Origin, Organisation, Leadership, Social Composition
Chapter III THE LTTE: ORIGIN, ORGANISATION, LEADERSHIP, SOCIAL COMPOSITION From its inception, the militant movement of the Tamils of Sri Lanka has been constituted by a multiplicity of groups. Most of these groups emerged due to the splintering of larger outfits, caused by differences on policies or tactics, or personal ambitions and rivalries. While a few groups limited their activities to pamphleteering, others shot into prominence with a robbery or an ambush and then faded into insignificance. However, five groups - LTTE, PLOT, TELO, EROS, and EPRLF have been in the forefront for some time. Of these five ascendant groups, the L TTE has dominated the scene to the present day. This chapter's first concern is with tracing the LTTE's origin. The organisational structure, leadership and social composition of the L TTE will also be examined. ORIGIN Establishing the origin of the LTTE or of the other militant groups is extremely difficult as all the groups claim to be the original one. Since most of them have evolved out of the fission or fusion of various groups and factions, it is difficult to delineate clearly how or when a group originated. According to the LTTE's version, it had its "historical birth" in 1972 when its predecessor the TNT was formed.1 However, the LTTE's claim to being the oldest of the militant groups is refuted by TELO which points out 1 . LTTE, Political Committee, Liberation Tigers and Tamil Eelam Freedom Struggle (Madras, 1983), p.25. 66 that it (TELO) was founded in 1968 by Kuttimani and Thangaturai.2 Nonetheless, it is believed that the old TELO was different from the TELO that was active in the 1980s.3 The EROS, founded by the Marxist intellectual Ratnasabapathy, originated among the Tamil expatriates in London.
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