Liberation struggle or terrorism? The politics of naming the ltte

Abstract

This article examines the politics of naming in one of the longest-running and most intractable conflicts in the world: that between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (ltte) and the Sri Lankan state. While the narratives presented by the ltte and the state in support of their respective positions are complex and range across a number of issues, this paper is primarily concerned with the politics of the ‘terrorist’ label as applied to the ltte. In particular, it examines how the characterisation of the conflict as a form of terrorism has affected its evolutionary course. While the Sri Lankan state has deployed the language of terrorism to further its strategic aims in both the domestic and international spheres, the label has not necessarily impeded the growth of the ltte's military capability but has, by denying the ltte international legitimacy, undermined the organisation's stated political project—Tamil self-determination. The article also outlines the contradictions between prevailing international attitudes to terrorism and the conduct of key international actors with regard to the protagonists in Sri Lanka and demonstrates how the sustained rhetoric of terrorism has become a serious impediment to reaching a permanent resolution of the conflict.

Notes

AS Balasingham (on behalf of the Political Committee of the ltte), Liberation Tigers and the Tamil Eelam Freedom Struggle, ltte, 1983.

Letter from ltte leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan to Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, 28 March 1995, at http://www.tamilnation.org/conflictresolution/tamileelam/cbktalks/950328vptocbk.htm.

W Claiborne, ‘Sri Lankan leader says Marxists incited clashes to cover coup’, Washington Post, 8 August 1983, p A15; and Claiborne, ‘Sri Lanka presses military drive on rebels; Israeli aid reported’, Washington Post, 9 August 1984, p A25.

‘The success of the ltte in resisting the Sri Lankan forces’, Jane's Sentinel, 4 September 2000, at http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/sentinel/sent000904_6_n.shtml.

‘ltte announces tax relief measures’, TamilNet, 14 December 2003, at http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid = 13&artid = 10684.

AJ Wilson & J Chandrakanthan, ‘The de facto state of Tamil Eelam’, in Wilson & Chandrakanthan, Demanding Sacrifice: War and Negotiation in Sri Lanka, London: Conciliation Resources, 1998, at http://www.c-r.org/accord/sri/accord4/.

‘Tamil parties’ alliance formed to support liberation struggle— tulf’, TamilNet, 28 October 2001, at http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid = 13&artid = 6422.

‘President warns of terrorism’, upi, 6 June 1983.

See comments by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan, in E Silver, ‘Tamil terror tactics draw fire from Thatcher’, Guardian, 13 April 1985; Visit of President JR Jayewardene of Sri Lanka, Public Papers of the Presidents, 20 Weekly Comp Pres Doc 891, 18 June 1984; and LL Knutson, ‘Reagan backs Sri Lanka's anti-terrorist drive’, Associated Press, 18 June 1984.

R Herring, ‘Making ethnic conflict’, in MJ Esman & RJ Herring (eds), Carrots, Sticks and Ethnic Conflict, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2001, pp 140 – 174.

Ibid, p 161, emphasis in the original.

Ibid, pp161 – 162.

Ibid, pp163, 160, 153.

Interview with Graham Ward, Daily Telegraph, 18 July l983.

EA Selvanathan, ‘Has the Tamils’ struggle ended?’, Green Left Weekly (Australia), 17 July 1997, p 15, at http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/1996/238/238p15.htm.

Camilla Orjuela, ‘Building peace in Sri Lanka: a role for civil society?’, Journal of Peace Research, March 2003, 40 (2), pp 195 – 212.

D Byman et al, ‘The ltte and the Tamil diaspora’, in Trends in Outside Support for Insurgent Movements, Santa Monica, CA: rand Corporation, 2001, pp 41 – 60, at http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1405/.

D Campbell, National Deconstruction: Violence, Identity, and Justice in Bosnia, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1998, p 13, p 49, p 61.

ltte leader V Pirapaharan in an interview with Anita Pratap, Sunday Magazine (India), 11 – 17 March 1984, at http://www.eelamweb.com/leader/interview/in_1984/.

Statement of ltte and other Tamil groups made at Thimpu, Bhutan in 1985 during peace talks.

Claiborne, ‘Sri Lanka presses military drive on rebels’.

D Sriskandarajah, ‘Tamil diaspora nationalism’, in CR Ember, M Ember & I Skoggard (eds), Encyclopedia of Diasporas, New Haven, CT: Yale/Kluwer, 2004, pp 493 – 501.

http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2002/html/19991.htm.

Tokyo Declaration on Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka, 10 June 2003, a joint statement by numerous foreign states and international organisations, at http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/srilanka/conf0306/declaration.html.

US State Department, Fact Sheet on Foreign Terrorist Organizations, 30 January 2003, at http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/2003/17067.htm.

K Cagin & SA Daly, The Dynamic Terrorist Threat: An Assessment of Group Motivations and Capabilities in a Changing World, Santa Monica, CA: rand Corporation, 2004, at http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1782/MR1782.pdf.

September 2002, at http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2001/4852.htm.

The USA and the UK limit themselves to acknowledging ‘legitimate Tamil aspirations’. See comments by US Assistant Secretary of State John Armitage, 14 February 2003, at http://www.state.gov/s/d/rm/17752.htm and by UK Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain, TamilNet, 23 November 2000, at http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid = 13&rid = 2000112301.

A Guelke, The Age of Terrorism and the International Political System, London: IB Tauris, 1998, p 187.

Ibid, p 187, emphasis added.

DC Rapoport & L Weinberg, The Democratic Experience and Political Violence, London: Frank Cass, 2001, pp 2 – 3.

US State Department, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2001, 4 March 2002, at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/sa/8241.htm.

Sriskandarajah, ‘Tamil diaspora nationalism’.

Humanitarian Law v Reno, US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, 3 March 2000.

Letter from ltte to US Court of Appeal Judges, 6 November 1997, at http://www.sangam.org/NEWSEXTRA/ltte.htm.

See, for example, the Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights in Sri Lanka, at http://www.spur.asn.au.

Transparency International, Press Release, 11 April 2003, at http://www.transparency.org/pressreleases_archive/2003/2003.04.11srilanka.html.

Guelke, The Age of Terrorism and the International Political System, p 188.