South Asia
Tigers send a deadly message
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Barely two days after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) commemorated the 17th anniversary of its first suicide mission, a suicide blast in Colombo, believed to be the work of the LTTE, left five dead and about 12 seriously injured. While the destruction caused by the blast is relatively minor by Tiger standards, its impact on the ceasefire could prove far more devastating if the Lankan government does not tread carefully.
The LTTE has denied involvement in Wednesday's suicide attack. S P Tamilchelvan, the leader of the LTTE's political wing, described the blast as "an act to destabilize the peace process carried out by elements that want to disrupt the peace process".
Indeed, the Sri Lankan peace process, deadlocked for more than a year now, has many enemies. However, few are likely to buy into the LTTE's argument. The LTTE has accepted responsibility for about 240 suicide attacks, but has also denied involvement in several high-profile ones, such as the assassination of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
On July 5, 1987, the LTTE's "Captain" Miller drove an explosive-laden truck into a Sri Lankan army camp at Nelliady in the Jaffna Peninsula, killing himself and several Lankan soldiers. This was a few weeks before the India-Sri Lanka Accord was signed. For some reason, the Tigers did not launch suicide attacks throughout the period the Indian Peace Keeping Forces were engaged in military operations against them.
The LTTE's suicide squad is an elite force. It is known as the Karum Puligal - or Black Tigers. The identities of Black Tigers are a closely guarded secret in the LTTE. It is only after a Black Tiger attains "martyrdom" in a mission that it accepts responsibility and his or her name is revealed. (The Black Tigers include a significant number of women. See Asia Times Online's The women of terror, October 18, 2003.)
The Black Tigers have assassinated several leaders, including Rajiv Gandhi, Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa, the United National Party's presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake, defense minister Ranjan Wijeratne and industries minister C V Goonaratne. They have also killed Tamil moderates, such as member of parliament Neelan Thiruchelvam, a prominent Tamil lawyer. Sri Lanka's president escaped an LTTE suicide bombing in 2000, but was partially blinded in that attack. They have killed army personnel engaged in the "hearts and minds" campaign in the Tamil areas, such as brigade commander of the Jaffna Peninsula Brigadier Larry Wijeratne. A truck laden with explosives rammed into the Central Bank of Sri Lanka leaving 86 people dead and 1,400 others injured. Other suicide attacks include those on the World Trade Center and the Sri Lankan Joint Operations Command in Colombo, the Temple of the Tooth Relic at Kandy, oil-storage installations in Kolonnawa and the international airport at Colombo.
While the use of explosive-filled trucks is not new - the Lebanese Hezbollah used them in the early/mid-1980s - the human bomb, the strapping of the human body with explosives, appears to be a Tiger innovation. Militant groups in West Asia are said to have copied the LTTE's "explosive jacket" that human bombs wear. The LTTE is easily the world leader in suicide operations. In an interview some years ago, Soosai, the commander of the LTTE's naval wing, the Sea Tigers, said: "They are using our tactics. I think in Yemen they used our strategy of suicide attack to blow up an American ship. That is exactly what we used to do." He was referring to al-Qaeda's attack on the USS Cole in October 2000 in which 17 US military personnel were killed.
Little is known of the special training that Black Tigers undergo. It is said that those who are selected for this elite squad undergo training and then go back to regular service in the LTTE. Their skills are constantly upgraded. They are summoned when required for a suicide mission, when they "go on leave" and "disappear" - snapping ties with their co-fighters and then their family. Before they set out on their mission, they are bestowed with the ultimate honor for a Tiger - dinner with the LTTE chief, Velupillai Prabakaran. All Tiger fighters are highly motivated. They are trained to kill and die for the cause of Tamil Eelam and Prabakaran. Every Tiger fighter has a cyanide capsule around his neck. The Tigers describe this cyanide capsule as the symbol of their commitment. Tigers in danger of capture by the enemy are expected to swallow the cyanide. The capsule protects the cadre from capture and torture by the enemy and it protects the LTTE as the Lankan forces cannot ferret out information from its fighters.
All Tigers are trained to kill themselves when capture seems imminent. What sets apart the suicide squad is that its members know exactly when, how and where they are going to die. An operation means certain death. Immense motivation is required here as the end is an extremely gory one - the body of the bomber is usually in pieces.
Suicide bombers have often been described as half-crazed fanatics from impoverished backgrounds; youngsters who see in the "sacrifice" an escape from their hopeless existence, an opportunity to win for themselves a place in history. But increasingly it is becoming evident from examples around the world that suicide bombers are young and educated, with bright futures to look forward to.
The LTTE's martyrs' cult plays a central role in motivating a suicide bomber. Tigers killed in combat are not cremated - as is the custom among Hindus - but buried, with a gravestone marking their achievement. Although the LTTE cannot get back the body of a suicide bomber, a more elaborate gravestone is reserved for the Black Tigers. A Black Tiger martyr is not just honored; he is worshipped by the LTTE. The promise of being remembered by future generations of Tamils and of going down in LTTE history as having contributed to the creation of "Tamil Eelam" is motivation enough for some boys to become suicide bombers. These boys need little convincing. However, some terrorism experts are suggesting that too much importance is being given to understanding the psychological makeup and the motivation of a suicide bomber. They say that the suicide bomber must be seen as a weapon, his deployment as a tactic.
David Ucko and Christopher Langton of the International Institute of Strategic Studies write: "Suicide bombers constitute an inexpensive, intelligent, flexible and mobile weapon capable of inflicting significant physical and psychological damage on chosen targets. Such practical and tactical considerations are often not fully appreciated in analyses of suicide attacks. Perhaps because the notion of self-sacrifice in the name of political ideals and objectives seems unnaturally self-destructive, speculation mostly focuses on the psychological make-up of the individual attacker. A preoccupation with such issues has also tended to obscure the fact that a suicide bombing carried out by an individual is often the result of a collective strategic decision by an organization, involving an extensive support structure dedicated to recruitment, authorization and planning. Indeed, the argument has been made that the suicide bomber should be considered no more than a 'sentient missile' - a convenient delivery option for the 'real' terrorists who recruit for, plan and authorize the eventual attack."
The suicide bomber is perhaps the deadliest weapon in the LTTE's arsenal. Unlike an ordinary bomb, the suicide bomber can run, dodge the security forces and above all think, which means he can alter plans to some extent if some unforeseen obstacles come up in the way of his mission. And unlike in regular assassinations where the assassin's escape has to be planned, no time is spent in planning the exit strategy in a suicide operation. The human bomb is low-cost but promises very high returns to the militant group. The terror that a human bomb generates is immense; the publicity generated by a suicide attack is far more than that from an ordinary killing. The suicide bomber continues to serve the cause of his militant group long after his death. The "martyrdom" of a suicide bomber is used to motivate others to join the group.
The female suicide bomber who carried out the attack on Wednesday was then a "convenient delivery option" for the LTTE leadership to send a message to the government. The message was a reminder to the government that its patience with the deadlocked peace process is wearing thin. It was a warning of the kind of violence that lies ahead if the government does not get its act together immediately.
The Black Tiger might be a low-cost/high-yield weapon option for the LTTE. Yet the goriness and the brutality of a suicide operation does immense damage to the group's image. Even those who might sympathize with its cause are repelled by its methods.
The LTTE's international image had gone up several notches as a result of its participation in the peace talks. That new-found respectability has been dealt a big blow by the latest suicide bombing.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FG10Df03.html
--><img src='http://www.yarl.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tongue.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='http://www.yarl.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='laugh.gif'><!--endemo--> :wink:
--><img src='http://www.yarl.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&
--><img src='http://www.yarl.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->