AoD Blog 3 (Sri Lankan Civil War)

Subject: The Civil War in Sri Lanka

-----The LTTE have some similarities to many terrorist and rebel groups strategies known throughout the world today. Actually, some of these well-known groups, like Al Qaeda, copied attacks done by the LTTE. The similarities to other groups range from the child armies, to the suicide bombings, to genocidal attacks.

-----The first similarity is to the numerous amounts of rebels in Africa. This similarity is the use of children in the army. Even though the LTTE has promised to stop the use of child soldiers, they have allegedly still been doing so. There have been reports of them abducting children, conscripting Tsunami orphans, and using Tamil children in their armies. Since 2001, when the Tamil Tigers promised to stop using child soldiers, there have been, according to UNICEF, 5,794 child soldiers used.

-----The suicide bombings of today were first used by the Tamil Tigers in 2001. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a Tamil Tiger using a prototype suicide vest. According to Jane’s Information Group, an organization that collects military information, between 1980 and 2000 168 suicide attacks were commenced by the LTTE. These attacks have been copied by terrorist organizations in the Middle East, more notably the Al Qaida.

-----Like most terrorist organizations, the LTTE does perform ethnic cleansing. These cleansings are against the Sinhalese and the Muslims in Sri Lanka. An example of this is the forcible removal of the entire Muslim population of Jaffna in only two hours in 1990. These ethnic cleansings are usually only preformed in the areas the LTTE control. These cleansings are also usually followed up by an excuse. The Muslim evacuation of Jaffna was explained as a mistake on the part of a regional commander, although the supreme leadership was based in Jaffna at the time and no punishment has been given to the commander.