A brief analysis of LTTE's auxiliary forces

Analysis by International Center for Strategic Defense (ICSD)

The greatest of all Western writers on war, Karl von Clausewitz once said, "War is the continuation of politics by other means". The reverse of this seems to be true with strategies of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka because, most of the key achievements of the same had been accomplished through politics and not by war.

Although so called 'peace attempts' were used to strengthen the military capacity, in the decade long blood soaked struggle, LTTE's ultimate achievement had been the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) in year 2002.

The CFA "officially" recognized and persuaded other parties to accept that, in territorially integral Sri Lanka, there are lands under LTTE control extending from Omanthai to Muhamalei, which includes entire Mulaithivu and Killinochchi districts and parts of Mannar and Vavunia districts. Further, both Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and the LTTE had to remain in position as they were on December 2001.

Ironically, there were areas not clearly defined, which each party claimed as their own. Whilst 'peace talks' were progressing, LTTE as usually continued to procure military hardware, gather intelligence, continued to kill Sri Lanka Army (SLA) informants and LTTE's political rivals.

Severe risk

United National Front Government, the co-party to CFA did not want to infringe the same and kept a blind eye on these serious happenings. This was a bonanza for the LTTE especially at a time when the lives of its leaders were at severe risk due to high profile covert operations carried-out by SLA deep penetration units named LRRP.

This honeymoon ended with the break-away of their Eastern leader Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan alias 'Colonel Karuna' with reasonable number of cadres and weaponry. Mainstream or Wanni fraction LTTE, who always opted to be the sole representative of Tamils in SL, did not wish to see emergence of another sector with similar characteristics and dispatched their killer groups hoping to achieve same success as with earlier sects i.e. TELO, EPDP & EPRLF. Karuna fraction [now named Thamil Makkal Viduthalei Pulihal (TMVP) offered tough resistance to the elimination attempts by Wanni LTTE, at times, with the assistance and knowledge of the SLA. These happenings left Wanni LTTE in a very vulnerable position.

For the first time in many years, LTTE was forced to defend their own strongholds and was "boxed" to limited areas severely affecting day-to-day activities especially in Eastern Theatre.

The innovative invention was 'Makkal Padei' (MPd) or people's uprising front. The 'Makkal Padei' consists of young and old, male and female many forcefully and some volunteered and mainly from North & East.

Auxiliary types and MPd

Active support from majority civilian population and passive support from the rest is the key to the success of any militant movement.

Auxiliary forces provide for and organize civilian support to the militant movement and mostly consist of occasional supporters and rarely hardcore groups. Auxiliary forces are characterized by their location, organization and modes operandi.

Technically, auxiliaries are supposed to be local and static, yet, there were reported instances where MPd had operated well away from their own areas depending on the needs. Normally auxiliaries are organized to coincide or in parallel to the existing administrative divisions and which ensures all the areas are covered and no places left out.

Basically there are centralised (Figure 1) and de-centralised (Figure 2) auxiliary structures and the MPd structure is strongly centralised.

In his exceptional military classic, The Vietcong Insurrection Manual for Underdeveloped Countries, General Vo Nguyen Giap enumerates almost all above said uses. According to him "they protected the people and their property, frustrated the enemy's scheme to use war to feed war and use Vietnamese to fight Vietnamese and they were the shock force in production and in transport and supply".

It is clear and logical for different militant movements around the world to use the auxiliaries for different strategic purposes. LTTE also have been using the MP explicitly to fulfill their strategic objectives.

Continued next week