Key Issues on International Terrorism

Running head: Key issues on international terrorism
Key issues on international terrorism
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Key issues on international terrorism
1. Introduction
Over the recent past decades, terrorism has been a significant threat to the global peace as
several terrorist attacks have caused the death of millions of people across the world. Over the
years while analyzing the brutality of those incidents, one question has been again and again
raised that why do terrorist groups undertake malicious practices by killing people (Mackinlay
2013). However, the person concerned for international relation studies have figured out several
ideologies of the organizations that drove them to leave their social life behind and commit
terrorism. Still, the question remains unresolved as to why does a person take the lives of some
innocent civilians who are complete strangers to the person (Mac Ginty 2016). Hence, the study
in order to analyze the ideology of a popular terrorism group called Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE), will give a profile of the mentioned organization. The whole course of the
discussion includes a detail description of the group. The study divides the discussion into two
sections. In the first section, the paper sheds light on the facts regarding the group and the second
section highlights the analysis part. The facts section includes several aspects such as the origin
of the group, their ideology, leadership, organization structure, strategies, tactics, and main
attacks and so on. On the other hand, the second part of the analysis throws light on the impact of
the groups’ activity and future plans of the group. The paper finally concludes by summing up
the entire discussion.
2. Discussion
2.1 Facts
2.1.1 Origins

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Key issues on international terrorism
According to Hashim (2018), the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or popularly known
as LTTE was one of the main groups that came into existence while fighting for the
establishment of a separate independent state that is Tamil Elam. Sri Lanka based this
organization was mostly known as the Tamil Tigers. The organization was founded in the year of
1976 and waged as a secessionist nationalist insurgency (Hess and Korf 2014). The move of
LTTE to create a different nation for the Tamil people of the North and Eastern Zone of Sri
Lanka was the main driving force behind the Sri Lankan Civil War which began in 1983 and
then continued till 2009. The war resulted in the defeat of the LTTE during Mahindra
Rajapaksa’s presidency. However, it deserves mention that LTTE alias the Tamil Tigers were
supported by significant Tamilians of Sri Lanka. In regard to that University Teachers for
Human Rights stated that the group was a combination of nationalist ideology and internal terror
which led to their success in atomizing the Tamilians (Hyndman and Amarasingam 2014).
During the time when LTTE was at the peak of its power, it was perceived by several researchers
that the group was supported by the entire community.
As per Kruglanski et al. (2013), during the early 1970s, United Front government led by
Sirimavo Bandaranaike brings the policy of standardization into operation in order to modify the
less number of Sinhalese being accepted into the Sri Lankan University. Meanwhile, a student of
the University, Satiyaseelan developed a league for Tamil students opposing the activity of
Bandaranaike. This league was comprised of the youth generation of Tamil community so that
they will fight for the student’s right in order to have the fair process of enrollment in the
University. The group was inspired by the ideologies of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and their
insurrection in the year of 1971 (Kruglanski et al. 2014). It was the first Tamil group like Janatha

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Key issues on international terrorism
Vimukthi Peramuna. 5th May of 1976 was founding year of LTTE and developed as the
predecessor of Tamil New Tigers.
2.1.2 Aims and Ideology
The primary aim of LTTE was to create an independent state of Tamil Elam for the
people of North-Eastern area of Sri Lanka. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is one of the self-
styled national liberation organizations whose primary purpose was to create an independent
state for Tamilians of Sri Lanka’s North and East region (Kruglanski et al. 2014). Tamil
nationalism was the primary ideology of LTTE. The group was also inspired by the ideology of
many Indian freedom fighters like the Subhash Chandra Bose. The organization claims to be
fought for the restoration of sovereignty in its homeland. Even if the group had most of the
Hindu members, it established itself as the secular organization. In accordance with Mac Ginty
(2016), the leaders mainly Velupillai made it assure that religion does not have the place in the
ideology of the group. The oppressiveness of the Tamilians in their own society was condemned
by Velupillai Prabhakaran. For example, he was strongly opposed to the caste discrimination and
gender biasness of Tamil culture. Thus he formed LTTE as a nationalist team with an aim to
bring revolutionary changes in the Tamil society. Their aim was not just to make an independent
state from Sri Lanka but to bring widespread changes in the society.
As per Mackinlay (2013), it can be said that the group’s ideology is to eliminate gender
discrimination and social biasness from the society. The ideology also states that the group
supports the liberation of women within the society. Prabhakaran also termed his philosophy
from the perspective of politics as ‘revolutionary socialism,’ and his aim is to make the society
as ‘egalitarian society.’ It has been reported often that while asked about LTTE’s policy from the