official bulletin of the liberation tigers of tamil eelam

\7DlCeOFTiGERSOfficial Bulletin of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam luly 84 — Volume 4

THE HEAT ESCAPETIGERS FREE NIRMALA

In a most daring and meticulously executed operation an assaultcommando unit of the L.T.T.E. secured the freedom of Nirmala Nithiya-nandan from the maximum security prison of Batticoloa. Nirmala is arenowned feminist, and a revolutionary freedom fighter who sufferedtwenty months of solitary confinement under the notorious Preventionof Terrorism Act. She was arrested along with her husband ProfessorNithiyanandan on 20th Nov. 1982 for providing refuge for woundedTiger guerrillas. Having survived miraculously from the horrendousmassacres at Welikade prison, she was kept i,, Detention at Batticoloa.The sloppy execution of the first jail break at Batticoloa on 23rd Sept.1983, when Nirmala was left behind, led to tne tightening of the prisonsecurity system with Sinhala army commandos and dashed all hopes of

^ her freedom. Yet the Tigers engineered a REAL BREAK by a suddenand daring assault on the prison and set Nirmala free.

On the 10th June at aoour 7.15 P.M. anassault unit comprising of fifteen heavilyarmed Tiger guerrillas arrived at the scene.Some of them were dressed in prison guarduniforms. Sentries were placed atstrategicpoint outside the prison. The guerrillasthen stormed the main gate and over-powered the guards. In the scuffle thatensued two prison guards sustained seriousinjuries, the rest of the guards ran amok inpanic.

The commandos then approached thewomen s section of the prison. The keys toNirmalas cell door was kept elsewhereThe guerrillas had to physically break openthe cell door to get her out. Thus Nirmalawas released by the Tigers adding a new

legend to the history of armed revolutionarystruggle of our liberation movement.

Nirmala has been the centre of politicalcontroversy since her arrest in November1982 as she was the first woman victim ofthe infamous Prevention of Terrorism ActHer arrest also indicated the growing supportfrom the intelligensia for the armed revolu-tionary struggle advanced by the TigerMovement.

Her arrest triggered off mass campaignsinside Sri Lanka and abroad demandingher release Progressive human rightsorganisations in Sri Lanka and in the westmade fervent appeal to J.R. Jayawardaneto let her free for humanitarian reasonsBut the fascist regime failed to respond to

such appeals. Nirmala did suffer the worstform of humiliations at the hands of themale chauvinist Sinhala military and thePolice. There were times when her healthdeteriorated due to prolonged asthma attacksin sojitary confinment. She survived theordeal of Welikade massacres and wastransferred to Batticoloa jail. Due to theclumsy operation of those who organisedthe first Batticoloa jail break she was leftbehind to suffer intimidation and threat.During the Allen s affair Nirmala s releasewas one of the demands. Yet Nirmaiaappealed to the kidnappers to release thehostages on humanitarian grounds. Finally,it was our revolutionary movement thatorganised and executed the jail break andsecured the freedom of Nirmala*

www.tamilarangam.net

jkpo;j; Njrpa Mtzr; Rtbfs;

Voice of TigersOPEN LETTERTO LALITH FROM LITE

In the guise of eradicating what youmisconceive as 'terrorism" your Govern-ment has installed a military regime in TamilEelam and declared a war against our people.You have imposed a racist waf on a peoplewho have committed no crime other thanseeking their legitimate rights based onhuman justice. In your pathological hatredfor a people, you categorise all innocentcivilians, including the elderly and the child-ren, all those who have been wantonlybutchered by your racist troopers as'terrorists'. You have declared a war againstthe innocents, a dirty genocidai war, theobjective of which is the systematic exter-mination of our people. Thus, you haveopted for a military solution, the Hitlerianfinal solution, to the Tamil national question.Yet, you have excelled the German dictatorin the art of genocide and will enter intohistory as a perpetrator of crimes againsthumanity. You will carry the sin of havingstained the pages of a history of a freedomstruggle with blood and tears.

