This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Sudharsansn (talk | contribs) at 18:11, 3 October 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 18:11, 3 October 2006 by Sudharsansn (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) | Biography Unassessed | ||||||
| |||||||
Prabakharan The Freedom Fighter and Terrorist
As many such leaders Prabakharan is a controvercial subject. Also it is impossible to separate Prabakharan the individual form Prabakharan the leader of LTTE. Being a leader of an armed rebel group it is also difficult to differentiate between the facts, myths, legend, and deliberate mis-information about him.
Velupillai Prabhakaran (sometimes spelt Velupillai Pirapaharan , born November 26, 1954) is the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant organization fighting for Tamil self-rule in North-East Sri Lanka. He was born in Velvettithurai, Sri Lanka. In 1972, at the age of 18, he founded an organization named Tamil New Tigers(TNT). In May 5, 1976, TNT was renamed as Liberation Tigers of Tamil-Eelam (LTTE) has been black-listed as a terrorist in some countries, including the USA and India, who seek his extradition over his alleged role in the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. But among a significant number, the vast majority of whom are Tamilians, he is viewed as a freedom fighter who fights against the ethnic suppression in Sri Lanka. The issue of his legitimacy as a leader of his people and his acceptance as a freedom fighter rather than a terrorist, remains controversial. It is also worthy to mention that few other nations have declared him as a rebellion leader—an ambiguous term that carefully avoids the issue.
While few would dispute he has a devoted and loyal following among his people, some even willing to sacrifice their own lives, (Black Tigers)he also has many critics. Prabakharan is a freedom fighter because he is engaged in an armed struggle for an independant home land for the tamil population of Sri Lanka. He is also terrorist because the methods used by him and his organisation are violent. During the period he led LTTE, LTTE have waged war against not only the Government of Sri Lanka and its' forces -a legitimate target if one accepts the rights of tamil people have been infringed, but also many tamil political parties and rebel groups that were fighting for the same cause (my POV waste of a useful resource a great leader would have tried to unify and harness). Significantly LTTE and Prabakharan have eliminated most tamil political leaders in Sri Lanka except those loyal to it and many tamil intelectuals and academics who dared to criticise them. (my POV more to consolidate personal power than to serve Tamil Cause) ACTC, TULF, PLOTE, EPRLF, EPDP, TNA,were among these organizations) Sachi Sri Kantha says comparison to Pol Pot is unfair, as the numbers of deaths LTTE is accused of is relatively small compared to the number killed by Khemer Rouge. While the numbers may be small the terror LTTE unleashed on people both sinhalese and tamil is not very different. Comparison to Yasser Arafat is also not accurate because the tamil people of Sri Lanka were not forcefully evacuated to refugee camps by the Sri Lankan Government forces like the people. Discrimination tamils faced in Sri Lanka was more sublte -until 1970 tamils lived and worked in most parts of Sri Lanka alongside the majority Sinhalese. Struggle against the British imperialists did not unite all Sri Lankans in to a Sri Lankan nation. Like in India where the resistance split along Hindu/Muslin lines, Sri Lankan resistance to colonial rule split along language lines. Ensuing power struggle between the two linguistic groups rsolved in favour of the Sinhalese who due to demographics became the most powerful group in post independant Sri Lanka.
Like most newly independant countries Sri Lanka went through a phase of aggressive nationalism during the middle of the last century. English was substituted with Sinhala as the national and administrative language in 1956 enraging the vsat majority of tamils. Buddhism was declared the state religion a move unpopular with the tamil population who were mostly Hindus. Although concessions were made to remady some of these it was too little and too late pacify most tamils. The 'Standardisation of A'Level results' introduces in the 1970s was the last straw that broke the peaceful Tamils'(pun intended) back.
