TAMIL TIGER TERRORISM, SUICIDE BOMBINGS AND ASSASSINATIONS

TAMIL TIGER TERRORISM

The Tamil Tigers — the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a pro-Tamil, anti-Sinhalese separatist movement in Sri Lanka — were formally outlawed as a terrorist group in the United States, India, Britain, Canada, and Australia. The group’s leader Velupillai Prabhakaran insisted that his group was not a “terrorist organization” but rather was a “liberation movement.” Targets of Tiger attacks and assassinations included airliners, buses, oil depots, army camps and politicians. In many cases the group filmed the attacks and used these films to motivate their fighters.

The Tigers rarely took credit for the bombings and assassinations that they were reported to have carried out but they usually left behind unmistakable clues that they were behind the attacks. When asked about Tiger culpability in the massacre of innocent civilians, senior Tiger commander Kariklan said, "If we wanted to kill innocent people, it would be easy for us; we could do it all the time. But we are not terrorists. We are a liberating force.”

One of the first terrorist-style attacks attributed to the Tamil Tigers was the bombing of an Air Lanka plane at Colombo airport in 1986 that killed 16 people. The Tigers staged many of their attacks in July around the time of the anniversary of the 1983 Riots. The usual response by the Sri Lankan government to a Tiger attack was a bombing raid on a suspected Tamil Tigers camp in northern Sri Lanka.

Tamil Tigers Contribution to Global Terrorism

It is widely believed the Middle Eastern and militant Muslim groups such as Al-Qaida studied Tamil Tiger suicide missions. The attack on the Cole in Yemen by Al-Qaida in 2000 is believed to have been copied from Tamil Tiger attack on a Sri Lankan Navy ship in 1991. The Tigers also pioneered the use of sophisticated suicide body suits and surveillance techniques and developed methods to get close to targets.

Mia Bloom wrote in the Washington Post: Tamil Tigers' “perfection of suicide bombings, their recruitment of women and children, their innovation in IEDs, have been emulated by other terrorist groups worldwide, from al-Qaeda to Hezbollah. Though they considered themselves superior to jihadi terrorists — who regularly target civilians — the Tigers opened the door to terrorism as a strategy of liberation and resistance to an unwanted government or occupying force. And they reached a standard of deadly efficiency envied by U.S. enemies and terrorists around the globe. [Source: Mia Bloom, Washington Post, May 24, 2009, Bloom, a professor at Penn State University, is the author of "Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror" and "Bombshell: Women and Terror"]

“Over more than three decades, the LTTE perfected suicide terrorism by loading all sorts of vehicles with explosives: cars, boats and even bicycles. They devoted a unit especially to suicide bombing, recruited cadres of child soldiers known as "baby tigers" and launched a women's unit commanded by women. They attacked the government by air and by sea and used operatives who defied terrorist profiling. Among the victims of their most successful plots were a president and several high-ranking members of the military. Attacking high-value targets often required months of meticulous planning. In one instance, a female bomber, Anoja Kugenthirarasah, apparently faked a pregnancy and attended prenatal maternity classes at a military hospital for three weeks before making a failed attempt on the life of the commander of the Sri Lankan army, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka.

“The organization also enforced a strict code of conduct. Members were forbidden to drink alcohol, use drugs or engage in premarital sex. They were issued glass cyanide vials to wear around their necks and instructed to bite down on the cylinders in the event of capture. The members of the LTTE followed these strictures willingly and awarded Prabhakaran an almost cultlike devotion. The high point of the suicide bomber's life was not the completion of his or her mission or the promise of 72 virgins in the afterlife, but the meal they shared with the glorious leader before the attack. After this honor, they were ready to die for him — and hundreds did.

“The LTTE's improvised explosive devices (IEDs) set the industry standard. Using a combination of military-grade explosive packed with ball bearings that performed like buckshot, the belts were far more deadly and effective than anything used by jihadi terrorist groups or suicide bombers in the Middle East and elsewhere. When al-Qaeda made inquiries in 2001 into whether the group would share its advanced technology and IED blueprints, it was told in no uncertain terms, as my sources said, "No, we don't want to kill Americans." The leaders whom I interviewed in December 2002, all dead now, looked down on Islamic suicide bombers. "We don't go after kids in Pizza Hut," one high-ranking Tiger leader told me in a clear reference to Hamas's 2001 Sbarro attack in Jerusalem, which killed 15 civilians (including six children) and wounded 130.

