“Voice of Tigers” – Tamil Radio

Tamileelam national leader, Prabhakaran, said in a congratulatory message on the one-year anniversary of the LTTE’s Voice Radio Service; “Our rival Sinhala state and its Tamil traitor groups are waging a vicious campaign against us. The voice of our radio should sound with all truth against the false ideas of the enemy. The LTTE’s voice must be heard as the battle cry of a truth war.”

The LTTE voice that accelerated the Tamileelam struggle

It is no lie to say that the month of November has been special in the lives of Tamileelam Tamils in many ways. The death of a man who held his breath for liberation and the life of a man who hastened to liberate the Tamils took place this month. Beyond these two great historical events in Tamileelam in the past, the LTTE Voice Radio and the Tamileelam Police were launched this month.

The true voice of the native people, the ideological voice of LTTE leader Prabhakaran, “Voice of Tigers” had expanded its reach across the North East of Eelam. From marketing a small product to growing a business advertising is as important as a medium to convey the policies, ideas, and contemporary changes of an organization to the people. National leader of Tamileelam, Prabhakaran realized the need for the media to take the LTTE’s struggle to build communication between the LTTE and the people. With this in mind, Prabhakaran launched the television channel “Nitharsanam” in 1986.

“Voice of Tigers” – Radio Station

LTTE was worried in the beginning of the struggle because they have no way to tell the people about their organization and about the Tamileelam struggle. In 1988 “Voice of Tigers” newspaper was born. Later as years passed, the newspaper became radio station. It was launched for first time in 21th November 1990.
It was an hour-long broadcast from 8 to 9 o´clock. It was broadcasting about the liberation tigers memories and about their struggle for freedom. Later, as the radio became a popular radio station, it expanded its service from morning to night. The national leader Prabhakaran´s ideology became to real.

In the early days, people turned on the radio with the help of batteries, bicycle dynamo electricity, and started listening to “Voice of Tigers”. LTTE broadcasted the radio in 98 frequency (98 KHZ). The Sinhala government tried to broadcast their radio service at the same level with the intention to disrupting “Voice of Tigers”. The Sinhala government did not want to allow people to listen to the truth and neutral part about the Tamileelam struggle.
“Voice of Tigers” echoed the policies of the struggle and resonated with the national leader, Prabhakaran´s ideology. It had been carrying out all the displacement that Tamileelam has faced since 1990 and providing its services to people. At a time some vicious propaganda came out that, “Voice of Tigers” had been started for the recruitment and campaigning of the LTTE. “Voice of Tigers” started to broadcast social programs, news analysis, sports news, and advertisements and put an end to all these propaganda activities.
During a series of operations, including bombing and artillery strikes by military aircrafts, Mr. Thamilanpan and his employees bravely and cleverly continued broadcasting the radio services.

Once in 1998 the announcer of “Voice of Tigers”, Thirumaran Krishnapillai, was preparing for the evening program from Kokkavil area of the Vanni – during the Jayasikkuru Struggle. At that time, a part of LTTE´s voice studio was damaged in the airstrikes by Sinhala military. The radio did not stop! It went on with song relating to the war “What if the bomb goes off? What if the house shakes and collapses?…Our thirst is not quenched! Our homeland does not serve anyone!”
When the LTTE´s offensive began in November 4th 1999, “Voice of Tigers” shared which area people should move to, if they lived in Sinhala government controlled areas.

“Voice of Tigers” had done its tireless job of delivering a historic speech to the people in the midst of series of airstrikes planned by the Sri Lankan military to disrupt the Heroes Day event, 27th November, and to disrupt the speech from the national leader Prabhakaran.

“Voice of Tigers” had been bombed 23 times and displaced many times, moved backwards until the end of the war and remained in the Vanni until the final days of the Tamileelam War.

“Voice of Tigers” had been carrying a number of special events such as competitions to schoolchildren to broaden the quest for general knowledge. In 1999 the Sinhala government started same services in their language!

“Voice of Tigers” was expanding its broadcast range to the North East of Sri Lanka with the help of Norwegian sponsored broadcast equipment acquired during the peace period (2002).

In 2005 Tamil relations around the world joined the services on the internet and created voice for the LTTE. “Voice of Tigers” started the day with a thought of the national leader along with heroic songs, moments news report, death announcement etc., and also broadcasted tasty and interesting press releases under the name of “Daily Naali”.

Programmes like “Let´s rise together” and “Depart the battlefield” were created to mobilize people for the struggle in view of the war situation. Then the poet Puthuvai Rathinathurai´s poetry and Yogaratnam Yogis Tamil songs took place. “Voice of Tigers” is still in the minds of people today.

Today the internet continues to blend in not only with the lives of the Tamileelam people but also with the lives of Tamils all over the world. There is no doubt that the “Voice of Tigers” was the voice of liberation in the midst of many obstacles. Today “Voice of Tigers” has been broadcasting for 21 years.

“Thirst of the Tigers is the homeland of Tamil Eelam”