The Liberation Tigers of Tamil

The Tamil Tigers, officially known as "The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam," was a para-military separatist group operating in the small island nation of Sri Lanka. The group sought to secede from Sri Lanka to provide ethnic Tamils freedom from the oppression which they claim to have experienced at the hands of the majority Sinhalese, Sri Lanka's ethnic majority population.

Vellupillai Prabhakaran formed the Tamil Tigers shortly after the Sri Lankan government declared Sinhala to be the official language of the country and Buddhism to be the official religion. Most Tamils practice Hinduism and have their own language, and saw the acts by the Sri Lankan government as oppressive. These declarations of an official language and religion were made in 1972. Several Tamil resistance groups sought control of the Tamil population, but the Tigers emerged as victorious for their brazen attacks and guerilla style tactics. It has widely been accepted that the Tamil Tigers invented the suicide vest and pioneered the use of women as suicide bombers. They are credited with more than 200 terrorist attacks and claimed responsibility for the assassinations of multiple members of the Sri Lankan government to include President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993.

Many have criticized the Sri Lankan government for their tactics in curbing Tamil Tiger violence. The government has been accused of using child soldiers, conscripting civilians into armed service, extortion, abduction, and extrajudicial killings. The Sri Lankan government accuses the Tamil Tigers of similar tactics.

Before the May 2009 killing of Tamil Tiger leader Prabhakaran, there have been times of relative peace between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil rebels. Various cease fires have been negotiated throughout the years but have created no lasting effect between the two groups. Many claim that the death of Prabhakaran will only create another similar lull in violence. Prabhakaran's death has led some Tamil Tiger members to say that the civil war is over and the group is laying down their arms, while others seem to believe that a new leader will step in to Prabhakaran's place, to carry on the mission of the Tamil Tigers. The possibility for factions of the original Tamil Tigers to begin their own operations is very possible.

No matter what will become of the Tamil Tigers, the Sri Lankan government agrees that the death of Prabhakaran was a major victory against a very powerful, organized, and capable terrorist organization operating in Sri Lanka.
Sources:

Preeti Bhattacharji. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Council on Foreign Relations.

Mark McDonald. Tamil Tigers Confirm Death of Their Leader. The New York Times.

Kate Pickert. A Brief History of The Tamil Tigers. Time.

Tamil Tigers. CBC News.