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Cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have admitted to committing atrocities and severe human rights abuses in their drawn-out insurgency against the Sri Lankan government, according to a recent edition of influential French newsmagazine “Le Point.” LTTE cadres interviewed in the Batticaloa jungles by “Le Point” spoke of the routine execution of captured and injured security forces personnel, and summary executions of civilians branded by the terrorists as “traitors.” One female Tiger, who identified herself as “Mariana,” had fought in the Tiger’s November 1999 offensive in the Wanni, where she said that the Sri Lankan soldiers injured in the battle were executed by the advancing LTTE. Demonstrating that the female Tigers are no less ferocious than their male counterparts, Mariana said that even her sister cadres “take no prisoners,” but deal with any captured or injured soldiers by killing them on the spot. Tiger treatment of security forces personnel has been independently confirmed by the International Committee of the Red Cross. No new prisoners have been reported taken by the LTTE since 1994, compelling the conclusion that those unlucky enough to be captured are killed. Mariana said that the few prisoners who are taken alive have their blood extracted for use in Tiger hospitals. Mariana said that once these captives have been literally drained of their blood, they are executed. Mariana, said that the Tiger’s hospitals are fully equipped by the “diaspora” of Sri Lankan Tamils living abroad, and boasted that the Tiger’s supplies of medicines were so large that they could afford to sell them to the enemy. The interviewed LTTE cadres described a totalitarian system of social justice prevailing in the LTTE-controlled areas, which few dare to challenge. “No-one escapes the law of the Tigers. For traitors, there is a bullet in the head,” one LTTE cadre said. According to the “Le Point” report, traitors in Tiger-held areas are executed before an assembly of local villagers, their bodies decapitated and their heads exhibited by the side of public roads. Political indoctrination of Tamils begins in early youth. Propaganda posters promoting a virtual “Cult of Prabhakaran” festoon the walls of schools. Boys and girls as young as 11 being recruited in clear violation of international law. Independent accounts by Sri Lanka-based non-government organisations have confirmed that these young recruits are often taken against their will. Female tigers, or tigresses, are predominantly low-caste Tamil women who join between the ages of 11 and 13. The presumably “expendable” low caste Tamil women recruited for suicide bombings come from this group. Before embarking on a suicide mission, they are “honoured” by having their suicide kit bestowed upon them by the terrorists’ leader Velupillai Prabhakaran himself. The female Tigers, like their male counterparts, accept without question the harsh discipline needed to carry out the LTTE’s brutal strategies, including suicide attacks. “If we are needed to explode, we’ll explode,” said Mariana.
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