Sri Lanka Monday, April 27th 2009

Prabhakaran, the Tigers last breath

Colombo rejected the cease-fire declared by Tamil rebels cornered. The Sri Lankan army wants a trophy: the historic leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

Besieged in the north-eastern Sri Lanka, the last rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran did not lay down their arms. Citing the "unprecedented humanitarian crisis" caused by the fighting, the Tigers have announced a cease-fire unilaterally in the conflict zone, reduced to a coastline of 10 km ², almost Puttumatalan. The initiative was described as "a joke" by the Sri Lankan authorities. "There is no need for a ceasefire. They (the Tigers) have to go, "said Secretary of Defense, Gotabaya Rajapakse, the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Exceeded by decades of ethnic conflict, Colombo offers suspected rebel hide an attempt to reorganize. Resistant to heavy international pressure, the authorities are therefore a deaf ear to the proposal of a truce to rescue 50 000 Tamil civilians still trapped in the fighting. This despite the astronomical 6,500 civilians killed since late January and a few thousand soldiers and rebels killed in combat. In this war without thank you, Colombo refused to stop the assaults of his troops as the Tigers will not be destroyed.

Because the armed forces covet the trophy of victory, "Prabhakaran". "We missed a hair," said Brigadier Friday Shavendra Desilva. Aged 54 years, the rebel leader would be well in the combat zone, surrounded by the faithful and his eldest son Charles Anthony. Having abandoned their uniforms, 300 irreducible rebels hiding among civilians. Prabhakaran, whose face is too recognizable, attempting to flee the island by submarine. Other sources suggest the possibility of mass suicide cadres of the LTTE, they wear a cyanide capsule around the neck to avoid being captured alive. As a last resort, Velupillai Prabhakaran has even demanded custody of his promise to shoot.

Entered into hiding at the age of 19 years, the "supreme leader" had already escaped several assassination. Born in 1954 in the Jaffna peninsula, he is the youngest of four children. Student shy, his Marxist-inspired rebellion took shape face discrimination Sinhalese Buddhists against the Hindu Tamil minority. "We have no other choice but to fight for our freedom," he insisted, defending the creation of an independent Tamil homeland. " In 1972, he founded the Tamil New Tigers. He organized the assassination of the mayor of Jaffna in 1975 and created the LTTE in 1976. From 1983, the Tigers launched their insurgency. The beginning of a dirty war, disappearances, attacks and killings perpetrated by both sides. Clashes kill more than 70 000 Sri Lankans.

In 2002, Prabhakaran comes out of the shadows during a dramatic press conference to announce its commitment to a peace process. His critics accuse him of having accepted the cease-fire with the sole intention of rearming the LTTE. Others suggest he has tried everything for peace, abandoning the idea of a Tamil state in favor of a negotiated federalism. But from 2006, after the election of nationalist President Mahinda Rajapakse in Colombo, the conflict flares up again and the army began a reconquest of the lands rebels.

A series of setbacks weakens Prabhakaran: Anton Balasingham, the ideologue moderate dies of cancer in London, and S. P. Thamilselvan, head of political wing, was killed in a bombing. Besides treason in 2004 by Colonel Karuna, who joined Colombo to have a minister, although suspected of abuses. But the Tigers remain a formidable movement, embodied by the United States and the European Union on the terrorist list.

Married with three children, the rebel leader does not hesitate to recruit child soldiers. Strategist fascinated by Alexander the Great and Napoleon, he is seen by some murderous megalomaniac. This keen martial arts has instilled in his fighters sacrifice military and the Tigers have committed more suicide attacks than Islamist groups. They eliminated two heads of state and government: Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of India in 1991 and President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993.

Hated or revered, Prabhakaran is a legend. "His character is a pure creation of propaganda," says Karuna, the traitor. But for others it is embodied in Thevan Suriya, the Sun god. " Movies, songs and posters depicted as heroes, and wealthy diaspora will help the "Little Brother" to build a war chest. And for thirty years, eliminating its domestic rivals, it monopolizes the "Tamil cause". In recent months, he forced his people to follow the withdrawal of its troops, using people as human shields and precipitation in the fall. Before deciding on a final break, restless with the proposal for a cease-fire.

The Tigers, the guerrilla's most sophisticated Quarteroni a recluse in the jungle

Caroline Stevan

Hunted by the army, the Tamil rebels is now living its last days. Origin and characteristics

It gives them a few days, weeks at most. Cornered by the Sri Lankan army, the Tamil Tigers are in the process of making their last breath. Review of the characteristics of this guerrilla for long time presented as the most ferocious and best organized of the world.

