamil leadership to Prabhakaran un-equivocally.\nSJV founded the separatist Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi<\/em>, or Lanka Tamil\nKingdom Party\u201d that envisioned a separate Tamil kingdom known as Eelam<\/em>\nin 1949 [3]. SJV may have settled for a federal solution with strong autonomy\u201d\nfor the 12% population of Tamils. But the forces that he unleashed demanded Arasu<\/em>\nitself, roused Sinhala extremism, and proposed to create a Tamil kingdom by\nforce<\/em> in in the Vaddukkoddai resolution\u201d [4].  Nevertheless, Sri Lanka, India and the West\nsought a futile peaceful solution\u201d that led to near four-decades of Eelam\nwars, State Brutality and Tiger Terror extending even to Tamil diaspora who\nfaced extortion and Tiger violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first suicide offensive of the Tigers\nis usually ascribed to Vallipuram \nVasanthan<\/em> alias  Captain\nMiller\u201d of the LTTE in 1987. He drove a truck of explosives into an army camp\nin Nelliyaddi (\u0db1\u0dd9\u0dbd\u0dca\u0dbd\u0dd2\u0dba\u0dd0\u0daf\u0dca\u0daf).  However, he\ndiabolical distinction of being the first dispoasable<\/em> Tiger should go to\nSivakumaran who tried to rob a bank in Kopay (Bop\u00e9, \u0db6\u0ddd\u0db4\u0dda )  in June 1974, and committed suicide to\nprevent arrest. This gave Prabhakaran the idea of a cadre of suicide killers\nwho make the ultimate commitment\u201d to him personally, and to the Tiger\nmovement. The day after Prabhakaran’s birthday was selected  for the annual commemoration and\nglorification of these human explosives as great heroes\u201d or Maaveer<\/em><\/strong>\u201d.\nThese events were held in a grand ritualist format during Prabhakaran’s\nlifetime.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Seconds before Tamil Tigress exploding <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When the North became accessible during the peace breaks, it revealed itself steeped in the notion of self-sacrifice. Tamilselvan, the late head of the political wing of the Tigers stated that it is not killing oneself\u201d or thatkolai\u201d,  but thatkodai”, which means to give yourself\u201d to cause maximum damage to the enemy with just one lost to the Tigers. Thamilini was  the 30-year-old head of the female suicide cadre. Some 30 to 40 percent of  suicide fighters, including the assassin of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 have been young women. Many of them   had been   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

trained by Adel Balasingham<\/em>, an Australian now living herself, after approaching to garland Gandhi living with impunity in the United Kingdom [5].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pictures of suicide attackers like Captain\nMiller\u201d were every where in Tiger territory. The Tigers  filmed their suicide attacks and sold CD’s\nwith  songs glorifying the Black Tigers,\nand videos of attacks on the airport, the central bank and other targets. The\nTamil Disapora approved the violence  or\nremained silent out of fear, and donated money\u201d anyway. These  amounted to millions of dollars annually [6].\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, even though the LTTE was decapitated\nin Sri Lanka, it is alive and well in Canada, UK, and other Western countries\nwhere such tributes and memorials are held every year on 27th<\/sup>\nNovember. The sale of videos, memorabilia and the collection of donations\u201d\nhelp to fatten the coffers of  pro-LTTE\norganizations even today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The glorification of Black Tigers as role\nmodels for the young is accompanied by a justification ofhttps:\/\/policy-research.ca\/publications\/<\/a>\nviolence claiming that there was a Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka who fought\nfor liberating their traditional homeland\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pro-Tiger politicians have attempted to\ncreate an Education Week\u201d in Ontario to teach a re-packaged false history of\nthe conflict and hide the nature of these diabolical human bombs and present\nthem as Martyrs of human rights.  The\nreal facts of the alleged Tamil genocide\u201d, an allegation already rejected by\nthe UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2015 (Al Z. Husein, U-Tube,  Rejecting the Genocide claim\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=C7bhAkM8PaM), \nmay be followed in more detail at the website https:\/\/dh-web.org\/Canada\/Background104.html<\/a>\n.     The \npresent article deals with the history of the Black Tigers, or Suicide\nkillers whose techniques were closely copied by the Al Queda.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sivakumaran’s radicalization shows that\nattempts to appease\u201d fanatically brain-washed individuals is of little use.\nThus, in July 1970 the Deputy Minister of Cultural Affairs Somaweera\nChandrasiri, a Sinhalese politician, claimed that Sinhalese and Tamil cultures\nwere linked, angering Sivakumaran who tried to assassinate Chandrasri in\nSeptember 1970.