Out of 310 suicide bombings between 1987 and 1998, this group was responsible for 230; among their victims were two world leaders and innumerable civilians.  Neither a religious nor a Middle Eastern organization, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are little-known outside Southern Asia … yet experts consider them one of the most dangerous, well-supplied and wide-ranging terrorist groups in the world.  Led by the shadowy Velupillai Prabhakaran, their struggle toward a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka have cost over 50,000 lives, and many observers fear their growing influence in southern India.

The Sinhalese, who make up 75% of Sri Lanka’s population and who are Buddhists, claim descent from North Indian Aryan tribes who came to Sri Lanka in the 6thcentury BCE.  The Tamils, who make up 16% of the population and who are Hindu, are descended from South Indian traders and fishermen, as well as laborers brought to the island during British occupation.   Officially, Buddhism abolished the caste system.  In reality, old habits die hard:  although both groups most likely have south Indian origins, the Sinhalese promoted the myth of their “Aryan” background as opposed to the impure, low-caste “Dravidian” background of Tamils.  Always uneasy neighbors, these groups became deeply divided in 1956 when Sinhalese was declared the official language; the divide only widened until, in 1983, 13 Sinhalese soldiers were slain by Tamil militants and civil war erupted.

On July 2, 1987, a teenage member of the LTTE’s elite “Black Tigers” drove a van packed with explosives into a military camp at Nelliaddy, killing 128 soldiers.  On May 21, 1991, the LTTE protested India’s withdrawal of support by dispatching a suicide bomber to kill President Rajiv Ghandi.  On May 1, 1993, they repeated this scenario, killing Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa.  Egalitarian in their terrorism, the Black Tigers also launched a lethal truck bombing in Jaffna which killed over 100 innocent civilians and wounded nearly 1,000.  Although the LTTE is officially atheist (and Prabhakaran’s party line has a heavy Marxist influence), the cadres are mostly Hindu.   The tiger is a powerful symbol in the Tamil religion, associated with the wrathful brave mother who sacrifices her young in war.  Even the LTTE’s rank and file soldiers carry cyanide capsules around their necks, so that they can avoid interrogation if captured.  The Black Tigers are treated with great respect and honor; many of them even get a last meal with Prabhakaran himself before going off on their missions.  Their usage of explosive jackets in suicide bombings provided the inspiration for the explosive belts used in the Israeli attacks.  They have targeted not only Sinhalese politicians but also moderate Tamils; by some accounts over a million Tamils have been driven out of the areas controlled by the LTTE, while over 40 Tamil leaders have been assassinated for “collaborating with the enemy.”

The Tigers operate a highly secretive set of businesses, including immigrant smuggling into Europe and North America, which deliver an estimated $60 million a year. Owning more than a dozen ships, the Tigers smuggle arms, ammunition, explosives and illegal narcotics as well as transport rice, cement and other legitimate cargo to Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. They  are believed to raise millions of dollars annually through “front” charity organizations supporting Tamil humanitarian aid, and Tamils living abroad are often “taxed” by LTTE representatives in Asia, Europe, and North America.  (There have been reports of extortion by LTTE representatives among Tamils abroad, but few victims have dared to prosecute.)  It is also clear that the LTTE has widespread voluntary support among the Tamil diaspora, much as the Irish Republican Army garners financial and moral support from many Irish-Americans.  This support has begun to wane after September 11 (and before that when the LTTE was declared a terrorist group by the Clinton administration) but the networks remain in place.  Despite his iron-fisted ruling style, Prabhakaran is still wildly popular among many Tamils, including a growing number in South India.  At present India is wracked with ethnic and religious conflicts on several different fronts.  Should Prabhakaran decide that Tamil  Eelam (the Tamil homeland) should include not just northern Sri Lanka but also Tamil Nadu, India could well find itself facing yet another group of terrorists with even more skill with and penchant for suicide attacks.