The beginnings of the struggle

Regarded as better educated and more English than the Sinhalese, the Ceylon Tamil minority (15% of the population) has been widely favored by the occupying British. The independence of the island in 1948, the Sinhalese resume control of the state and begin to bully the elite decommissioned. In 1956, Sinhala is recognized as the sole language of the country, it is the beginning of the fight. The anti-Tamil attacks fuel the ranks of the rebellion. Among the younger generation of fighters emerged Velupillai Prabhakaran. Aged 22 years in 1976, he founded the Tamil New Tigers, which will become in 1976 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). On Marxist, the focus is the independence of the Tamil north of the island.

Methods

The Tigers begin with small attacks targeted police posts in particular, before eliminations political practice on a large scale. In 1975, the mayor of Jaffna was assassinated. Followed by many elected officials, some ministers, the head of the Government of India Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993. The other Tamil movements are eliminated with the same method. The guerrilla suicide bomber gives practice in fashion, including using women. "With more than 450 suicide attacks in a quarter century, we can say they have industrialized this technique," says Olivier Guillard, research director at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) in Paris. There is also a more conventional arsenal: Tigers are the only rebel group of the world with their fleet and some aircraft. "Three years ago, this was the guerrillas more operational and better trained on the planet," notes Olivier Guillard. Troops, and are divided into several bodies, the Black Tigers, who commit suicide bombings, the Sea Tigers, who command ships.

Beyond the sophistication of the explosives or the accuracy of their snipers, we can see the immense cruelty of their methods, for its part, emphasizes Jean-Vincent Brisset, military expert, also a researcher at IRIS . It lends particular the practice of "barbecue Tamil", a Sinhalese set of two tires that boute on fire." Tigers, moreover, are known for always wearing them a cyanide capsule to swallow case of capture. "The meaning of heroism and sacrifice are very present in the Tamil culture. Velupillai Prabhakaran has taken to the extreme, "says Eric Meyer, Vice-President of the Inalco (Paris Institute of Oriental Languages) and a specialist in Sri Lanka.

Organizational Structure

Velupillai Prabhakaran remains the undisputed leader. The whole movement turn around it. It is said megalomaniac, exclusive and deadly. In addition to the senior movement, the LTTE are composed of many soldiers, often recruited by exercising some coercive among the Tamil population. "In the territories controlled by the Tigers, each family has more or less obliged to sacrifice one member to the organization, often a child," says Alan Keenan, an analyst at Colombo for International Crisis Group. Number of children were recruited into the guerrilla. Rumor has it that many orphans have been "taken" after the tsunami in December 2004. "The Tigers have set up orphanages after the tsunami. These homes have to be places of indoctrination, like schools, but this is not a systematic policy, "notes Eric Meyer. The LTTE has created a kind of small state in the territories they control, with their police, their legal system or their taxes.

Funding

The LTTE is heavily watered by the diaspora, again in a more or less voluntary, and a monthly fee is levied at the Tamils from abroad. The other source of funding is derived from crime, arms trafficking and racketeering in mind.

Support

Diaspora, therefore, plays a huge role, both in financial terms as in mobilizing international public opinion. Demonstrations to support the Tamil cause are regularly organized. Tyrannize by the Tigers, the Tamil population of Sri Lanka seems to continue to support them, at least openly. "They have little choice in their mind, it is the LTTE or the government! Having eliminated all their rivals, the Tigers are the only ones to defend the Tamil cause, "argues Alan Keenan. The LTTE, too, have supported India in the 1980s in particular. Many cadres of the movement went into exile a time in Tamil Nadu near. The signing of an agreement between New Delhi and Colombo in 1987, to end separatism, broke off relations. India has deployed its troops in Sri Lanka against the LTTE.

The debacle

Relentlessly bombed by the Sri Lankan army, the Tigers are now confined to an area of 10 sq km in north-east. "A series of strategic errors have led the organization to this military dead end ; ranking in the blacklist of terrorist organizations (2006), which meant that it was concerned about the funding of the LTTE, the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, who has cut the movement of the support of India, coastal monitoring relaxed ... "lists Eric Meyer. "The departure of Karuna, the Tigers number two who joined the government in 2004, led to the desertion of several executives. This was the beginning of the end, "says his side Eleanor Pavey, a specialist in Sri Lanka in Geneva. Finally, a new government was established in Colombo, with the will to fight. The means granted to the army have increased since 2005. Estimated between 5000 and 10 000 members there are still few, the Tigers would be more than 300 to 500 according to the Government, 1500 to 2000 according to observers.