It is quite incomprehensible to us as towhy you and your Government have failedto grasp what you call the 'spectre ofterrorism . Let us explain to you thiselementary political fact. What you refer toas terrorism is nothing other than a politicalphenomenon of people's rebellion, aphenomenon of peoples revolutionaryresistance against repression. Armed resist-ance in Tamil Eelam arose as a historicalconsequence of State repression. There-fore what you misconceive as 'terrorism' is

the child of state terrorism, in other words,your own creation It is something thatwhich cannot be destroyed by militarymeans, since it is people's phenomenon, aphenomenon of mass resistance. There-fore, we advise you to reflect the meaningof your concept grounding them on histori-cal realities. What you call 'terrorism1 isinextricably bound up with our peoplesstruggle for freedom and justice, ourstruggle for liberation. You will nevercomprehend our people s struggle withouta clear perception of a mode of a strugglewhich is revolutionary in character. Yourcharacterisation of revolutionary politicalforces as 'terrorists' will never resolve theTamil problsrr. Your military option willbring your own dieaster. You cannot findand identify us, since we are everywhere,immersed with the sea of masses, or rather,we are the people.

Our people are our mountains. No state,however powerful, has ever won a waragainst a people. You are going to learnthis historical lesson in the most bittermanner. Every drop of blood, every dropof tear that our people shed in their day today agonies will transform into arms againstyour Government. We will raise a revolu-tionary army of thousands of liberationfighters from the very ashes of thoseinnocents who were murdered for no reasonby your armed forces. Your very acts ofsavagery have raised the level of nationalconsciousness of our people and poisedthem for a national liberation war. Unable

to confront the liberation fighters, yourtimid, panicky mercenaries are turning theirguns against ordinary civilian masses, acowardice strategy that has shocked allcivilized nations and brought shame to yourGovernment. Our people are aware of yourdiabolical scheme. They are not cowards.They are a proud people, a civilized people.Their repressed anger will one day explodeinto a volcano, a volcano of revolutionaryinsurrection.

You cannot expect us to be idle specta-tors when our people are butchered andburned on the roadsides. We will neverdown our arms and surrender as you foolishlyexpect us to do. We will continue to figbj|you. We will strike hard more intense.^than ever, with more determination. Wewill continue to fight until your armed forcesare chased out from our homeland. We willturn Tamil Eelam as a graveyard for theSinhala state terrorists and their foreignagents.

We wish to state categorically that wewill carry forward our freedom struggle inthe face of any obstacles until we reachour cherished goal, i.e. an independentsocialist state of Tamil Eelam. We arecommitted to the goal of freedom and areprepared to die for this noble cause. Wewill certainly win our liberation struggle,whereas you will fail in your evil design incrushing the genuine aspirations of a nationof people. In the end you will stand convictedby the world conscience and condemnedby history*

Postercommemorating

the anniversaryof the

Revolutionaryhems of

theLT.T.E.



Voice of Tigers

PRABAKARAN APPEALSFOR NATIONALDEFENCE FUND

In an urgent appeal to Tamils of Eelam and abroad, Mr Prabakaran,leader and military commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,has requested funds for a national defence programme. He emphasisedthe urgency and necessity of protecting the civilian population during

- phases of a war of national liberation. The L. T. T.E., he said, has mooteda National Defence Fund for the purpose of implementing the programmeof civil defence.

Following is the text of Prabakaransstatement:

"We are facing the most critical phase>f the history of our national struggle. The

'Government has imposed a tyrannicalmilitary rule on our people. The Sinhalastate has unleashed a barbarous form ofmilitary violence to crush by violent meansthe political aspirations of our people. Theobjective of the Government seems tosubjugate our people at the point of gun.The heightening of State sponsoredterrorism has plunged our people into greatsuffering and despair.

The arrests, detention, torture, mass* morders, massive destruction of property?ihave made life intolerable. Our people are-,..._;.:virig in constant fear and anxiety. Yet

fftey have not lost their hope. They begm_to realise that such condition of existenceis inevitable in a national liberation struggle.The oppressor in his inability to contain arevolutionary upheaval resorts to intensi-fying armed violence as his ultimate means.Yet, his objective-in subjugating a peopleby armed violence never succeeds. Themore the people are subjected to oppressionthe more they become committed to libera-tion and the horizon of their nationalconsciousness widens. The Sinhala chauvi-

nis-- •••,•:"•-"-'•- ::~ ir.us spread inenresofrevolution all over Tamil Eelam.