“The Tigers also learned from their mistakes. After the deadly 1996 Colombo Central Bank and World Trade Center attack, which killed 91 civilians and injured more than 1,400, resulting in a backlash even among their staunchest supporters, they decided to choose their targets more wisely, focusing on the military, the police and the government. This is a significant difference from the deliberate targeting of civilians by al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah.

Major LTTE Incidents in the 1980s

After the assassination of Jaffna's mayor in 1975, the militant groups accelerated their campaign of violence and destabilization. Their early targets included policemen, soldiers, and a number of Tamil politicians who were seen as collaborators with the Sinhalese-dominated government. The attacks were sporadic, relying largely on hit-and-run tactics. [Source: Russell R. Ross and Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1988 *]

In July 1983, the LTTE ambushed a military convoy in Northern Province, killing thirteen soldiers. The attack sparked off a conflagration of communal violence in which approximately 350 Tamils were killed and as many as 100,000 were forced to flee their homes. Indiscriminate violence by Sinhalese mobs and members of the security forces led to insecurity and alienation among the Tamil population, and support for the insurgency grew dramatically. The year 1984 was marked by a substantial increase in terrorist attacks, and the militants turned increasingly against civilian targets.Major incidents included an armed attack against civilians in the ancient Sinhalese city of Anuradhapura (May 1985 — 146 dead); the detonation of a bomb aboard an Air Lanka jet at the Bandaranaike International Airport (May 1986 — 20 dead); and a massive explosion at the Pettah bus station in Colombo during rush hour (April 1987 — 110 dead).*

As the Tamil movement grew and obtained more weapons, it changed tactics. A full-fledged insurgency that could confront the armed forces replaced the isolated terrorist incidents that had characterized the early period. By early 1986, the LTTE had won virtual control of the Jaffna Peninsula, confining the army to military bases and taking over the day-to-day administration of the city of Jaffna. In January 1987, the Tigers attempted to formalize their authority over the peninsula by establishing an "Eelam Secretariat." LTTE leaders claimed that this was intended simply to consolidate functions that the insurgents were already performing, i.e., collecting taxes and operating basic public services. Nonetheless, the government interpreted this move as a unilateral declaration of independence and thus a challenge to governmental authority.*

Major Attacks in the 1980s (Attack: Date, Location, Death toll) listed based on the number killed :
Anuradhapura massacre: May 1985 in Anuradhapura, Anuradhapura District, killing 146

Habarana bus massacre: April 1987 in Habarana, Anuradhapura District, killing 127

Central Bus Station Bombing: April 1987 in Pettah, Colombo, Colombo District, killing 113

Kent and Dollar Farm massacres: November 1984 in Mullaitivu District, killing 62
Aranthalawa Massacre: July 1987 in Aranthalawa, Ampara District, killing 35
Air Lanka Flight 512: May 1986 at Bandaranaike International Airport, Gampaha District, killing 21
Kokilai massacre: December 1984 in Kokilai, Mullaitivu District, killing 11 [Source: Wikipedia

Major Tamil Tiger Attacks in the 1990s and 2000s

Massacres (Attack: Date, Location, Death toll) listed based on the number killed :
1990 massacre: of Sri Lankan Police officers: June 1990 in Eastern Province, killing 600-774

Kattankudy mosque massacre:: August 1990 in Kattankudy, Batticaloa District, killing 147

October 1995 Eastern Sri Lanka massacres: October 1995 in Eastern Province, killing 120
Palliyagodella massacre: October 1991 in Palliyagodella, Polonnaruwa District, killing 109
Kebithigollewa massacre: June 2006 in Kebithigollewa, Anuradhapura District, killing 66
Gonagala massacre: September 1999 in Gonagala, Ampara District, killing 54
Kallarawa massacre: May 1995 in Kallarawa, Trincomalee District, killing 42
Gomarankadawala massacre: April 2006 in Gomarankadawala, Trincomalee District, killing 6 [Source: Wikipedia]

Bombings (Attack: Date, Location, Death toll):
2006 Digampathana bombing: October 2006 in Digampathaha, Matale District, killing 92–103
Central Bank bombing: January 1996 in Colombo, Colombo District, killing 91

Dehiwala train bombing: (1996) July 1996 in Dehiwala, Colombo District, killing 64
Lionair Flight 602: September 1998 off the cost of Mannar District, killing 55
1998 Temple of the Tooth attack: January 1998 Temple of the Tooth, Kandy, killing 17

2009 suicide air raid on Colombo: February 2009 in Colombo, Colombo District, killing 2
Tigers sunk a 310-seat ferry at its berth in a Sri Lankan port: July, 1999, one crewman was killed. The bomb was set by a scuba diver or suicide bomber.

