Interesting concept. It appears the Hindus have taught something to the freedom fighters around the world?
Tamil Tigers boost peace bargaining with suicide bombers.
TCOLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers are best known for their suicide attacks, and 16 years after their first strike the rebels are using their elite band of human bombs to boost bargaining power at peace talks.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) mark the anniversary of their first suicide bombing which killed some 40 government soldiers on July 5, 1987 with a series of religious observances and meetings, rebel sources said.
For the LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, 48, the suicide bombers known as Black Tigers are the ‘protective armour’ of his separatist movement that started as a rag-tag band in 1972.
However, the Tigers have grown to be one of the most ruthlessly efficient guerrilla outfits in the world and have ‘terrorist’ tags slapped on them by the United States and Britain, among other countries.
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage last month described the LTTE as an outfit “best known for pioneering the practice of turning its sons and daughters into human bombs.”
Armitage was urging the Tigers to return to Norwegian-brokered peace talks and help build trust and convince the world that they can play a legitimate role in Sri Lanka where more than 60,000 people have been killed since 1972.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga has asked the Tigers to disband the Black Tigers as a sign of their commitment to peace, but the guerrillas have refused to decommission any weapons, including suicide bombers. Diplomats here say it is the suicide bombers that give the LTTE its cutting edge in the battlefield and help the Tigers bargain from a position of strength.
The Tigers suspended peace talks after announcing on April 21 that the government failed to deliver on promises made to them at six rounds of negotiations since September.
Even as the fifth round of talks was about to begin in the German capital in February, three Tigers blasted themselves to pieces shortly after truce monitors ruled that their trawler was carrying an anti-aircraft weapon.
The incident underscored the rebels’ commitment to kill themselves rather than fall into government hands despite the peace process.
Tiger rebels breaking the truce that took effect on February 23 last year have often threatened to commit suicide by swallowing cyanide capsules worn around their necks. The cyanide is regular issue to all Tigers.
Last month, a Tiger hitman tried to commit suicide after gunning down a top police intelligence officer.
Another tried a similar suicide when stopped at a routine checkpoint here.
“Undoubtedly the most powerful weapon the Tigers have is the suicide bomber,” a senior military commander here said. “Most defence systems are geared to nab the attacker after the strike.”
“It is the fear of getting caught that stops many, but in the case of Tigers they are not that interested in getting away after an attack.” The Black Sea Tigers, the seagoing arm of the suicide bombers, also boasted last year that the Islamic militants who bombed the USS Cole in October 2000 in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 US sailors, may have been inspired by them.
Long before the USS Cole attack, the Tigers were ramming explosives-packed boats, each manned by two Black Sea Tigers, into Sri Lankan naval gunboats and merchant vessels and sinking them.
Out of nearly 18,000 men and women killed since the first Tiger fatality in November 1982, some 241 have been listed by the rebels as having been suicide bombers as of July last year.
Every year the Tigers conduct Hindu religious services to invoke blessings on the ‘martyrs’ and stage rallies to praise the dedication of fallen heroes, especially the Black Tigers.