The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon
Part 10
Sachi Sri Kantha
[8 August 2001]
Civil War Leader for Tamils
The
Time
magazine (Asia edition) of February 5, 2001, carried thefollowing brief prognosis on the immediate future of peace-talks in SriLanka, which floated in the air early this year.“Last year was declared the ‘Year of War’ by VelupillaiPrabhakaran, the leader of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He proved it: the Tigers almost captured thenorthern Jaffna peninsula before being turned back by the army.The insurgents will call for negotiations, but PresidentChandrika Kumaratunga will refuse rebel demands for concessions before talks actually begin - and in the meantimewill move to liquidate the Tigers on the ground. That willharden Tamil opposition to a peace settlement. The civil war will reach its 19th anniversary with no end in sight.”Of the five sentences which have more or less summarized correctlythe recent events (during the six months since it appeared in print), Iwould like to focus on the vital final sentence. The proper use of the phrase ‘civil war’ by the
Time
magazine is correct. But, the accuracyof its count of 19th anniversary (scheduled for 2002) is somewhat off the mark, if one adheres to the definitions of ‘civil war’ formulated byProf. Roy Licklider (
see
, Pirabhakaran Phenomenon - part 9).
Commencement of Civil War in Sri Lanka
Majority of the contemporary analysts of Sri Lankan politics andinternational journalists (including the
Time
magazine’scommentator) point to July 1983 as the commencement date of civilwar in Sri Lanka. By analyzing multiple sources and the events whichoccurred between July 1983 and December 1986 in Eelam and bytrying to correlate these to Licklider’s three criteria which have to besatisfied for the designation of civil war, I infer that the date of commencement of civil war should be marked for November 1986.
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The period from July 1983 to October 1986, until the Battle atMannar where LTTE leader Victor became a martyr for the cause, hasto be labeled as a period of civil unrest, followed by civil strife.The dictionary definitions of the three words in discussion namely,unrest, strife and war are as follows, and I provide examples within parentheses.Unrest is defined as,
‘trouble; turmoil, especially with regard to public or political conditions and suggesting premonitions of revolt.’
(bank raids; LTTE’s 1985 retaliatory attack in Anuradhapura)Strife is defined as,
‘fighting; any contest for advantage or superiority’
(Infighting in TELO between Bobby and Das factions;LTTE’s decimation of TELO)War is defined as,
‘an armed conflict between nations or states; the science of military operations’
.To recapitulate, Licklider’s three criteria which need to be satisfiedfor a designation of civil war are:Presence of influential leaders concerned about the possibilityof living in the same political unit with their current enemiesafter the killing stops.
1.
Existence of multiple sovereignty: Population of an area obeyingmore than one institution, paying taxes, providing men to itsarmies, feeding its functionaries, honoring its symbols, givingtime to its service, yielding other resources despite the prohibitions of a still-existing government they formerly obeyed.
2.
Large scale violence, reflected by (a) 1,000 battle deaths or more per year, and (b) effective resistance where the weaker sidemust have imposed casualties on its opponent equal to at least5% of its own (to distinguish between civil wars and politicalmassacres).
3.
Now, let me show why the civil war began during Pirabhakaran’ssole-leadership of Eelam Tamils, and not when Amirthalingam wasthe nominal leader in July 1983, or when there were competingclaimants for leadership among the Tamil militants, between August1983 and end of 1986.Pirabhakaran’s ascent to Eelam leadership, though unprecedented inSouth Asian setting, is legitimate, if one comprehends the peculiar conditions Sri Lanka faced in the mid-1980s, when (1) parliamentary
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democratic process was paralysed by the duplicitous 1982referendum designed by an Al Caponist President (2) the TULFleadership abandoned its constituents and fled to Madras, and (3) SriLankan government was militarily showing aggression in the Tamilzones, under the pretext of eliminating the ‘Tamil terrorists’.
1984 - the year of chaos
1984 will be remembered in the Eelam history as one in whichEPRLF made waves. It produced a bizarre abduction of Americancouple, Stanley and Mary Allen, by EPRLF militants. This episode,for some reason, has been omitted in the
Broken Palmyra
book,authored by Rajan Hoole and his colleagues. Though Pirabhakaranwas not involved in this abduction episode, I wish to cite this episodeto show the Rodney Dangerfield-type leadership skills shown byPirabhakaran’s competitors, and how Pirabhakaran’s stature wasdifferent from them. The Allens’ episode also deserves exposure sinceone of the perpetrators of this kidnapping currently holds a cabinet post in President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government.Allens from Ohio State, while working on a development project inJaffna, were abducted on May 10, 1984 in Jaffna by the EPRLF. TheEPRLF then demanded that Allens will be released when 50 millionrupees in gold is paid to the Tamil Nadu government and a number of EPRLF cadres held in Sri Lankan custody were released. Inhind-sight, one can only laugh at these two fool-hardy demands made by the EPRLF, when India was playing host to a visit by the thenVice President George Bush. Now, to the resolution of this abduction episode, I can do no better than quote the central player K.Mohandas, former Director Generalof Police (Intelligence) of Tamil Nadu, who made his deposition tothe Jain Commission (investigating Rajiv Gandhi assassination) onJanuary 2, 1996, as follows:“One night I was sleeping in my house. I got a call from the USConsul General from Madras at 11 pm. He told me franticallythat Mr. and Mrs. Allen who were working as water resourcesexperts in Jaffna had been kidnapped by militants. He wantedmy assistance to rescue them. I told him how could I help him,for the incident had happened in Jaffna. He pressed that thePresident of the United States of America was interested.The Consul General said that a large amount of gold (to be paidas ransom) and six or so militants in Sri Lankan custody must bereleased. This must be done within 48 hours or else Mr and MrsAllen would be shot dead. Then something struck me and I
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