Assassinations (Attack: Date, Location, Death toll):
Havelock Road bombing: Assassination of Ranjan Wijeratne: March 1991 on Havelock Road, Colombo, killing 19
Assassination of Gamini Dissanayake Ossie Abeyagoonasekera: October 1994 in Thotalanga, Colombo, killing 52
Assassination of C. V. Gunaratne: June 2000 in Ratmalana, Colombo District, killing 22
Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi May 1991 in Sriperumbudur, Chennai, in Tamil Nadu, India, killing 15
Assassination of Ranasinghe Premadasa in May 1993 Armour Street, Colombo, killing 11

Tamil Tiger Bombings

In January 1996, a huge bomb exploded in downtown Colombo, killing 91 people and injuring 300. The 400-pound bomb was planted in a truck that was rammed into the Central Bank in downtown Colombo, near the World Trade Center, Colombo’s tallest building. When security personal moved in on the truck, three people burst from the truck and began shooting in all directions. Prabhakaran was later sentenced in absentia to 200 years in prison for planning the bombing.

In October, 1997, a truck bomb packed with a half ton of explosives blew up in the central business district of Colombo near three five-star hotels frequented by foreigners and near the World Trade Center. Eighteen people were killed but none of them were foreigners. The attacks were believed to have been a Tiger retaliation to being included on United States State Department list of terrorist organization, which had the potential of hurting the Tigers ability to raise funds from Tamils living overseas. Among the 100 or so injured were people from Britain, France, Japan, Singapore, Jordan, Australia, Canada, Cuba, Egypt, India, the Netherlands, South Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sweden. Most of injured were hurt by flying glass.

Sri Lanka's most important Buddhist temple, Dalada Maligawa (the "Temple of the Tooth") in Kandy was bombed in January 1998. In May 2000, four Tamil Tiger revels killed themselves after the failed in attempt to kill the defense monitors and three chiefs of the armed forces by attacking their motorcade. The rebels killed themselves as police were preparing to storm the apartment where they were hiding out. In October 2000, 19 people were killed during a suicide bombing before parliamentary elections in Muttar (150 miles east of Colombo).

Thirty-two people were killed and 300 were injured when a bus packed with two powerful bombs blew up outside a crowded train station. Many of the dead were children. The bombs were believed to have been detonated by the driver of the bus, who was killed in the attack. At least 21 people were killed, including a government minister, and at least 60 were injured during a suicide bomb attack near the airport in Colombo. A suicide bomber blew himself up during a procession by the ruling party.

Suicide Bombings by the Tamil Tigers

The Tamil Tigers launched several hundred suicide attacks — arguably more than any other organization. As of 2002, by one count, the LTTE had carried 220 suicide bombing missions that killed more 1,500 people. By contrast Hamas had set off 70 bombs at the same point in time. Rohan Gunaratna, an expert on terrorism at St. Andrews University in Scotland, told the New York Times, “of all the suicide capable terrorists we have studied they are the most ruthless and most disciplined.”

The Tamil Tigers are credited with popularizing the suicide mission as a military tactic. Suicide bombs had been used in isolated instances in the Middle East (most notably in the attack on the Marine barracks in Lebanon) but until the 1990s most attacks were car bombings or conventional ambushes or infiltrations. By contrast the Tamil Tigers used suicide bombing in a systematic way beginning in the late 1980s to fight an enemy that vastly out outnumbered them.

One Captain Millar is credited with being the first suicide bomber. In July 1987, he plowed a truck full of explosive into an army camp, killing 40 Sri Lankan soldiers. Others on suicide bombers carried out assassinations, bombed buildings and attacked ships. One even attacked Sri Lanka's most scared Buddhist site, the Temple of the Tooth. To carry out the missions the Tigers have used men, women, children, animals, boats, motorized rickshaws, parcels, cars and trucks. Some have argued that the September 11th attacks have their roots in Tamil Tiger methods and tactics.