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sivakumaran  and Chelva\u201d.                                    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sivakumaran’s cases show that if any moderate\u201d   Tamil or Sinhalese were to look for peace and middle ground between the two communities, they were targeted for elimination. This followed the doctrine of the irreconcilability\u201d of the Sinhalese and the Tamils announced by the ITAK theoretician V. Navaratnam in 1957. Although SJV presented a fa\u00e7ade of peacefulness, he had no hesitation in nurturing  boys\u201d like Sivakumaran[7]  who had attempted to blow up the Minister Somaweera Chandrasiri in 1970, and the Tamil Mayor Durreiappah in 1971[8].                       <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once Prabhakaran became the unquestioned leader of the Tigers, it was not necessary for him to carry out or lead assassinations in person. He created the dreaded Black Tigers<\/em> made up of men and women whose job was to become human bombs who can get to a target and blow themselves, killing the intended victim as well as all innocent by-standers who become mere expendables. For this purpose, the LTTE fashioned a suicide vest that could be worn unobtrusively, and could be activated by\u00a0the Tiger at an opportune moment. The Tigers shared\u00a0 their\u00a0 suicide technology with Arab terrorists that they had links with\u00a0at the time.\u00a0 The concept of sacrifice and belonging to the community and caste rather than to oneself, and the belief in\u00a0rebirth\u00a0 made the gift of the supremesacrifice\u201d for the cause\u00a0 socially acceptable to these young men and women.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An LTTE attack on a funeral in\u00a0Akuressa lights up the background. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The induction process or brain-washing\u201d was slow, and even\u00a0depended on dedicated orphanages like the Tiger Orphanage in\u00a0Sencholai<\/em> and Arivuchcholai<\/em>, where a\u00a0 handler became the\u00a0parent and confidante who guided the children to become\u00a0\u00a0suicide killers who have accepted the higher destiny\u201d of\u00a0blowing themselves.\u00a0 The songs\u201d of the orphanage will send a chill down the spine of\u00a0 most people but not to many members\u00a0\u00a0of the Toronto Tamil diaspora!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sencholai Padalkal<\/em>\u201d goes\u00a0 as\nfollows [9]:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tomb shall wait for me\u00a0<\/em>
Flowers as offerings shall there blossom<\/em>
A memorial for me who turn into a myriad atoms\u00a0<\/em>
The burning embers shall watch over me.\u00a0<\/em> \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The LTTE crashed a light plane in asuicide attack on the Revenue Dept. Sri Lanka in Jan. 2009.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The macabre poet\u201d who autoured this then\ndescribes a variety of possible deaths \nawaiting her – such as shells and bullets.  The \nsatanic  poem\u201d  runs:                                                                                     \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poison (cyanide) I bore<\/em>
\u00a0since I became a Tigress<\/em>
\u00a0Shall also await me.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
The hawk and the hound<\/em>
\u00a0to taste my flesh Shall<\/em>
stalk the field where I do battle.<\/em>
\u00a0…All these will I endure for my land<\/em>
\u00a0To me a grateful nation shall arise.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Sri Lankan army honours and\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0remembers its dead as all other armies do,\u00a0 without the sacrificial mysticism of the LTTE <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When this training-camp cum orphanage of Tiger Suicide Cadre was bombed in 2006, the Western-funded NGOs in Colombo and the Tiger Diaspora in Canada raised an international campaign against Sri Lanka claiming that it bombs orphanages\u201d. While pro-Tiger spokesmen addressing Western audiences take care to claim that the suicide cadre only targeted soldiers, quite the opposite is\u00a0true. Civilian political leaders have been blown up with heavy civilian casualties. The suicide attack on the Central bank in 1996 killed close to 100 people, while even funerals have come under attack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers built many war memorials and\ngrave yards for the black tigers who blew themselves up, killings dozens of\npeople. Theses grave yards (see figure on the right)           <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0are like Christian graveyards, with much propaganda value.