A Lesson on the Tamil Tigers

Today, I finally had to answer my own question of, “Who are the Tamil Tigers really?” Every time I hear the name I conjure up the image of a sports team like the Detroit Lions or the Chicago Bears but I know that I am completely wrong. My research revealed the following information:

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers, are a separatist group in Sri Lanka. They are considered one of the world’s most lethal terrorist groups by 32 other countries.

The Tamils are an ethnic group that lives in southern India and on Sri Lanka, an island of 21 million people off the southern tip of India.

Their Hindu religion and Tamil language set them apart from the four-fifths of Sri Lankans who are Sinhalese—members of a largely Buddhist, Sinhala-speaking ethnic group.

When Sri Lanka (formerly called Ceylon) was ruled by the British, most Sri Lankans regarded the Tamil minority as collaborators with imperial rule and resented that the Tamil's perceived preferential treatment.

But since Sri Lanka became independent in 1948, the Sinhalese majority has dominated the country.

For the past thirty years, the LTTE have been agitating for a homeland for ethnic Tamils, who feel persecuted by Sri Lanka's ethnic majority, the Sinhalese.

The LTTE is notorious for having pioneered the suicide bomb jacket, as well as the use of women in suicide attacks. Members of the LTTE army carry vials of cyanide around their necks in order to commit suicide if captured.

They are blamed for a dozen high-level assassinations, over two hundred suicide attacks, and are engaged in an ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka that has cost more than seventy thousand lives.

The news of the day seems to indicate that this ongoing civil war may soon be over. For the sake of all of the innocents impacted, let us hope so. At least now I understand the entire picture a little better.