Founded in May 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE was involved in armed clashes against the Sri Lankan government and armed forces. Oppression against Sri Lankan Tamils continued by Sinhalese mobs, notably during the 1977 anti-Tamil pogrom and the 1981 burning of the Jaffna Public Library. Following the week-long July 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom carried out by Sinhalese mobs that came to be known as Black July,[14] the LTTE's escalation of intermittent conflict into a full-scale nationalist insurgency began, which started the Sri Lankan Civil War.[15] By this time, the LTTE was widely regarded as the most dominant Tamil militant group in Sri Lanka and among the most feared guerrilla forces in the world,[16] while Prabhakaran's status as a freedom guerrilla fighter led to comparisons to revolutionary Che Guevara by global media,[17] though Prabhakaran's actions were also widely viewed as terroristic.[18]
Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected as the president of Sri Lanka in 2005. After a brief period of negotiations, LTTE pulled out of peace talks indefinitely.[105] Sporadic violence had continued and on 25 April 2006, LTTE tried to assassinate Sri Lankan Army Commander Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka.[106] Following the attack, the European Union proscribed the LTTE as a terrorist organisation.[107] A new crisis leading to the first large-scale fighting since signing of the ceasefire occurred when the LTTE closed the sluice gates of the Mavil Oya (Mavil Aru) reservoir on 21 July 2006, and cut the water supply to 15,000 villages in government controlled areas.[108] This dispute developed into a full-scale war by August 2006.
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The Black Tiger wing carried out attacks on various high-profile leaders both inside and outside Sri Lanka.[216] It successfully targeted three world leaders, the only insurgent group to do so. That includes the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India on 21 May 1991,[217][218] the assassination of Ranasinghe Premadasa, the President of Sri Lanka on 1 May 1993,[219] and the failed assassination attempt of Chandrika Kumaratunga, the Sri Lankan President on 18 December 1999, which resulted in the loss of her right eye.[220][221][222]
The LTTE has been accused of recruiting and using child soldiers to fight against Sri Lankan government forces.[256][257][258] The LTTE was accused of having up to 5,794 child soldiers in its ranks since 2001.[259][260] Amid international pressure, the LTTE announced in July 2003 that it would stop conscripting child soldiers, but UNICEF[261][262] and Human Rights Watch[263] have accused it of reneging on its promises, and of conscripting Tamil children orphaned by the tsunami.[264] On 18 June 2007, the LTTE released 135 children under 18 years of age. UNICEF, along with the United States, states that there has been a significant drop in LTTE recruitment of children, but claimed in 2007 that 506 child recruits remain under the LTTE.[265] A report released by the LTTE's Child Protection Authority (CPA) in 2008 stated that less than 40 soldiers under age 18 remained in its forces.[266] In 2009 a Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations said the Tamil Tigers "continue to recruit children to fight on the frontlines", and "use force to keep many civilians, including children, in harm's way".[267] During the violent parts of the war, though some children were forcefully recruited, many voluntarily joined the LTTE after witnessing or experiencing abuses by Sri Lankan security forces, seeking to "protect their families or to avenge real or perceived abuses."[268] However, during the ceasefire, the number of cases of forced recruitment far exceeded those of voluntary recruitment.[269] Many children have been used in human rights violations such as the torture of political prisoners and massacres in Muslim and Sinhalese villages.[270]
Initially young Muslims joined the Tamil militant groups in the early years of Tamil militancy.[284] Muslim ironmongers in Mannar fashioned weapons for the LTTE. LTTE later undertook its anti-Muslim campaigns as it began to view Muslims as outsiders, rather than a part of the Tamil nation. Local Tamil leaders were disturbed by the LTTE's call for the eviction of Muslims in 1990.[285] In 2005, the International Federation of Tamils claimed that the Sri Lankan military purposefully stoked tensions between Tamils and Muslims, in an attempt to undermine Tamil security.[286] As Tamils turned to the LTTE for support, the Muslims were left with the Sri Lankan state as their sole defender, and so to the LTTE, the Muslims had legitimised the role of the state, and were thus viewed as Sri Lankans.[286] 2ff7e9595c
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