As of 2008, 356 Black Tigers including 147 young women commandos perished in LTTE suicide missions. Rahul Bedi wrote in the Irish Times: “Until the daily suicide attacks in Iraq overtook them, the Black Tigers held the record in their grim speciality with 390 hits and a success rate of 80 per cent that included a president, prime minister, defence minister and the country's army chief. [Source: Rahul Bedi, Irish Times, October 7, 2008]

The Tamil Tiger developed suicide mission as an offensive weapon. Ironically the main goal of suicide missions was to frustrate the military and the political leadership of the enemy with a minimum loss of life to the perpetrators (the loss of one suicide bomber is much less than losses sustained launching a military offensive). The word used to describe a Tamil Tiger suicide mission — thatkodai — means to “give yourself." One Sri Lankan expert on the Tigers told the New York Times, “It is a gift of the self, self-immolation, or the self-gift. The person gives him or herself in full."

Sri Lanka Tamils have traditionally had among the highest suicide rates in the world while Muslims traditionally haven't had very high suicide rates.

Black Tiger Suicide Killers

Political assassinations and bombing in which the assassins blew themselves up along with their targets were a trademark of the LTTE. The suicide commandos that carried out these acts were members of an elite group known as the Black Tigers.

By the mid 1990s about 36 Black Tiger had died on suicide mission, including terrorists who blew themselves up assassinating former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadas and presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake. Captain Millar mentioned above is regarded as the first Black Tiger.

The Black Tigers usually had explosives sewn into special vests placed on their bodies. When the explosives were detonated their limbs were blown off and their heads went flying in the air. Black Tiger were also used on the battlefield. In attacks against well-dug-in positions that couldn't be reached with mortars the Black Tigers hurled themselves in the bunker and detonated the explosives.

Little is known about how the Black Tigers were selected or trained. They are said to have volunteered and there was reportedly a waiting list of new recruits anxious to participate in the missions. A Tiger officer told National Geographic, "When a young person makes a decision to become a Black Tiger — to destroy himself — he goes through several training courses. It is his final act, and here is where the dedication of our young people is built. There is no liberation without sacrifice."

Black Tiger Martyrs

Those who died in suicide missions were applauded for their self sacrifice. This contrasts somewhat with the Muslim militants who volunteered because they were promised heavenly rewards as martyrs. "Our Black Tigers don't 'commit suicide' — they die a heroic death," a Tamil Tiger political official told National Geographic. "They know that they are going on an attack, and they are happy because it will change the military balance."

Before the suicide commandos embarked on their missions they were are often honored at a special dinner with Prabhakaran, who reportedly was inspired by martyrdom themes in popular films and motivated by Tamil failure. One of his missions was to make teenagers believe that blowing themselves to bits was an honorable thing to do.

Posters of teenage Black Tigers who successful carried out their missions were posted in hospitals and schools in Tiger-controlled areas. Billboards with similar messages were posted around Tamil-Tiger controlled camps and towns. The Tiger administrative headquarters in Kilinochchi sold CDs and tribute songs to Black Tigers and DVDs of their exploits.

Huge monuments with paintings and pictures of fighters and suicide commandos — some as young as 14 — dominated intersections across Tamil-controlled areas of Sri Lanka. Monuments to the Black Tiger suicide commandos were especially large and ornate. Along the roadsides on highways in Tamil-controlled areas also were billboards that instructed women on how to play dead when injured and blow themselves up when government soldiers check to see if they were alive.

Suicide Navy Attacks

Tamil Tiger suicide attackers, known as the Sea Tigers, were quite effective attacking ships. They destroyed a third of the Sri Lankan Navy and attacked oil tankers.

In September 1994 a 330-ton, 130-foot-long government patrol boat, the largest warship in the Sri Lankan navy, was sunk by suicide attack from speedboats disguised as fishing vessels and packed with explosives. One of the speedboats rammed the bow and 22 of the 40 sailors on board were killed. [Source: John Ward Anderson, Washington Post, February 4, 1995]

One of the four Black Tigers who died during the suicide attack on the Sri Lankan naval vessel was 22-year-old Pathmavathy Arumutasamy. Her father told the Washington Post: "We were surprised when we heard there was an attack and our daughter met with heroic death. As a father I am sad about it , but at the same time, I'm proud and happy she made the supreme sacrifice."

In April 1995, four Black Tigers — two girls and two boys — detonated explosives that sunk two of the Sri Lankan navy's eight Chinese-built gunboats and took the lives of 12 Sri Lankan soldiers. Before leaving on their suicide mission, the four "Sea Tigers," had dinner with Prabhakaran and a memorial photograph was taken with him.

