Little has been done in regards to the destructive effects of the Tamil Tigers insurgency in Sri Lanka. This terror group has negatively impacted peaceful co-existence of populations both within Sri Lanka and the entire region in South Asia. There is an urgent need for the Foreign Service community, the local intelligence, and the domestic security to give adequate attention to the growing influence of this insurgency. It is imperative to mention that the Tamil Tigers insurgency in Sri Lanka has significantly affected both the international and regional security in South Asia (Picciotto and Weaving 76).
Worse still, this insurgent group is believed to be closely coordinated with other overseas insurgent groups in the sense that they interact financially, technologically, and ideologically. It is the same insurgent group that has expanded its network to be referred to as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Unless the infrastructure and terror strategies of this group are understood well, it will be quite cumbersome to handle its effects in Sri Lanka, South Asia, and the world at large.
Even though Tamil Tigers operates in South Asia, it originated in northern Sri Lanka before the beginning of the 1980s. It is pertinent to mention that there were several packets of terror during the 70s even before the insurgent group could be fully known in South Asia. Jaffna peninsula was one of the earliest affected regions by acts of terror. There are also quite a several pieces of literature which assert that Sri Lanka was destabilized by the formidable LTTE terror group that was established in 1972 (Swamy 96). It took two years before this group could start operating as a terror group. This explains why the Tamil New Tigers started becoming more popular during the mid-70s. The ring leader of this new terror outfit had been declared an outright criminal by the Sri Lankan authorities.
The activities of the Tamil insurgents were heavily boosted by their remarkable international presence. Since their operations were known across the globe, the insurgent group was domestically and internationally recognized. Hence, the group became more resilient and was also capable of surviving several war threats back home. This group did not receive any financial aid for most of the years when they were fighting both the government and the international security system. However, during the 1983 riots that involved various ethnic groups, the insurgent group began receiving sympathetic assistance in the form of finances. There were quite a several Tamils who were keen on advancing the objectives of the insurgent group. The Tamils were later united as a cohesive community after the ethnic riots. Both camps of the political divide forgave each other with the aim uniting various ethnic communities.
To unify the warring ethnic groups, several treaties have been ratified. Nonetheless, this has not changed the face of this south Asian nation since the Tamil Tigers have spread far and wide in a bid to expand their network and acts of terror (Sherman 198). Up to this end, thousands of Tamils in Sri Lanka have lost their lives and property. To make the matters worse, lack of peace and political stability in Sri Lanka due to the aggressions of the Tamil Tigers has culminated into stagnated growth of this country. The standardization of education and colonization were some of the major reasons why Tamils were angered by their government.
Works Cited
Picciotto, Robert and Rachel, Weaving. Security And Development: Investing In Peace And Prosperity. London: Routledge, 2006. Print.
Sherman, Jake. The Political Economy of Armed Conflict: Beyond Greed and Grievance. New York: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003.Print.
Swamy, Narayan. The Tiger Vanquished: LTTE’s Story (1 ed.). London: Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd, 2010. Print.