The future

Velupillai Prabhakaran had asked his guards to shoot as a last resort. He also appointed a dolphin, Kumaran Pathmanathan, supplier of weapons known as KP, sailing between Thailand, Malaysia and Europe. The army will likely handle the Tigers. But if the "solution" is only military, the Tamil question may well emerge from the jungle or from abroad.

(True Story of LTTE from the time the Journal 29.04.2009

SrI Lanka Tuesday April 7th 2009

Foreigners accused of being "White Tigers"

Western humanitarian actors are believed to promote the Tamil cause

Why the war in Sri Lanka it is confined to the silence of the international community? However, in the north, Sri Lankan army regularly multiple assaults against the last rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The strategies of the army and the Tigers endanger 40.000 to 150.000 Tamil civilians trapped in the combat zone, die by the hundreds since late January. According to the UN, "war crimes and crimes against humanity" appear on both sides.

Blackmail, restriction of access

On site, the Western humanitarian actors are gagged, subjected to blackmail access restrictions as soon as their attitude displeased the authorities in Colombo. "Our statements are useful for us to question," says the head of an international agency. The discomfort is such that a charitable organization, whose employees are stranded in the combat zone, prefers not to publicly alert. After his visit, Esko Kentrschynskyj, the delegate of the European ECHO humanitarian agency, was forced to clarify: "We are not against the government."

Foreigners are believed to be "White Tigers", it means to promote the Tamil cause. The recent remarks of the spokesman of the Ministry of Defense are instructive: it shows a "heinous coalition of international aid" that protects terrorists. " "By capturing bunkers of the Tigers, our soldiers found materials from the UN agency World Food Program," condemns a Sri Lankan diplomat .

"It is a strategy to discredit the international community, says the director of a ungovernmental organization (NGO) in the United Kingdom. The moderates are perceived as intruders. "The authorities ignored the international law on the protection of people. With 14 journalists murdered in two years in Sri Lanka, few dare to criticize these deficiencies.

From the rejection of colonial domination, the anti-Western stream has influenced the Buddhist and Sinhalese nationalism. In twenty-five years of civil war, Sri Lanka has routed all the good wishes of the great powers. The mediation attempts, initiated by India or Norway (whose emissaries were called "White Tigers"), have failed. In addition, the wrath of Colombo to address supporters of the LTTE who have benefited from the "political asylum" in Europe and raised funds for the rebellion.

After the tsunami

These feelings were exacerbated after the tsunami in December 2004. "The whites were manipulated by the LTTE which was used in the coffers of the tsunami to rearm," said Dharmalingam Siddarthan, leader of the Peoples Liberation of Tamil Eelam. Meanwhile, authorities also have the opportunity to covet the best gifts and control the coastline. Was there a link between one of the largest donations in history humanitarian and the resumption of war in 2006? No one knows, but the awkwardness of NGOs are not arranged. In the end, only half of 1.13 billion dollars of international aid has been spent, the reconstructions have been abandoned and most NGOs have folded baggage. Western interest generosity to the tsunami, not to a war whose ethnic issues beyond the most donors.

Between China and India, whose regional rivalry motivates good relations with Colombo, however, fits the role of Washington discreet, interested in open sea of Sri Lanka. The United States sold arms to Sri Lanka, like Britain, China, India, Pakistan and Israel. From January 2006, Washington had indicated its support for the resumption of war. Since then, Colombo has continued to enroll in a "war against terrorism." A speech that drew international sympathy and allows continued military assault. With impunity.

Monde April 29th 2009

Paris and London have not received a truce

AFP

David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner have called for a cease-fire "humanitarian." (AFP)

The British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner french, visiting today in Sri Lanka have not won truce in the offensive against the Tamil rebels, and humanitarian access to civilians trapped in the fighting.

"We tried very hard, we have insisted on access to the (war zone), but our friends in the permit or not," said Bernard Kouchner, visibly tense during a point Press after long talks with his counterpart Rohitha Bogollagama.

