Tamul Tigers? who are they?
By sephrenia
@sephrenia (567)
September 20, 2007 3:07am CST
Yesterday my hubby was working for the uni as a student ambassador and met a really nice guy called rati who he brought home for dinner. Rati is a captain in the sri lankan army (trained at sandhurst military academy in england) and is on a years leave to study for his masters. Believe me im not gullible lol, he showed me all his certificates, rating sheets from the officer trainers and his references from there.
While we were talking last night, he was telling me about the stuff he has had to do in the army like when he was clearing landmines and one blew up right behind him and put him in hospital for three months. He said that he was clearing landmines because the army was fighting the Tamul Tigers. Now forgive my ignorance but I dont actually know who the tamul tigers are or why they are fighting. Rati had a memory card with him with a video that he showed me on it. The video shows loads of men running from house to house apparently trying to massacre civilians.
Do the tamul tigers do that? are they sort of like the taliban or something? why is the sri lankan army fighting them?
I would really like your help on this because I invited Rati to dinner again on saturday. I feel kind of sorry for him because he only has a really small bedroom to sleep in thats in a shared house, no job yet and his wife and children are still in sri lanka so im kind of adopting him to ease his time here in england until his family can join him. I really dont want to make a fool of myself by getting my facts wrong here but i also dont want to be completely ignorant of both sides of the story.
Thanks in advance!
2 responses
@SViswan (12051)
• India
20 Sep 07
The LTTE (The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) are generally known as the Tamil Tigers. They have been campaigning against the Sri Lankan government for about 20 years now. They want to create a separate Tamil state in the North and East of Sri Lanka. These areas are inhabited by ethnic Tamils (Tamil speaking people from Tamil Nadu in India).
The LTTE is currently proclaimed as a terrorist organisation by 32 countries (including USA)
@sephrenia (567)
•
20 Sep 07
Thankyou so very much for answering!
I didnt know that they were terrorists so im guessing that puts them on the same footing as the taliban. How come they want to create a seperate state? is it religious differences or something like that?
Thankyou again for answering!
*goes looking across the internet*
@SViswan (12051)
• India
20 Sep 07
Yes..they are like the Taliban.
Sri Lanka is an island off the tip of India.The natives of SriLanka speak Sinhalese.
The Tamils are an ethnic group from south India.Around 18% of the island's popoulation are Tamils and they live mostly in the northern and eastern parts of the island.When Sri Lanka was ruled by the British, the Tamil minority was seen to have received preferential treatment. Since Sri Lanka became independent in 1948, the Sinhalese majority has dominated the country.
Now the Tamils seek to establish a state of their own based on the difference of language and religion.
1 person likes this
@SViswan (12051)
• India
20 Sep 07
Thanks for the best response. I had to do a bit of reading myself. Though I had a vague idea , I didn't know exact details. All this started when I was pretty young.
And we've been hearing a lot about the Tamil Tigers...all the guerilla warfare...assasinations..they are in the news here all the time.
1 person likes this
@dpk262006 (58679)
• Delhi, India
22 Sep 07
Tamil tigers are like militants in Sri Lanka. I am from India so we keep reading about them. They are there in Sri Lanka to destroy peace of that country. Sri Lanka Army keep on fighting with them. Once Indian Army was also sent to Sri Lanka to fight and finish Tamil Tigers.
Be careful!
@sephrenia (567)
•
23 Sep 07
Hey there!
Thankyou very much for responding! would you possibly be able to answer the questions I asked before of the other poster? I am slowly gathering information on what they've done and whatnot but i would still like to hear other peoples opinions on this.
Thanks again!