\u00a0This is indeed contrary to Hindu cultural practices where dead\u00a0bodies are burnt (cremated), and graveyards are shunned except\u00a0by the very “lowest castes”. However, many of the suicide cadres\u00a0were Catholics, and the Tamil population had been Christianized\u00a0to a larger extent than the Sinhalese in the south. Furthermore, the Tigers cleverly exploited the Natu-kal\u201d tradition of South India to justify the practice and bring it to the areas controlled by the tigers [10].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Maaveer Thuyilim Illam<\/em>  or “Martyrs\u201d sleeping house was in\nKopay’s Northeastern city limits. Around 2000 epitaphs had been placed, but it\nhas been alleged that many of the graves were empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The\nSri Lankan army removed the stonework leaving behind only a commemorative\nplaque, following the practice of the Allied army in WW-II in dealing with Nazi\ncemeteries[11]. Tiger supporters simply \nretaliated by destroying the commemorative plaques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the right to remember the dead<\/em>\u201d\nhas been abused and used  as an excuse to\nhold politicized memorials for the suicide killers. The Northern Provincial\nCouncil which gave powers to rule the majoritarian-Tamil Northern Province, led\nby the controversial Mr. Wigneswaran, \ndid very little to ameliorate the economic well being of the Tamils. It\ndevoted most of it efforts to Eelamist propaganda, trying to build memorials to\nthe Maaveer<\/em> and obstructing more moderate Tamil politicians like Mr.\nSumanthiran.  The  extreme fringes of Tamil politics in Sri\nLanka  have used the 27th<\/sup> of\nNovember, the Maaveer day<\/em>\u201d as  a\nday for mounting confrontations with the Sri Lankan police and the army, by\ntrying to hold memorials with glorification of suicide killers and poltical\nspeeches. This would be equivalent representatives  of the extreme Right in Germany trying to\ncommemorate fallen leaders of the SS or other killer squads of the Nazis today.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Politicized sections of the Western diaspora continue to support Prabhakaran’s violent version of Tamil\u00a0Nationalism vigorously and continue to seek means\u00a0of reviving the ashes of the LTTE is Sri Lanka itself. \u00a0This enables them to support bogus refugee claims by\u00a0asserting that Tamils are Not safe\u201d in Sri Lanka. They claim that thousands of tamils have disappeared and that 146,679 Tamils were killed in the last days of trhe Eelam war, using falsified statistics that should now be laid to rest\nin view of the investigations by the British House of\nLords led by Lord Naseby where the number dead is estimated to be less than\n7000 [12,13].  These matters, and the\nnumbers unaccounted for, have been examined by several commissions including\nthe   Paranagama commission [14]. The\nGeneral Secretary of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) pointed out how\nthe LTTE eliminated  its very  own cadre and wounded civilians<\/em><\/strong>\nduring its retreat to Mulliavaikkal  as\nthe  LTTE regarded its wounded as a\nliability, adding to the disappeared<\/em><\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, (during the\nSirisena-Wickremasinghe govenment), an Eelamist motor bicycle drive-in  by youths (mostly politicized Jaffna\nUniversity Undergraduates) wearing black outfits, black and white flags etc.\nbrought them to Mullivaikkal (Mul-vakkad\u00e9, \u0db8\u0dd4\u0dbd\u0dca \u0dc0\u0d9a\u0dca\u0d9a\u0da9\u0dd9) [15]. A rally was held\nhere as a “Remembrance Day” event where the more moderate leading\nTamil politicians were excluded, in a manner reminiscent of the exclusion of\nthe TULF by the early LTTE, and by  other\nearly youth movements of the late 1970s. It was declared a day of “Genocide\nRemembrance<\/em>” by C. \nWigneswaran<\/em>, the first Chief Minister of the Northern provincial\ncouncil who was the only politician allowed in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wigneswaran, an upper class Colombo\nTamil  and Ex-Judge who worked\nclosely  with the Sri Lankan government\nbefore he came to politics, has embraced political extremism, even rejecting\ninter-marriage between races to safeguard “Tamil” racial purity, even\nthough his own children have rejected such racist views.  He also holds a romanticized view of the\nhistory of the Island where the Tamil people are believed to have a long and  glorified role extending to millennia\ncontrary to the accepted historical narrative. The Eelamists hold that the\nNorth and East of Sri Lanka are the “Traditional Homelands of the\nTamils”, a doctrine enunciated in 1949 by the Tamil political party. However,\nthe mere fact that a majority of older place names in the North and East are\nbased on Sinhala Place Names testifies to the fact that these areas had been\nunder Sinhala Rulers, as also testified by stone inscriptions, and the Pali\nchronicles.