Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka Research Paper

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The pogrom initiated a large exodus of refugees, who fled to India and Western countries, Rasllngam continues.

In concluding his narrative, Nadarajah asserts that the international community in large part identified the LTTE as a terrorist organization, but not because the LTTE represented a "…threat to their international interests," but rather because those nations (including the U.S.) disapproved of LTTE's "political objective of establishing a separate Tamil state" (Nadarajah, 99).

Five Reasons for the Ultimate Demise of the Tamil Tigers

Rajat Ganguly writes in the Third World Quarterly that the first development that brought the LTTE to the negotiating table is that the Sri Lankan government showed that it was more willing to talk to the LTTE. The previous administrations had been very reluctant to have any conversations with the LTTE. Secondly, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which was made up of four Tamil parties that in the past had been "…victims of the LTTE-sponsored violence" but by 2001 had backed the idea that the Tamil Tigers should be part of negotiations with the government, made political gains in Parliament. Those political gains led to the strengthening of the Tamil Tigers' hand in talks with the government (Ganguly, 2004, 905).

The third development was that the LTTE was struggling to continue to raise needed funds from Western countries. Following the attacks on the U.S. On September 11, 2001, the American-led "global war on terror" turned attention towards the LTTE's terrorism, and allies of the U.S. And others cast a negative shadow on the LTTE's struggle for independence (Ganguly, 906). Moreover, the other activities that the LTTE engaged in -- "smuggling, gunrunning, and drug trafficking over the years" -- helped solidify the LTTE image as a "…sinister and criminal organization" (Ganguly, 906). That negative image -- which conveyed a scene where "ruthless terrorists…had massacred thousands of innocent civilians" -- was a huge stumbling block in terms of the LTTE being able to raise funds (Ganguly, 906).

The fourth development involved large shipments of Israeli weapons that were supplied to the Sri Lankan government.
The defence budget of Sri Lanka jumped to $1 billion following full diplomatic ties with Israel; also, Israeli military officers provided training to the Sri Lankan army, further putting the staggering LTTE army on the defensive (Ganguly, 906). All these events gave the Sri Lankan military forces a great deal of confidence, Ganguly continues.

The fifth development noted by Ganguly was that the Tamil Tigers were "…suffering from war fatigue and faced problems in recruiting new personnel" in order to continuing their attacks on the government. They were tired, beaten, and willing to seek a deal of some kind, Ganguly explained.

In conclusion, while Sri Lanka is working towards a most positive, less violent future, it is worthwhile to examine the past through the literature, which this paper has done. The interviews that will take place with people who escaped the violence will bring a human and personal aspect into this research. But it can be said without equivocation that the Tamil Tigers were a ruthless and violent organization that killed its own people in its corrupt passion to win points and keep its territory. It will go down in history as a force that the government of Sri Lanka could not easily bring down, and although the Sri Lanka government conducted its own brand of ruthlessness and ethnic cleansing -- in response to the ongoing LTTE-led crisis -- in the end the majority of Sri Lankans wanted peace and opposed independence for the Tigers.

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