AoD Blog 2 (Sri Lankan Civil War)

Subject: The Civil War in Sri Lanka

-----The structure of the Tamil Tiger organization is a three-group system, consisting of the military wing and political wing mainly, with the third group being a central governing group headed by the LTTE supreme leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran

-----First wing to talk about is the military, as that is the wing that causes the most problems in the country. The recruits into the military wing are prepared to die for their cause and are equipped with a cyanide pill for capture. Like many popular terrorist groups today, they also have a suicide squad, called the Black Tigers. As for the rest of the wing, they are divided into two groups: the Sea Tigers and the Air Tigers. They also have an intelligence unit and a political office. The most noteworthy attribute of this wing is that the Air Tigers are the first air force to be controlled by a terrorist group.

-----The political wing is smaller since it hasn’t formally created a political party in the country. It has, however, openly supported the Tamil National Alliance in 2004, which won an alarming amount of votes in the country.

-----The main wing, or the administrative wing, is more civilian oriented than the other two wings. It controls a number of sections in the north of the island and regions around the cities of Killinochchi and Mulathivu, although, interestingly enough, it still uses the Sri Lanka rupee and many of the civil servants in its areas are paid by the Sri Lankan government. Due to the Indian help during 1987 when the Sri Lankan government was attacking Jaffna, the LTTE have been able to create most of the structures that supported these functions. The time since 1987 have allowed the LTTE to transform from a completely militaristic organization to a quasi-government. Functions that are within this new government include: the Voice of the Tigers broadcast, a judicial service with a court and public prosecution system, a police force, a banking system, and even a customs agency, although the term customs is somewhat loose. These structures are present in the areas that the LTTE does control, even though Jafna is no longer one of those areas.