LTTE Sea Tigers' Sneak Craft and Midget Subs

LTTE Sea Tigers used sneak craft and midget subs, some of which tourists used to be able to see — but not any longer — at a museum set up at the main Sea Tiger base in Mullaitivu. According to Atlas Obscura: The “submarines wouldn’t be out of place in a 1950s sci-fi flick.” They “were homemade in secret in makeshift factories in Tamil Tiger-occupied territory by the rebels’ naval wing. The Mullaitivu district on Sri Lanka’s northeastern coast was the site of the naval base of the LTTE. The harbor here served as the headquarters of the Sea Tigers. [Source: Atlas Obscura]

“In 2009, as Sri Lankan government troops were advancing deeper into Tiger-held northern territory shortly before the end of the war, troops made a startling and key discovery. They stumbled on a deserted submarine boatyard near Puthukkudiyiruppu in the country’s Mullaitivu district, where Sea Tigers were manufacturing secret underwater vessels. As the Tigers retreated further into the jungle during the government’s final push against the LTTE, the rebels left ghost camps behind, including this crude submarine workshop. In the boatyard, the Sri Lankan Army discovered four submersibles and semisubmersibles. (Finding true submarines was rare, as they very difficult to build.)

“This included three terrorist suicide boats in mid-construction and unused, a crudely built mini-sub, and an unfinished steel hull of a larger submarine. What the larger one was supposed to be used for, however, is unknown. The Sea Tigers constructed, in secret in the jungle in Tiger territory, a range of novel, experimental vessels. They made up for their lack of open ocean capability with innovative boats like explosive suicide vessels and crude submarines. Some of the unconventional designs were ineffective but others were substantial. Others are so unusual it’s unclear how they were planned to be used, and there is ongoing research attempts to make sense of the Sea Tiger’s homemade fleet.

Tiger Suicide Bombers on a Tractor Attack an Army Base in 2007

Anthony David and Somini Sengupta wrote in the New York Times: “A day after guerrillas bombed a military air base on the edge of the capital here, seven people were killed when a pair of suspected rebel suicide bombers tried to drive a tractor loaded with explosives into an army camp in the country’s east. The two suspected bombers were also killed in the explosion. At least 23 people were injured, including at least six children, according to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, which monitors what is now effectively a defunct truce in the country. [Source: Anthony David and Somini Sengupta, New York Times, March 27, 2007]

“A government military spokesman, Upali Rajapaksa, said the bombers tried to enter the camp with a tractor loaded with around 200 kilograms, or 440 pounds, of explosives. When they were intercepted by troops at a checkpoint, the bombers blew themselves up. Among those instantly killed was a 12-year-old boy, according to the military. “They are showing signs of desperation,” Major Rajapaksa said of the rebels. “If they had managed to enter the camp it would be have been a disaster.”

Earlier, “The rebels claimed responsibility for the air strike, which was the first time they had used airpower to launch an attack. In that attack, it remains unclear whether the air force detected the approaching aircraft on its radar since the rebels, known here as the L.T.T.E., were able to attack and escape unscathed.

“The government said late on Monday that two separate inquiries were underway to determine whether there had been any lapses in security which may have helped the air strike. “The security forces will now have to take into account the air threat factor of the L.T.T.E.,” Iqbal Athas, a defense analyst and a columnist with the Sunday Times newspaper here, said by email. “Now VIP homes, naval ships, frontline troops, ports, key military establishments all become vulnerable.” Their back-to-back strikes this week follow a steady advance by the Sri Lankan military on rebel-held areas in the east, in what appears to be a bid to flush out Tamil Tiger bases along the country’s strategic eastern coast and reinstate government control there.

Suicide Bombing Kills 27 in 2008

Rahul Bedi wrote in the Irish Times: “ A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed 27 people including a highly decorated former army general and seriously injured another 80 in northern Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan military authorities claim the killing of retired Maj Gen Janaka Perera and his wife in the explosion inside the crowded opposition United National Party office in Anuradhapura to be a riposte by Tamil Tiger rebels under siege by the military poised to end 25 years of civil war. [Source: Rahul Bedi, Irish Times, October 7, 2008]

“Military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said Gen Perera was targeted because of his successes against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatists during his years in service. The former general turned diplomat and, more recently, opposition politician was a celebrated hero in Sri Lanka for having halted a major guerrilla advance in 2000 into the northern Jaffna peninsula, the cultural heartland of the country's minority Tamils.

