Word: vellupillai
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...agencies have raised several alarms about civilian casualties - a U.N. document leaked last week estimated that more than 6,400 civilians have been killed in the last three months. But the Defense Secretary dismissed humanitarian concerns as "a ploy employed by some people to extricate [LTTE chief Vellupillai] Prabhakaran and his top leaders from the mess they had got into," the report said. Remaining firm in the face of international pressure - particularly from its former colonial power Britain - is an issue of national pride for the Sri Lankan government. "They don't want to be told what to do," says...
...population, compared to the majority Sinhalese, who constitute about 75%. In 1972, the Sinhalese-controlled Sri Lankan government declared Sinhala and Buddhism the official language and religion. The Tamils, who practice Hinduism and have their own language, took this action as an affront, and Vellupillai Prabhakaran founded the Tigers soon after. The group is formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). (See pictures of Sri Lanka on the brink of civil...
...above all, Tiger leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran's real genius was to build a culture of sacrifice and martyrdom around his guerrilla force, with himself as demi-god leader - an almost exact forerunner of jihadi terrorism. In July 2002 TIME spent a few days with a female Tamil Tiger suicide squad at their base in northern Sri Lanka, and got a firsthand understanding of how he has been so successful...
...fighting each other as rival factions clash north of the eastern city of Batticaloa. The violence follows the March split by the Tigers' eastern commander, Colonel Karuna Amman, who broke ranks from the northern leadership?a dangerous move in a group that demands total loyalty to its supreme commander, Vellupillai Prabhakaran. On April 9, Prabhakaran issued a death warrant for Karuna and sent 1,000 of his troops to hunt down the breakaway faction...
...moment of anger and frustration for Vellupillai Prabakaran, leader of Sri Lanka's separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas. Speaking before some 70,000 members of the country's Tamil minority on the grounds of a Hindu temple in the Jaffna peninsula, the rebel leader promised that his 3,500 followers would hand over their arms to Indian peacekeeping forces that had started streaming into the north and east of the country five days earlier. The vast assembly cheered in approval, barely listening as Prabakaran added bitterly, "We do not accept this accord. But, because India is a powerful country...