It is our revolutionary movement, theLiberation Tigers that has become-achallenge to the Sinhala state and its paidI

jagent, the armed forces. For the last tenyears, our movement has been fightingeffectively and resolutely, an armed revolu-tionary struggle against State terrorism.Today, we are expanding into a mass move-ment and have become the embodimentof the aspirations of our people Unable tocontain our armed struggle our enemy isunleashing his resentment against theinnocent people causing them tremendoussuffer-ing. Their devious strategy is to turnthe public against the freedom fighters.

We are aware of the treacherous designsof the enemy; we do not ignore the suffer-ing of our people. At the sametime it willbe absurd to lay down our arms and giveup our struggle as our enemy demands. Ifwe relax, the enemy will stabilise his militaryhold in our homeland. We should not allowthe enemy to relax. We should continue tostrike, strike hard enough to destroy hismorale. We must impress upon the enemythat he cannot crush the aspirations of ourpeople by armed violence. While weintensify our armed revolutionary struggle,we must be able to protect and defend ourpeople. Therefore our freedom strugglemust incorporate a programme of defence.Such a civil defence programme necessitatesenormous funds. In view of this nationalemergency we have organised a nationaldefence fund. This fund will be collectedin Tamil Eelam and abroad. Represen-tatives of our movement will approach theTamil public with proper identity cards issuedby us. I appeal to all patriots and freedomlovers to contribute generously to thisnational fund at this time of great nationalcrisis to protect our people from genocidalassault. -4^ I am calling upon the people to preparethemselves for a national liberation waraimed at the emancipation of out nation.Since it is a people's war of liberation, the -participation of the masses is vital. Thewhole Tamil nation must be mobilised tofight against the State. Our liberation armywill be the vanguard of the struggle. Wecall upon the other liberation organisationsto join us in this war of liberation. I am surethat the conditions of the struggle willcompel us to unite against the commonenemy*

TIGERSBLASTSEAPLANE

a guerrilla unit of the L. T. T.E. successfullydestroyed a Sri Lankan sea plane at thevillage of Panithithiadaippu near the Karai-nagar naval base on the 15th June 1984.



Voice of Tigers

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Violence in Jaffna has erupted again—This time meetinga newly-formed resistance, reports Amrit Wilson.

Extract from 'New Statesman' (London) on 27 April 1984.THE ARMY in Sri Lanka has once again

gone on the rampage in the Tamil north ofthe country, firing indiscriminately oncivilians and burning shops and homes. Theofficial reason given for this new spate ofstate violence is. incredibly, an article inIndia Today, a wide-circulation Indianmagazine. It claimed that 'leftist inspired'Tamil guerrillas are being trained in SouthIndia.

The article appeared in Sri Lanka on 21March; within two days a new minister ofNational Security. Lalith Athulathmudali.was appointed. On 24 March he soughtthe blessings of the Buddhist Mahanayakes(priests) for his aim of 'wiping out terrorism'and the next day he was in Jaffna, the maintown of the Tamil north, with 2.000commandos. Three days later the armedforces, under Brigadier Seneviratne. a well-known 'tough soldier', went into action. Thecrowded market in the village of Chunnakamwas sprayed with bullets. Eight people werekilled and at least 22 injured. On 9 April,after an attack on an army convoy byguerrillas of the Liberation Tigers of TamilEelam (L.T.T.E.), the army went on therampage, burning shops on the main streetof Jaffna and attacking the Church of OurLady of Refuge. Catholics poured out oftheir homes in angry retaliation. They

• attacked a Buddhist temple and_aJ3inJiala „school. Both of which have long beBrTusecf-"as army bases. No Sinhalese person wasinjured but the army began to fire on thecrowd. They killed 35 people.

Since then arbitrary killings havecontinued, along with massive arrests. Inone village, 40 people were rounded upand taken away. In Jaffna, with its batteredbuildings, army helicopter patrols andfrequent curfews, some families are stock-ing up with food. Others are moving out tothe comparative safety of the villages.