David Miliband confirmed that the talks had failed, stating at Colombo that calls for a cease-fire "humanitarian" intended "solely to save the civilians" and not the Tamil rebels. "Nobody in the international community has never called for a cease-fire to save Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that the EU and the United States consider a "terrorist organization," stressed the head of British diplomacy. David Miliband, whose country is the former colonial power, called the Sri Lanka country proud, independent and democratic (which) has suffered terribly from terrorism. "

Appeal the cease-fire

David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner came to claim an official "cease-fire humanitarian, which could save 50 000 civilians trapped in the conflict zone, a coastal strip of six km2 in the north-east. Paris and London had to "reiterate the calls of the international community at a ceasefire, to respect international humanitarian law and protection of civilians", said Tuesday the french Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The two men then left-with a handful of journalists, including an AFP photographer at Vavuniya, about 80 km southwest of the war zone, home to 200 000 refugees who have fled in recent months. According to the UN, more than 100,000 people have survived since the conflict began on 20 April, a massive exodus of Tamil civilians.

Monday, the chief UN humanitarian, John Holmes, had not even received a green light for a humanitarian team in the pocket between insurgents cut off. Moreover, the U.S. State Department was "very concerned" by reports of bombings against the enclave.

Civilian casualties

A website close to the LTTE, Tamilnet.com, accused the army to continue to pound the region, despite its promise to cease and be limited to "humanitarian operations". The military said they had "saved" 113 000 people in one week. But according to the UN, more than 6,500 civilians have probably already been killed and 14 000 wounded since the last stroke of a target of the army in January in a North-East today devastated.

The journey of Mr.. Miliband and Kouchner takes place in a tense diplomatic climate. The Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, a connoisseur of the country and should be part of the visit, was refused Tuesday to enter the island. A decision described as a "serious mistake" and "pathetic" by the EU.

Persuaded to be close to military victory, Sri Lanka remains deaf to international appeals, mainly from the West about its manner of conducting its conflict against the Tigers.

Until its military debacle, the LTTE was fighting to establish an independent state in the north and east of the island rather prosperous 20 million, but bleeding a separatist war that claimed over 70 000 more deaths in 37 years

The final offensive against the Tigers turned to tragedy

Angélique Mounier-Kuhn

Colombo has pierced the corner of the rebels. The International Committee of the Red Cross refers to a situation "catastrophic" for civilians

How are they still? A few hundred, as telling the Sri Lankan authorities, or several thousand? Nobody can say that now weigh the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). However, doubt is no longer allowed. Invincible for twenty-five years they are now in agony. In a few days or few hours, the authorities in Colombo will be able to proclaim the final victory over the separatist rebellion. But by then, and while thousands of civilians have died since mid-January, how many others pay with their lives the ultimate fighting between the army and the Tigers?

Towards a hecatomb

The international community consider with horror the prospect of bloodshed since the army has made Monday a breakthrough in the last stronghold of the guerrillas, a strip of land a dozen square kilometers north-east , bordering the Indian Ocean. With this progress, the Ministry of Defense had given twenty-four hours to Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Tigers, and his lieutenants to surrender. This ultimatum has expired Tuesday at mid-day, unanswered insurgents whose call for a sustainable truce had been swept by Colombo last week.

A force of displacement in recent months, 150.000 to 200.000 civilians were cornered in the pocket, as big as the heart of Geneva, where they were used as human shields by the LTTE against artillery fire from the army . According to authorities, the gap breakthrough Monday would have allowed more than 60.000 of them to flee the area to reach areas under government control.

No media is present on site to verify this assertion. The government released its own images of broken columns of haggard survivors. A "rescue" welcomes Colombo, who estimates that 20.000 the number of civilians still trapped. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that 50.000 people are still trapped in the scope of the fighting.

"Extreme situation"

"I do not remember a situation as extreme and painful," said Pierre Krähenbühl alarm Tuesday, the operations officer of the institution genevoise. "Not only the conflict continues, but intensifies it. All these people, concentrated on a territory as small and no way out are at an immediate risk to their safety and their lives. The lower firing of rockets or mortar wounds or kills civilians, "says he.

According to him, a thousand injured civilians need to be rescued in the combat zone. All the others are in lack of water, food and medicines. The ICRC has launched a solemn appeal to the warring parties take "exceptional measures of precaution". He asked the LTTE to let civilians leave the area and government forces to distinguish between civilians and military objectives. The International Crisis Group (ICG) for his part called a "humanitarian pause" to allow the evacuation of civilians under the control of the ICRC and the UN. The U.S. administration has also called on adversaries to spare civilians. But observers doubt that, so close to victory, the authorities comply with these calls.

For its part, Human Rights Watch urged the international community to shoulder its responsibilities too. "It is high time that the humanitarian crisis is officially included in the agenda of the Security Council [UN]," says the American NGO.

For now, despite the vehement advocacy of the Tamil diaspora, it has spent an assignment informal Sri Lankan crisis, there is a fortnight.