Till the third quarter of the last century, due to educational inequalities, the majority of entrants to Sri Lankan Universities came from Colombo and Jaffna. The united front Government in 1970, instead of trying to remady the situation by improving educational facilities in rural Sri Lanka, found a quick fix to balance the numbers. Suddenly this changed the ethnic balance this time in favour of the rural Sri Lankans who happened to be mostly sinhalese, causing severe disadvantage to the Colmbo and Jaffna student. (ie. Medicine and Engineering entrants from Colombo and Jaffna needed at least 3 A grades and a B while rural students for the same course entered with merely four S grades) To make matters worse ethnic quotas were introduced later limiting Tamil entrants even further to approximately 20% of the total places available in Universities and government sector employment, reserving narly 70% to the Sinhalese, based on population. Tamils were being displaced from coveted educational institutes as well as from jobs in the state sector .
The term racial discrimination is inappropriate to describe (my POV)because there is no racial differnce between the tamils and sinhalese. Although both the Tamils and the Sinhalese have distinct ethno-riligious identities culture and mythology, they have lived alongside for at least two millennia and mixed and intermarried continously. I is also true that the sinhalese lining in tamil areas have accquired tamil idintity and language and tamils vice-versa. So the differences between the two groups are cultural riligious and linguistic than racial.
This was the background to the conflict LTTE and Prabakharan took on so a considerable portion of singhalese people and a few tamils consider him to be a terrorist while many tamils and a few Singhalese would call him a freedom fighter. LTTE loyalists label its victims as traitors or collaborators.
External Links
Prabakharans admirers
- Tamil Eelam Home Page - Official home page
- A struggle for Justice
- The enigma of Prabhakaran
- The Pirabakaran Phenomenon - by Sachi Sri Kantha. In defence of Prabhakaran.
- Rare Photos of Velupillai Prabhakaran
Critics
- Who Really Killed Rajiv Gandhi?
- DR. RAJANI THIRANAGAMA: HER CONTRIBUTION TO THE UNIVERSITY TEACHERS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
- Prominent Tamil Leaders Assassinated by the LTTE Tamil Tiger Terrorists in Sri Lanka
- Tamil Tigers kill another Tamil leader and issue death warrant to 5 Tamil leaders
- Jaffna Mayoress Sarojini Yogeswaran shot dead by LTTE
- LTTE Tamil Tiger Suicide bomber kills another Tamil Leader, Dr Neelan Thiruchelvam
- The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Sri Lanka
- Not on the right path
- EPDP
Warning Disturbing Pictures in the following links
- She Don't Know Nothing About No Tigers
- Chronology of Suicide Bomb Attacks by Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka
Those who insist they are neutral
- Amnesty International files of relavence.
- Wanted by Interpol
- Sri Lanka : ICRC asked to help solve missing persons issue
Merge from Pol Pot of Tamil Eelam
I merged the relevant information from Pol Pot of Tamil Eelam according to the VfD at Misplaced Pages:Votes for deletion/Pol Pot of Tamil Eelam, where the final result was Merge and redirect to Velupillai Prabhakaran. --Deathphoenix 00:02, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Merging of the two articles, Velupillai Prabhakaran and Pol Pot of Tamil Eelam
The Velupillai Prabhakaran article needs cleaning up and more content, while the Pol Pot of Tamil Eelam is not consistent with Misplaced Pages rules (NPOV) and should be deleted. There are various views of P but they should be expressed within the article, not in the name of it. Ulflarsen 10:19, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)
- agreed on PP-o-T-E. that's not really necessary here. Velupillai Prabhakaran article is far too short than I'd have it be. Wonder if Soman would like to improve it, or you, for that matter. Greenleaf 09:07, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
- I may try to extend the article based on "Inside an elusive mind", guess that's about the best source for any info on him. Ulflarsen 19:11, 20 November 2005 (UTC)
Comment to revert removing terrorist organisation
I did a revert back to "Greenleafs" last edit. It is already mentioned in the article that Prabhakaran is sought by Interpol, that the LTTE is banned in the US, UK and India - so it should not be necessary to elaborate on that. The latest additions of terrorist labels seems to be POV. Ulflarsen 13:59, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
- "a terrorist organisation .. banned as a terrorist organization in several countries" doesn't read well either. people just don't read the sentence but simply change the words they don't particularly like. :-/ Greenleaf 08:53, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
Not really a biography
The article as currently written is mostly a polemic against Prabhakaran. There is very little actual biographical material here except for the paragraph about assassinating the mayor.- Tyronen 22:22, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
Prabhakaran is Tamil's National leader.