A PLETHORA of liberation movementsclaim leadership for this new resistance.For, after the violence of last summer, thereis no doubt that Tamils now see their poli-tical voice in a nationalist movement, con-ducted through guerrilla action. TULF. theTamil parliamentary party, is quitediscredited. But most of the nationalistgroups are based in India, and only theL.T.T.E. — or Tigers as they are popularlyknown — have any real organisation ormembership in the country.

L.TT.E. has evolved over the last 12years from a loose-knit youth movementreacting spontaneously to state violencewith hit-and-run tactics to a disciplinedguerrilla organisation. Its base i;> strongestin the rural areas. People in the villages

and towns', claims L.T.T.E.'s representativein London, 'may not call themselves Tigers,but they shelter and protect us and see usas their hone for the future, so we canmove among them like "fish in the sea".'

L.T.T.E.'s wall-posters and pamphlets areto be found in towns and even small villagesall over the north and east, and occasionallythere are instant meetings advising peopleon a variety of issues. For example, in May1983 the Tigers called for the boycott of alocal election — more than 99 per cent ofthe population accordingly did not vote.L.T.T.E. have also had some success inadministering their own law and order. Inone case the Tamil Chairman of a RuralDevelopment Board, who was cheating thecontract labourers of their wages, paid upwhen he was 'warned' by the Tigers and, inanother. L.T.T.E intervened in a Hindu-Muslim clash which the police had failed tostop by cornering and threatening theHindus.

Tamil nationalism has drawn the contemptof many Sinhalese marxists; nonetheless, theL.T.T.E is managing to represent popularfeeling. For example, last November thegovernment asked Tamil students who hadfled from southern universities in the summerto return. The Tigers issued a pamphletasking them not to. The students obeyedand.Jnstead of returning, organised sit-downs in the Jaffna University campus.

Voice of Tigers

demanding the right to continue theirstudies in the Tamil area. On 9 January,nine students began a 'fast unto death' ontheir own initiative.

The government was adamant and whena woman student became comatose theauthorities began to discuss calling in thearmy and beginning force-feeding. TheL.T.T.E. met the students' organisation andunder the eyes of the university authoritiesthe nine hunger strikers were whisked awayto India. But L.T.T.E. then issued a pamphleton proper tactics, pointing out the failureof Bobby Sands and the Irish hungerstrikers to shift an intransigent government.

Behind the Jayawardane governmentand Sinhalese state lie the West's militaryand economic interests, causing deepunease among Tamils. This year US-funded agencies are carrying out 'waterresearch' in order to provide fresh water toTamil villages. In the process they havecarried out detailed surveys of the wholearea — surveys which the Tamils fear willbe made available to the army. ^^

Meanwhile a series of US polit;cian^J|\s visited Sri Lanka, reaffirming an

'excellent relationship'; promising 'moderntraining' for the Sri Lanka navy and evencomplimenting the Sri Lanka Embassy inthe US for countering Ee'am supportersthere. Underneath is a tacit understandingthat sooner or later the US will move intothe naval base at Trincomajee. When itdoes Mrs Gandhi is unlikely to intervene tosupport the Tamil nationalists. As L.T.T.E.spokesman A.S. Bala Singham has said inan interview in the Indian magazine Sunday:'Mrs Gandhi's hands are tied... The SriLankan government has always wieldedTrincomalee as a trump card — they had ^earlier agreed to keep it a free' zone;(i.eT ~free of bases) provided India helped tocrush the Liberation Tigers.'#

TIGERS DEMONSTRATE IN LONDON

LiberationTigers

expresssolidaritywith theAfrican

NationalCongress

at ananti-apartheid

demonstrationduring

Pieter Botha'svisit to

London' recently



Tamilmilitancyis not

TERRORISM'but apoliticalphenomenon'.