“The rebel-affiliated Tamilnet website reported that the suicide bomber had "embraced the former commander" before detonating his deadly package. It accused Gen Perera of playing a major role in evicting Tamils from the area in the early 1980s to settle the majority Sinhalese population there.

The suicide strike on Gen Parera occurred as fighter jets, helicopters and heavy artillery pounded the LTTE's administrative capital Kilinochchi, 212 kilometers north of the capital Colombo. Military analysts said control of Kilinochchi would be decisive in determining the future of Sri Lanka's civil strife as the rebels would be driven out of territory they had long controlled.

Suicide Blast Kills Sri Lankan Minister and 11 Others at Marathon

In April 2008, a senior cabinet minister and at least 13 other people killed and at least 83 people were wounded in suicide attack at a marathon in Colombo. The minister, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, was killed after helping start the race [Source: CNN, April 7, 2008]

CNN reported: Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, who was the highway minister and the chief government whip in Parliament, died when the suicide bomber stepped forward and detonated his explosives. Fernandopulle was waving the starting flag for the race which was part of the Hindu New Year celebration in Weliveriya town, police said. His body will lie in state in Sri Lanka's parliament on Monday for a national funeral, before it is handed over to his relatives on Tuesday for a family burial, police said.

Lakshman de Alwis, Sri Lanka's national athletics coach, was also among the dead, police said. The bombing is the latest to hit Sri Lanka since the government's January withdrawal from a cease-fire with the Tamil Tigers. The rebel group has fought for an independent Tamil homeland in northern Sri Lanka for more than two decades. Nearly 200 people have been killed in a wave of attacks on buses, train stations and other public places since the start of the year

Assassinations by the Tamil Tigers

Over the years a Sri Lankan president, a former Sri Lankan prime minister, an opposition political leader, a minister of defense, four other cabinet ministers, and various generals and politicians have been assassinated in Sri Lanka. Many of these were carried out by the Tamil Tigers. Others were carried out by other groups.

Assassinations (Attack: Date, Location, Death toll):
Havelock Road bombing:/Assassination of Ranjan Wijeratne: March 1991 on Havelock Road, Colombo, killing 19
Assassination of Gamini Dissanayake Ossie Abeyagoonasekera: October 1994 in Thotalanga, Colombo, killing 52
Assassination of C. V. Gunaratne: June 2000 in Ratmalana, Colombo District, killing 22
Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi May 1991 in Sriperumbudur, Chennai, in Tamil Nadu, India, killing 15
Assassination of Ranasinghe Premadasa in May 1993 Armour Street, Colombo, killing 11 [Source: Wikipedia]

Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa was killed by a Tamil Tiger on May 1, 1993 by a suicide bomber who rammed his bicycle into the presidential party stand during a May Day parade. Twenty three others were killed.

In October 1994, 52-year-old presidential candidate Gamini Dissanyake had just told a crowd goodbye when a young woman with braided hair positioned herself 10 feet from the platform where he spoke and detonated a bomb beneath her T-shirt. Packed with ten pounds of ball bearings, the bomb killed 54 people and wounded more than 100. Among the dead were three former cabinet ministers and several wives and daughters of leading figures. The head of the unidentified suicide bomber was found more than 80 feet away on a second story rooftop.

Moderate Tamil politicians who spoke out against the Tigers have been assassinated. One such politician, Neeelan Tiruchelvam, was killed when a suicide bomber approached his car while it was stuck in Colombo traffic. Tiruchelvam was blown out of the car. The head of the suicide bomber flew over several cars and landed next to a car.

Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi was killed on May 21, 1991 in the southern temple town of Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu just as he was ready to begin a political rally in southern India in an effort to regain the office of Prime Minister. The bomb that killed him contained one pound of RDX plastic explosive and was packed with 10,000 metal pellets. Seventeen people, including nine policemen were killed, along with Gandhi. The partial head of the assassin was found on the grass near where Gandhi was killed.

The bomb was strapped to the body of a female suicide commando who working for the Liberation Tigers if Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the pro-Tamil terrorist group in Sri Lanka. The bomb exploded as the assassin went to shake Gandhi's hand and offer him flowers. In 1987, Gandhi sent troops to disarm the Tigers under an agreement with the Sri Lankan government. The troops were withdrawn in 1990 but that didn’t stop the Tigers from getting revenge by assassinating Rajiv.

