Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Inside the Kantharuban Arivuchcholai orphanage, which is set in a clearing hacked from the jungle's oppressive vegetation, sits a small painted hut, a mini-museum of sorts.

Inside it is a picture of Kantharuban, who blew himself up in 1991. There is a picture of Captain Millar, who blew himself up in 1987. There is a picture of 12 cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who swallowed cyanide capsules after capture by Indian troops in 1987.


Suicide Bombing Masters: Sri Lankan Rebels
The Tigers did not invent the suicide attack, but they proved the tactic to be so unnerving and effective for a vastly outmanned fighting force that their methods were studied and copied, notably in the Middle East.

"Of all the suicide-capable terrorist groups we have studied, they are the most ruthless, the most disciplined," said Rohan Gunaratna, a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He said the group was responsible for more than half of the suicide attacks carried out worldwide.

In the 15 years since Captain Millar's attack — starting before the tactic was widely used in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or by the Al Qaeda pilots who rammed passenger planes into two of the world's tallest buildings — the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam became the world's foremost suicide bombers, sending out about 220 attackers in all.

Until Sept. 11, "they were the deadliest terror organization in the world," one American official said. They used men, women, children and animals; boats, trucks and cars. They mounted suicide attacks on the battlefield as well as off.

Suicide bombers killed one Sri Lankan president, wounded another and killed a former Indian prime minister. They took out government ministers, mayors and moderate Tamil leaders, decimating the country's political and intellectual leadership.

They attacked naval ships — destroying a third of the Sri Lankan Navy — and oil tankers; the airport in Colombo, the capital; the Temple of the Tooth, home to Sri Lanka's most sacred Buddhist relic; and Colombo's own World Trade Center. They killed certainly hundreds, and possibly thousands, of civilians, although civilians were never their explicit target.

Their killing innovations were studied.

Mr. Gunaratna said the attack on the American destroyer Cole by Al Qaeda in 2000 had been almost identical to a Tiger attack on a Sri Lankan naval ship in 1991. The head of the Sea Tigers, Soosai, who organized suicide attacks on boats, oil tankers and the like, boasted in a recent BBC interview that the Cole attack had been copied from the Tigers.

The Tigers evolved ever more sophisticated suicide bodysuits, and more refined surveillance. They skillfully insinuated themselves within striking distance of their targets. They professionalized, and institutionalized, suicide bombing.

Today, actions by the Black Tigers and the Sea Tigers are being held in abeyance.

The Tigers have declared and observed a cease-fire and are at the negotiating table trying to reach a political settlement with the Sri Lankan government.

For the first time in years, Tiger territory is easily accessible to the outside world. Much like the orphanage with its shrine, it has revealed itself as a place steeped in the notion of self-sacrifice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/14/international/asia/14LANK.html?pagewanted=all&position=topels

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