THE HINDUIn an editorial entitled 'Continuing crisis

in Sri Lanka' the Hindu of 7th July 1984argues that the phenomenon of what SriLanka calls terrorism is nothing but a poli-tical phenomenon. The paper points outthat the development of militancy and the

* '•ecourse to violent forms of struggle aroseas a consequence of repeated failure onthe part of the Sri Lankan Government toresolve the ethnic problem through cons-titutional means. The Hindu observes:

"The second point concerns the bogeyof 'terrorism' which Colombo imagines itcan use in a bid to place India on thedefensive. Since the very use of the term'terrorist' tends to pre-empt the argument,it must be clarified that the phenomenonpf militancy among the Tamil youth in SriLanka is primarily a political phenomenon,reflecting the maturing of the crisis. Whenprogress along constitutional lines becomesblocked, when normal and legitimate poli-tical expectations are repeatedly frustrated,when it appears that there is no solutionwithin the rules of the game, historicalexperience demonstrates it is a situationtaitormade for the development of militancy,including that part of it which takes recourseto non-peaceful methods."

Arguing that Jayawardane is not genuinein bringing about a peaceful solution to the

question through negotiations, thepaper further notes:

". the conservative government ofMr. J.R. Jayawardane seems to be goingout of its way to undercut the process. Noother reasonable construction can be placedon its handling of the situation in the islandsince the genocidal state-backed pogromagainst the Tamils a year ago — which, ontop of the large-scale loss of life, propertyand avocation, brought about an unprece-dented uprooting of the minority popula-tion, physically as well as spiritually. Fromthe standpoint of both the Tamils of SriLanka and India, whose good offices repre-sent a major positive factor in the situation,Mr. Jayawardane has been chopping andchanging his position so much that anevaluation of his substantive approach, orreliance on any conceivable goodwillelement in it, becomes especially difficult^

BEHINDTHE

ROUND TABLEWE MUST at the outset state that we do

not have much faith in conferences be they"roundtable" or "square".

We do not, on the other hand, completelyreject them or act in a manner that wouldbe detrimental to them. Let us not forgetthat all the politicians who are assembledaround Jayawardane's table today havebeen immersed in parliamentary politics.Each and everyone of them has "CommunalSkeletons" in his cupboard. At one stageor other, everyone of them has contributedtowards the eruption of our communalvolcano. If these gentlemen would nowvolunteer to stop the game of musical-chairsand help to put down the flames of commu-nication, evert within this Capitalist frame-work, we should welcome such a step. Theoppressed masses never stand to gain fromcommuiial violei.ce.

Do not the 1983 July incidents onceagain confirm that those who stand to gainfrom communal violence are the imperialists?Has not the attention of our masses beendiverted from their economic problems eventemporarily? Which force other than U.S.imperialism, which lies scheming to convertour motherland to a military base, benefitsfrom the "Indian Phobia" which is beingsystematically propagated?

It must however be appreciated that theJanuary round-table sessions would doubt-lessly be more difficult than the Decemberone. The only concrete point of agreementin December was the decision to invite theT.U.L.F. for these discussions without anypre-conditions. We are, of course, nottrying to belittle this achievement. It wasthe President himself perhaps in fear ofthe communal wave, who closed the dooron Amirthalingam in July.

The hurdles he now confronts are clearly,more formidable. We would like to pin-point three problematic areas. Firstly, thereis the problem of the geographical limits(centering on the amalgamation of thenorthern and eastern provinces) of theproposed, "Regional Councils". Secondly,there is the question of the extent ofauthority to be delegated to them. Thirdly,there is manner in which the assent of thepeople is to be obtained for the proposalsagreed upon. Of course, numerous otherproblems are bound to crop up as the talksprogress.

We should have some assessment ofthe so called "Sinhala forces" which are

likely to stand in the way of a reasonablesettlement. Chief amongst these would beJayawardane's own "Purohithaya" fromKelaniya. The person who is most likely toserve him is the "paper lion — cub" who.due to the short-sightedness of some ofour leftists, managed to creep into parlia-ment and having done so, is trying hisutmost to base himself upon the Sinhalatrading and upper-petty bourgeoisie. Therehas also emerged two Capitalist newspapergroups bent on blowing-up these "heroes"It is our fervent hope that the radical forcesof the S.L.F.P., who are today pulling out inopposition to the Party's "National govern-ment leanings" would not get attractedtowards communalism, which would appearat first sight to be a short-cut to popularity

When we turn towards the North a basicquestion would be as to whether Amirtha-lingam, who was "brought" to Colombo withmuch fanfare, does intact retain a popularbase there today. Many in the north lookupon these "Leaders as persons who fledthe country when the Tamils faced the mostsevere crisis in recent times. We can under-stand why the U.N.P. is taking considerablepains to reestablish these gentlemen, whofled tlie country with their families, havingin same instances even disposed of theirproperties, in their base areas. Is this not aclassic example of class collaboration?

