Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam : failure of the Sri Lankan state's pacification efforts

Abstract

This thesis examines pacification efforts of the Sri Lankan state in combating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). A violent manifestation of Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict, the LTTE, has been waging a bloody civil war against the Sri Lankan state for over two decades. For the Sri Lankan state to achieve total victory against the LTTE, counter measures must also focus on breaking the link between the LTTE and its support base. Conventional theories of counter-insurgency provide valuable frameworks on how to divorce the local support population from the insurgents. However given the geographical dispersion of the LTTE's support base, these theories, as well as lessons learnt from other success cases, cannot be applied to the Sri Lankan case study.