There is such a high premium placed on the Tamil nationalist struggle, human sacrifice is unimaginable. The loss of Tamil cadres, fighters and leaders in the past indicates that such sacrifices are unavoidable in the quest of national liberation.
The killings of Tamil Chelvan, LTTE’s political wing head, and his five of his colleagues once against demonstrate that the high premium paid by Tamils for national salvation and dignity.
National liberation movements are built and sustained on the basis of collective solidarity and vision. While individual leaders are important, there is, however, a general acceptance of the necessity of supreme sacrifice.
This would explain why national liberation movements do not falter when certain individual leaders are killed or maimed in conflicts. On the contrary, history of liberation movements has shown that death of leaders do not necessarily constrain movements from achieving their political goals.
However, no movement willingly sacrifices its leaders or cadres. Sacrifice, death and injuries are often sustained in the collective struggle for a national good. No sacrifice is bigger than the goals of acquiring freedom from oppression and servitude.
In this respect, LTTE is no different from liberation movements like the African National Congress, Irish Republican Army, Free Aceh Movement, Free Papua Movement and many others.
Tamils in the island called Sri Lanka have made huge sacrifices in the pursuit of freeing themselves from the oppression of the majoritarian Sinhala state. The movement to liberate Tamils from the oppression of the Sinhala majority is under the leadership of the LTTE.
While the LTTE shares many features with other liberation movements, however, it is different in the sense it is the most determined movement to seek a separate state for Tamils in the northeast of Sri Lanka—area of historical Tamil habitation and control.
However, the determination of the LTTE to push for a separate state is not something devised by it alone. The inability of the Sinhala state to conceptualize and understand the sentiments of Tamils, the continued military occupation of Tamil areas, the slow but sure attempt to colonize Tamil areas by Sinhalese, the difficulty posed by the international community and the opportunistic role played by India have left the LTTE with no option.
Under these difficult domestic and international circumstances, the LTTE is forced to rely on the strength of Tamils in the northeast of Sri Lanka and the support from the Tamil Diaspora to pursue the option of Tamil Eelam—a futuristic Tamil nation.
In comparison with other affected peoples, Tamils have put up with tremendous difficulty as result of the hardship imposed by the ruthless majoritarian Sinhala state.
In recent years, as result of the breakdown of ceasefire brokered by the Norwegians in February 2002, hundreds and thousands of Tamils have been displaced from their homes, hundreds have been abducted and killed by the combined forces of the Sri Lankan armed force and Tamil para-militaries and most importantly, sections of Tamils population have been denied food and other essentials by the Sri Lankan armed forces in the name of defeating the LTTE.
The suffering and humiliation of Tamils is something of a great worry and concern to the LTTE. While it is able to protect Tamils in areas under its control, it cannot do the same where the army is in control.
While the Sri Lankan armed forces have been beefed up with military supplies from the international community, the LTTE as a non-state actor has to rely on itself to acquire arms and ammunition to fend off attacks from the armed forces of the state.
In recent years, as result of the assistance rendered by countries like Pakistan and Israel, the Sri Lankan government has re-quipped its air force with bombers and fighter planes.
Aerial strikes in the name of defeating the LTTE have merely imposed further hardship on Tamils in the northeast. Hundreds of Tamils, women and children have been killed and injured in air strikes.
After each air strike, the government’s propaganda machine announces to the world of the killing of the Tigers. But in reality, known to the government, these strikes are merely to terrorize innocent Tamils from supporting the national cause.
The difficult and trying circumstances of the war has meant that Tamils in general and the LTTE in particular have to make supreme sacrifices in pursuit of their goal. Over the last three decades of so, the LTTE has lost hundreds and thousands of cadres in the fight against the armed forces of the government. A few weeks back, the LTTE had to use its Black Tigers to destroy the government’s air force based in Anuradhpura.
The LTTE has lost some very capable leaders in the past. This something very painful for the organization in general and to its leader Piraphakaran in particular. However, as I have said earlier, no sacrifice is greater that the dream of a separate and dignified Tamil state of Eelam.
Tamil Chelvan was great Tamil diplomat. If he had remained alive and the future of Tamil Eelam secured, he would have been the nation’s foreign minister. The death of Tamil Chelvan and his five dedicated men is a loss that will be mourned by the Tamil Diaspora for years to come.
But one thing is certain. Contrary to the prognosis of the right-wing Sinhala establishment, the loss of Tamil Chelvan is not going to derail the move to achieve an independent state.
In Aceh, the killings of some leaders of the Free Acheh Movement including the commander did not derail the struggle for independence in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, the freedom movement gained strength after these killings with entry of new individuals.
Similarly, it would be wrong to assume that the demise of Tamil Chelvan will be blow to the Tamil liberation movement. Tamils will keep his dream and commitment alive by increasing their support for the LTTE.
As Sinhala colonization increases in the East, more and more cadres from here will be joining the LTTE. Do they have an option?
