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.
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