Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

390 • LIBERATION TIGERS OF TAMIL EELAMassist tsunami-stricken areas but in fact financing the LTTE. With theexpansion of its Sea Tigers, the LTTE has also engaged in piracy ofcommercial shipping vessels off the coasts of Sri Lanka.Approximately 25 different unrelated “Tiger” organizations haveappeared since the LTTE began, but it has violently asserted its preeminenceover them. This reflects the leadership style of VellupillaiPrabhakaran, who is the lone survivor of the original founders of theTamil New Tigers, having killed off all his rivals within the LTTE.Prabhakaran directed the LTTE to eliminate all rival Tiger groupsin internecine battling from May 1986 to September 1987. By April1989 the LTTE and the remnants of three other Tiger organizationsformed an umbrella group, the Eelam National Liberation Front.While Prabhakaran claims to seek a “socialist egalitarian” societyin the envisioned Tamil state of Eelam, he has a marked antipathytoward Marxist ideologues. His ruthless liquidation of rival Tigerleaders and groups as well as of ordinary Tamils unsympathetic tothe separatist cause has led some observers to describe him as “implacablyviolent and as fascist a leader as South Asia has yet produced”(Dennis Austin and Anirudha Gupta, “Lions and Tigers: The Crisis inSri Lanka,” Conflict Studies 211, 1988). An example of the ruthlessnessin dealing with dissent occurred during March 2004 when one ofthe LTTE commanders, Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, better knownby his alias of Colonel Karuna, revolted against the LTTE and ledabout 4,000 followers out of the group. Karuna, whose followers wereeastern Tamils, objected to what he perceived as the exploitation ofeastern Tamils by the LTTE leadership and also sought a more conciliatorycourse with the Sri Lankan government. The LTTE devoteditself to exterminating as much of the Karuna faction as possible,which was largely neutralized as an effective military force. AlthoughPrabhakaran is the leading personality among the Tamil separatists, heis not articulate and has chosen generally to speak through his lieutenant,Anton Balasingham. His only known press conference was heldin 10 April 2002 in Kilinochchi, attended also by Balasingham. Thedeath in 2006 of Balasingham, who had been the chief negotiator ofthe LTTE and its main theorist, arguably has weakened the LTTE.The LTTE, unlike other Tiger groups, has not limited its attacksmainly to Sinhalese government and military targets but has directlyterrorized both Sinhalese and Tamil civilians as well. On 3 May 1986a bomb hidden aboard an Air Lanka Tristar in Colombo exploded