From the time we began the revolutionary armed struggle in Tamileelam to this day
From the time we began the revolutionary armed struggle in Tamileelam to this day
From the time we began the revolutionary armed struggle in Tamileelam to this day, our liberation movement has faced so many trials and crises and has been advancing the ideal of national independence with determination.
In this long and difficult liberation journey, we have not only fought against our primary enemy, the Sinhala government, and the destructive international forces that are behind it. We have also been forced into a difficult situation where we must fight against the armed factions that have emerged as counter-revolutionary forces in our midst, in our liberation field, under the guise of the liberation of the people.
Why did these contradictions arise? What is the reason for the emergence of this situation and their explosion into conflict? Why were we forced to take this drastic action. Will our socialist revolutionary ideals be affected by this? Will our national liberation journey be set back? We are obliged to provide historically and logically true explanations to these questions.
Our movement did not sprout like mushrooms in accordance with the times. The movement has a long, revolutionary history. The history of our movement is the history of the armed struggle of Tamileelam. It has evolved. Today, we have grown into a historical force, a force that creates history.
The uniqueness and greatness of our liberation movement rest on our discipline and the discipline and control that permeates the movement. The credit for sowing and cultivating these noble moral qualities belongs to our movement’s national leader Prabhakaran.
In Tamileelam, from the foundation of the armed revolutionary movement to the present day, our national leader has been an eye on the virtues of the fighters and has nurtured the national freedom struggle as a sacred task and a noble cause.
Our movement, guided by Prabhakaran’s very strict rules and regulations, became a symbol of lofty ideals such as valor. Sacrifice. A sense of freedom. This uniqueness distinguished us from other liberation organizations and fostered conflict between the LTTE and others.
The July 83 ethnic earthquake shook the political arena of Tamileelam like never before. The sense of liberation and passion that erupted as a result gripped the new generation of youth. Thousands of youths mobilized to jump into the field of armed struggle. This revolutionary situation became an opportunity for some counter-revolution.
A few groups that were excluded by the people, degraded and scattered and were hiding in Tamil Nadu used the situation in Tamileelam for their expansion. Like a gathering wave, these organizations that were dead to the youth were revived and revived.
Countless liberation organizations, old and new, emerged. In this mobilization of forces, which took place without any investigation, without selection, and without restrictions, along with innocent youth, anti-social forces such as gangsters, thieves, street thugs, and murderers joined the liberation organizations and wore the mask of ‘fighters’. In these suddenly swollen and fractured organizations, the passion for weapons, militarism, and anarchy rose to the fore.
The revolutionary armed struggle field became a base for armed anarchists. Tamil terrorism joined hands with state terrorism in Tamileelam. In addition, some Tamil figures who were operating behind the scenes as agents of the imperialist, destructive, and philanthropic forces also infiltrated these terrorist liberation organizations as advisors. The sudden rise and military growth of these organizations had serious consequences for the liberation struggle of Tamileelam. The people of Tamileelam and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were the most affected.
Anarchic acts such as house robbery, street robbery, temple robbery, school robbery, and cooperative robbery were rampant throughout Tamileelam. Some movements embraced the business of theft as a revolutionary struggle activity. Civil administration came to a standstill as public institutions were put at gunpoint. To make matters worse, ordinary people were openly intimidated. They were attacked. They were humiliated. Guns were pointed at them for even the most ordinary family issues.
This anarchy that erupted from the north spread to eastern Sri Lanka and also affected the Muslim Tamil people. Muslim traders were robbed. They were kidnapped and murdered. They were tortured at gunpoint. Marxism intervened in mosque issues. Tamil-Islamic riots broke out due to this aggressive nature of the movements. The skillful Sinhala government also fanned the flames.
The activities also raised eyebrows in Tamil Nadu, which had given shelter to the ‘revolutionary’ movements. Violence in Tamil Nadu also escalated in the form of smuggling, kidnapping, and robbery. The overall result of this was an unprecedented stigma for the Tamileelam independence movement.
As the peak of the movement’s terrorism, some organizations set up torture camps and dungeons. Those who raised questions, those who criticized, and those who wanted to leave the movement were branded as traitors. The fate of these innocent young fighters in the torture camps was horrific. These barbaric acts and brutal killings are a very tainted episode in the liberation struggle of Tamileelam.
The people of Tamileelam were pushed to the brink of despair. As the liberation organization completely avoided fighting the enemy and embarked on a war against the people, a dangerous phase arose where the freedom struggle would turn.
This critical situation posed a great challenge and threat to our liberation movement. Our liberation fighters were besieging the Sinhala military camps, fighting constantly with the armed forces, and shedding blood on the battlefield.
The northern region was becoming a liberated area due to our siege. Due to this situation, other movements that were able to move freely in the North blamed us for the struggle and launched a completely countermovement against our movement, unleashing a very vile and disproportionate false propaganda against us and even daring to clash with us and eliminate us militarily.
Threating our fighters, pointing guns at them, scolding them with abusive words. Attacking, kidnapping and extorting money from our supporters were such provocative incidents that took place day after day.
One movement kidnapped our young fighters who were unarmed. Tortured them, dismembered them and buried them in the ground. Another movement publicly shot and killed our supporters, an elderly father and his son. Another movement kidnapped and murdered two Tamil members of parliament and blamed our movement.
We did not lose patience. We handled the situation very calmly and tolerantly and avoided conflict. First, we tried to resolve these differences through talks. We raised these issues to establish cooperation with the Eelam National Liberation Front.
The Eelam National Liberation Front leadership operating in Tamil Nadu ignored our appeals. They also tried to justify the audacity of their movement members. This made the movement cooperation meaningless.
