The Background

(The dream that never come true - Tamil EELAM claimed by LTTE)

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, Tamil: தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள்), commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, is a militant Tamil nationalist organization that has waged a violent secessionist campaign against the Sri Lankan government since the 1970s in order to create a separate, socialist, Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The LTTE is currently proscribed as a terrorist organization by 31 countries. It is headed by its founder, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The LTTE was founded in 1972 by Velupillai Prabhakaran and attracted many supporters amongst disenchanted Tamil youth, who were dissatisfied with policies followed by successive governments towards solving various concerns of the nation's Tamil community. They carried out low-key attacks against various government targets, including policemen and local politicians. A notable attack carried out during the time was the assassination of the Mayor of Jaffna, Alfred Duraiyappah. Initially the LTTE operated in cooperation with other Tamil militant groups which shared their same objectives, and in April 1984, the LTTE formally joined a common militant front, the Eelam National Liberation Front (ENLF), a union between itself, the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF).

TELO had always supported India as it was openly funded, trained and supplied by India. TELO usually held the Indian view of problems and pushed for India's view during peace talks with Sri Lanka and other groups. LTTE denounced the TELO view and claimed that India was only acting on its own interest. As a result in 1986, the LTTE broke from the ENLF. Soon fighting broke out between the TELO and the LTTE.Over the next few months clashes took place between the LTTE and TELO. As a result almost the entire TELO leadership and many of the TELO militants were killed in the clashes.

A few months later, the LTTE attacked training camps of the EPRLF, forcing it to withdraw entirely from the Jaffna peninsula.

The LTTE then demanded that all remaining Tamil insurgents join the LTTE. Notices were issued to that effect in Jaffna and in Madras, India which Tamil groups used as their main headquarters. With the major groups including the TELO and EPRLF eliminated, the remaining Tamil insurgent groups, numbering around 20, were then absorbed into the LTTE. This made Jaffna an LTTE dominated city.

LTTE's practice such as wearing a cyanide vial for consumption if captured appealed to the Tamil people as dedication and sacrifice. Other practices by the LTTE also involved taking an oath of loyalty which reiteration of the LTTE’s goal of establishing a state for the Sri Lankan Tamils also gave them the edge on the support by Tamil people.

In 1987 the LTTE established the Black Tigers, a unit of the LTTE responsible for conducting suicide attacks against political, economic and military targets,[10] and launched its first suicide attack against a Sri Lanka Army camp, killing 40 soldiers.
(Courtesy of Wikipedia)