In 1998, 16 Sri Lankan and 10 Indians were sentenced to hang for conspiring or playing a part in the assassination. Only two were directly involved in the murder, including the man who built the bomb. The rest were charged with lesser charges such as conspiracy, for helping the killers by providing transportation, housing or food. The trial lasted for five years, compared to two years for the killer of Mahatma Gandhi and 15 months for the killer Indira Gandhi.

Assassination Attempts on President Kumaratunga

Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga narrowly escaped several assassination attempts. Two teenage suicide bombers detonated their body packs less than a mile from Kumaratunga heavily guarded mansion. Twenty people were killed. All that was left of the bombers were a few pieces of the their torsos.

At one time an estimated 20 Black Tigers individually stalked Kumaratunga. Ten of them were caught. During an interrogation, one teenage commando said that he observed a weakness in the president's security and said that he planned to leap from a bridge on the president’s vehicle as her motorcade passed underneath.

The United States Secret Service reportedly sent agents to Colombo to offer advise on Kumaratunga personal security. Among the advise she was given was to have several cars leading her motorcade to discourage a car bombing and surround herself with body guards on both sides and in front and back of her for protection from a sniper attack.

On December 21, 1999 a bomb exploded at rally attended by Kumaratunga. Twenty three people wee killed, dozens were injured and Kumaratunga lost sight in an eye injured in the blast. The assassination was carried about a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to her body. The bomber was believed to be a Black Roger. Kumaratunga took a more hardline position after the assassination attempt.

Combating Terrorism in Sri Lanka

In their battle against terrorism police in Colombo did spot checks on cars and owners and set up road blocks to check vehicles coming into the city for weapons. Citizens seemed willing to put up with inconveniences and hassles, One Colombo resident told National Geographic, "Unless we all cooperate at the checkpoints, they will strike again in no time."

Motorized rickshaws were banned from getting too close to buildings out of fear they might be carrying gunmen or packed with explosives. Ultimately the government realized it could do little to stop the suicide bombers themselves and that the only way to end the bombings was to negotiate with the Tamil Tigers since they were ones who supported the bombers and they were the ones who could stop them.

Mia Bloom wrote in the Washington Post: “Tactical innovations in suicide attacks and scores of young men and women willing to die for Prabhakaran could not save the organization or its leader from the might of the Sri Lankan army. To counter the Tigers, the government implemented a policy of targeted assassination and did it with amazing accuracy. And though they did kill off the entire LTTE leadership in the end, Sri Lanka would do well to keep in mind that in other parts of the world, killing the leadership simply radicalizes the next generation and does not resolve the conflict. [Source: Mia Bloom, Washington Post, May 24, 2009, Bloom, a professor at Penn State University, is the author of "Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror" and "Bombshell: Women and Terror"]

Imprisoned Tamil Tigers

Some captured young Tamil Tigers wee sent to rehabilitation centers where they were given psychological counseling and vocational training with the hope that will be able to reenter society.

Tamils who were deported from Britain and other places in Europe faced arrest, extortion and torture when they returned to Sri Lanka. When they arrived at the airport their identity cards and papers were taken. From then on the were targets for arrest and harassment: they had none of the documents Sri Lankan are legally required to carry and there accents and names gave them away as Tamils.

In prison, Tamils were subjected to various kinds of torture: beatings with poles, fingernails pulled out, genitals crushed, anus penetration with a drill and rubbing chili power into their eyes.

In October 2000, thousands of Sinhalese villagers stormed a rehabilitation center and killed 26 former Tamil Tiger child soldiers. The mob knifed and beat their victims with iron rods. At least two had their skulls split open. The incident began when the Tamils took a camp officer hostage and demanded to released. Instead of trying to stop the mob, police reportedly participated. The event was particularly tragic because some of the Tamils who were killed were child soldiers who may have been abducted against their will and forced to fight for the Tigers.

In 1995, 43 Tamil Tigers imprisoned 115 kilometers from Madras, India, escaped through a 50-meter long tunnel they had dug in 20 days, They surfaced outside the prison wall, swam across a moat and disappeared. It took authorities 10 hours to realize they were gone. Twelve were caught in Madras; 31 got away.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Sri Lanka Tourism (srilanka.travel), Government of Sri Lanka (www.gov.lk), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.

Last updated February 2022