Meanwhile, the situation between the DELO movement and us in Tamileelam deteriorated greatly. The contradiction was becoming extremely acute. The incidents of the kidnapping of two of our senior members and the shooting of one of our commanders erupted into conflict between us and DELO. Finally, the DELOs were disarmed, and the movement was banned from the political arena of Tamileelam.
DELO’s arrogance was contained. Very dangerous. The people of Tamileelam welcomed the disarmament of the reactionary anarchist gang with great joy. Following this, the Liberation Movement successfully repelled a major invasion by the Sinhala forces. Following these events, peace and order were somewhat restored in Tamileelam. There was great relief among the people as the army was confined to its camps and anti-social activities decreased. But to disrupt this peace, the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) has disturbed the pond.
Our people are not unaware of the lack of control and the stained history of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front. This organization, which had been engaged in anti-people activities under the red paint of Marxism and revolution, jumped into a planned ideological war against our movement after the conflict between Delo and us. It began to slander us in the most vicious way as ‘fascists’ and CIA henchmen.
It is a well-known fact that the EP movement has its own unique talent in false propaganda, in distorting the facts, and in exaggerating the news to boast. They are unmatched in destroying military camps and reducing naval bases to ashes through press reports. Thus, they have created myths against us. The people did not listen.
The hunger strike and procession that they had carried out behind our backs, blaming us for the kidnapping of a university student, were in vain. As the people’s support had grown like a mountain behind us, the propaganda tricks of the EP did not work.
Meanwhile, as if to put a peak on the anti-people activities of these people’s revolutionaries, two murder incidents occurred in East Lanka and Tamil Nadu. The EP comrades, who had been continuously persecuting the Muslim Tamils in East Lanka, kidnapped and shot dead an Islamic teacher in Thiriconamalai. This incident enraged and agitated the Muslim people of Thiriconamalai.
In Tamil Nadu, in Chulaimet, the EP army commander and his comrades who were involved in a street fight shot and killed an Indian citizen by using machine guns on a crowd of people. This murder incident caused great excitement and shock throughout India. Such movements that were carried out in violation of the Tamil Nadu criminal law and the order of proceedings greatly reduced the support and sympathy that the people of Tamil Nadu had for our freedom struggle.
Following the Chulaimet murder incident, the Tamil Nadu police confiscated weapons from all organizations, including our movement. This terrorist act by the EP served as a catalyst for the Eelam Tamil Freedom Movement.
The Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front, apart from conducting very vile false propaganda against our movement, also hatched a conspiracy to militarily eliminate our movement. Organizations like DELO. PLOT was complicit in this conspiracy. These three organizations formed a secret alliance under the guise of the ‘Progressive Front’ and started working against our movement. Behind them, Chandrakasan’s team operated with the slogan of the ‘Democratic Front’.
With the aim of carrying out this destructive plan, the EP organization armed the youth who had scattered from the DELO and were hiding in Tamil Nadu and gathered them in its camps in Tamileelam. The DELO members returned to Tamileelam wearing the uniform of the EP People’s Army.
Next, while our freedom fighters were constantly diluting their ammunition with the army, the EP movement, avoiding confrontation with the enemy, was collecting and hoarding many weapons. Their conspiracy plan was to wait until our ammunition was exhausted and then stabbed us in the back unexpectedly.
We have come across a document containing the full details of a conspiracy plan to launch a surprise military attack on our movement and destroy us. This secret document was sent from the EP headquarters in India by Amin to Suresh, the second in charge of the People’s Army. Some of the main features of this conspiracy plan are as follows:
To launch a lightning-fast surprise attack on the LTTE and destroy our organization.
To take out the weapons that were stored, bring them to readiness and distribute them to the task forces.
To monitor the bases of the LTTE in all areas and study the possibilities of launching a surprise attack.
To be ready to launch a surprise attack on the military camps of the LTTE and destroy them
During the surprise attack, the LTTE camps were considered enemy camps and their communications were cut off, and important LTTE commanders were killed and the movement was disrupted.
Attacking and destroying the LTTE communication centers.
After carrying out this surprise attack and destroying the LTTE organization, the EPRLF propagated among the people that it wanted unity and peace and that this attack was carried out for self-defense.
This conspiracy tore off the mask of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Front and showed its hideous true face. Who are the fascists? Who are the power-hungry and terrorists? This murderous plan has been exposed.
These Kakkaivanniyas, who raise the slogans of Karl Marx, have not taken up arms to fight for the liberation of the people. They took up arms to eliminate us, the people’s fighters who have shed blood and made great sacrifices on the battlefield for more than ten years. Their destructive aim is to destroy the revolutionary movement that has national independence as a sacred goal and to compromise with the Sinhala government. That is why we have decided to disarm this eight-man group. If their weapons are not taken away, they will be used against us and against the people. They are sure to be turned.
The armed liberation struggle is the highest form of political struggle. It is a noble form of struggle that sacrifices life for the lofty ideal of liberation. This revolutionary struggle that will shed blood can only be carried out by true revolutionaries. Order and control, a sense of selfless sacrifice, humanity and love for the people should be the moral characteristics of these revolutionaries. We have jumped into this armed struggle to establish Dharma. There is no place for anarchists who uphold unrighteousness in this war of righteousness. By these evil forces. Our holy struggle will not be tarnished, and if we develop these forces into weapons, it will be impossible for us to achieve our liberation ideal.
We are ready to join hands with the true revolutionary organizations whose ideal is the political and economic liberation of our oppressed people. We cordially invite these revolutionaries to join us. In this. critical historical situation, it is essential that we organize and carry forward our struggle as a national liberation movement.
– Viduthulai Puligal Magazine
February 1987.
(Translation by Tamilpriya)
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