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tt is well known that most Tamil\nexpatriates  belong to\nUr-Societies\u201d  linked to villages (Ur<\/em>)  back in Sri Lanka [15]. They visit their\nvillages happily, safely and regularly, belying claims that Sri Lanka is unsafe\nto Tamils. Over 50% of the Tamils live in the south and are leaders of\nbusiness, industry, export-import and banking, occupying a more influential\nplace than even the majority community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the open and liberal society\nin Canada is exploited by the pro-LTTE Diaspora groups, and  political organizations like the\nTransnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) to paint a false picture. They\nhave sought to hold Maaveer<\/em> celebrations, glorify suicide killers  and teach violence and ethnic hate to a\nyounger generation that these political organizations hope to exploit in the\nfuture years to come. Wittingly or unwittingly, Canadian politicians who nurse\nelectorates with sizable Tamil populations have even attended these  suicide-killer memorial events that are held\nin the guise of mourning of  lost kith\nand kin! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chandre_Dharma-wardana<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1] http:\/\/www.island.lk\/2009\/08\/23\/news15.html<\/a>\nChelva’s grand-daughter on the end of the Eealm war; Poongkothai Chandrahasan <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2] http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/archives\/32136<\/a>  The Assassination of Amirthalingam and other\nelected TULF leaders by the Tigers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3] https:\/\/dh-web.org\/hrsits\/cansl0.html<\/a> The separatist conflict in Sri Lanka\nand the souring of Canada against Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4] https:\/\/dh-web.org\/hrsits\/cansl0.html#notes3<\/a> The 1976 Vaddukkoddai resolution\ncalls for a separate Tamil `Eelam’, even by force<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5] https:\/\/dh-web.org\/cansl1-HRW.html#AdelB<\/a>  Adel Balasingham and the LTTE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6] Ms. Jo Becker of Human Rights Watch  (see, The Globe and Mail<\/em>, March 16,\n2005 report by Timothy Appleby) stated that “In Canada, families were\ntypically pressed for between $2,500 and $5,000,” Ms. Becker wrote,\n“while some businesses were asked for up to $100,000”. These\nassertions have also been supported by the RCMP and other Canadian law\nenforcement organizations, and finally led to the banning of the WTM in 2008.\nThe Sri Lankan government alleges that the victims of LTTE-bombings and suicide\nattacks at the Colombo Central Bank, at the Bandaranaike Airport, and places of\nworship, schools, railways, public buses etc., were funded from Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7] http:\/\/www.srilankaguardian.org\/2008\/08\/future-of-tamils-of-sri-lanka.html<\/a>\nSebastien Rasalingam, The Future of Tamils in Sri Lanka,  Sri lanka Guardian<\/em>,26-08-2008<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8] Wikipedia entry under Sivakumaran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9] See under Sencholai [Hengolla]  in https:\/\/dh-wev.org\/place.names\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10] https:\/\/thuppahis.com\/2018\/12\/02\/tamil-tigers-dead-body-politics-and-sacrificial-devotion\/<\/a>\nMichale Roberts, Tamil Tiger dead-body politics and sacrificial devotion.<\/em>\n2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[11] https:\/\/dh-web.org\/place.names\/index.html<\/a>  See entry under Kopay [Bop\u00e9]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[12] https:\/\/srilankancanadian.ca\/index.php\/ontariobill104\/<\/a> \nSri Lanka Action Coalition on Bill 104;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[13] https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/SriAction\/photos\/a.344289429561138\/638723900117688\/?type=3<\/a> Factcheck on Bill 104<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[14] https:\/\/parliament.lk\/uploads\/documents\/paperspresented\/report-of-paranagama.pdf<\/a>  Report on the Paranagama Commission<\/em>;\ncomplaints of Abductions and Disappearances, 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[15] https:\/\/www.asiantribune.com\/node\/91870<\/a>\nThe commemoration ceremony on 17-May-2018 in remembrance of Tamil civilians who\ndied in Vella-mulliwaikkal during the last days of the ethnic conflict- Asian\nTribune<\/em>,  Rajasinghan, 19-May-2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[16] Thanges  Paramsothy, Caste within the Sri Lankan\nDiaspora, Anthropology Matters Journal<\/em>, 18, No.1 (2018)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chandre Dharnawardana The 26th of November is the Birthday of the dreaded leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who was shot dead in 2009. Prabhakaran assassinated the elected leaders of the Tamil community in the 1980s [1], massacred other rival groups, suppressed dissent, and  hijacked the control of Tamil politics, to  launch a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chandre-dharmawardana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}