A Capitalist newspaper has stated thatthe round-table without the T.U.L.F. wassimilar to a wedding without the bride. Inreality it is not. Amirthalingam is not the"bride" but the Tamil youth movement.Though it is a fact that their representativeswould never be part of the "round-table"we should have an assessment of theirattitude towards these talks.

We are of the view that the Prabakaran-group, which is reckoned to be the mostformidable of the youth groups, is totallyopposed to the round-table conference.On the other hand, the other groups, whowe learn have formed a front under theleadership of Uma Maheswaran's group,are likely to lend it critical support. Butone could expect them to maintain thisstand only if some result evolves from thetalks which would appear to them to be astep towards their ultimate goal*

(A slightly abridged version of the "DeshaVimukthi" editorial, 2nd Jan.).



THE EAGrLE HAS LANDE

IndianOcean

TurningTntcxa

War Zone

•.LANKA

THE-DEVILS-*

In his mad frenzy to crush the legitimateaspirations of the Tamil Nation J.R. Jaya-wardane has sought the help of the devils

.'— the international forces of subversion,and turning the Indian ocean into a warzone. Acting in accordance with his recentstatement that'he would get the help from

: the devil if he could, :Jayawardane has- invited, the notorious Israeli IntelligenceAgency — The MOSSAD and the infamousS.A.S. mercenaries. The induction of theseforces of subversion, the assistance soughtfrom the Chinese to modernise the SriLankan Air Force, the agreement signed inWashington allowing U.S. oceanographicships to survey Sri Lankan coastal seas,have firmly entrenched Sri Lanka in theU.S. — Israeli — Chinese axis generatingtension in the Indian ocean region. Thus,the U.S. Eagle has landed in Sri Lanka and

- turning the island into an imperialist puppetstate posing a threat of destabilisation toIndia.

We wish to point out that the Sri Lankanleaders have no genuine intentions toresolve the Tamil problem by negotiationsthrough the good offices of India. Whippingup anti-Indian. anti-Tamil paranoia, the SriLankan chauvinistic ruling class is seekinga military solution and slipping into adangerous trap. Adopting a ruthless policyof repression and domination of Tamils, Sri

Lanka is turning a regional, national crisisinto an international conflict. The problemis no more an 'internal affair' as Jayawar-dane attempts to impress upon the Govern-ment of India, but rather it is fast growinginto an international affair, with a direct and

-indirect participation 'of external .forces,hostile to. India, whose* objective is hotsimply crushing the Tamil liberation strugglebut the encirclement and destabilisation ofthe Indian nation.

India should take a serious view of theoperations of the Israeli Intelligence Agency,which is a covert organisation of the C.I.A.whose project is not simply confined totraining the Sinhala military in anti-guerrillawarfare, but rather to draft a programme ofsubversion in that region. Exploiting theTamil problem, the U.S. is penetrating inthe island through the medium of its allies.Already the U.S. has stepped up its penetra-tion by gaining a contract to run the oiltanks at Trincomalee through a consortiumof covert firms with American interests, aridsetting up power communication networkin the island. The so-called agreement onScience and Technology co-operationsigned in Washington recently between thetwo countries, will enable the gradual andsystematic entrenchment of imperialism inSri Lanka and will finally turn Lanka into aU.S. base posing a direct threat to thesouthern flank of India* " • •

Oificial Bulletin of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil EelamPost Box 928. Adyar.Madras-20. India .For private circulation only

efj Dv Ualtnn |_.|no Ltf) . IUi "in PM Inwn London SW4 OJT



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