Some may try to twist the fact. However, can anyone deny the fact that Praphakaran is Tamil national leader. I submit the following links as evidence.
I'm afraid most of your evidence is simply from the LTTE or LTTE backed websites, hardly indisputable evidence. Do not present the above as neutral sources. 222.155.12.62 19:03, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
And please SIGN YOUR COMMENTS 222.155.12.62 19:04, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
Re: Prabhakaran is Tamil's National leader.
Tamils took the arms due to the Sinhala terrorism. No one can easly forget the Sinhal ruler's opperession on tamils. V.Pirapaharan is a National leader for tamils. he is the man for tamil community to live with pride. LTTE is the safe guard to tamils in the Sri Lanka. otherwise sinhala government evacuate the tamils. Some sinhala writers try to change the reality of the sri lankan ethnical history...I kindly request the wikipedians that understand the tamils' freedom fightings in sri lanka and according to that publish the articles.
Note: You should be one sick bullshitter to talk about Sinhala terrorism, while your so called national leader recently used a pregnant lady as a suicide bomber, and you want the wikipedians to understand the nature of freedom fighings by LTTE, thats good, I think reading the above statement alone they will get the point
What proof do you have that the LTTE used a pregnant lady as a suicide bomber ? Has it been proven? IS is just assumed? and who made these assumptions? Think before you talk buddy.
Yes it was all over the news, and witnesses have confirmed that she was holding the hand of a small innocent boy, let alone the fact, she was in line of pregnant women who were there to visit the doctor, and she killed most of them. Tell me this is not true. Is this how your national leader trying to gain freedom, how pathatic. LTTE is a terrorist organization, and is banned in most of the countries. Terrorism will not solve anything. Did palastene get israel back, NO. Maybe you can also join the club by binding a powerful bomb to your chest and blowing yourself into pieces in the heart of Colombo with some innocent people, but I can assure you that you will never gain your freedom by doing so. How many innocent people have your great leader killed, but did he achive his goal, NO. What if your so called Sinhala goverment stop all the food supplies to all your people in North, what if they deport tamil from Colombo to your holy land of North/East, all of your Tamil people will die in hunger, and no country in the world is going to donate even a penny for a terrorist organization. You people are fighting for freedom while enjoying goverment education, money and food.
Grammar
Somebody please check the grammar of the sentences in the article. A lot of improvement needs to be done to make the article match the standards of Misplaced Pages.
--Shashishekhar 10:20, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
In the article it says terrorist acts such as killing Alfred Duraiappah. there is no evidence to prove he killed Alfred Duraiappah, nor has he been trialled. I belive the saying is innocnet till proven guilty. Further more the introduction states its an assumptiobn he killed Alfred Duraiappah, however one paragraph says he did kill him.
meaning of 'Thambi'
doesn't 'Thambi' mean younger brother, not Elder Brother, as stated in the article?
- Yes! I've changed this before, but someone reverted it. I've changed it back to "younger". I'd advise anyone inclined to revert this edit to look the word up in a dictionary, such as the University of Cologne Tamil Lexicon - you'll have to enter the word as 'tampi' to fit their transliteration scheme. -- Arvind 22:58, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
The article on Vellupillai Prabhakarab is entirely biased and based on a a lot of hearsay. The fact remains that little or nothing has been known of this elusive person giving rise to all sorts of legends. Let Misplaced Pages be a source of information not a source of propaganda.
user:203.189.72.178
This user has inserted "Keri" infront of Thambi. This is a taboo sinhala word. please do not use this kind of wordings in wiki. this is not the palce to do your war or show your hatrate for this person--Terrance 04:15, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
More Vandalism by Rational134
Please see diff:
I think just a revert will do?--Realstarslayer 03:31, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
Need help for citation
In Black July there is a citation required for statement regarding his memory of 1958 anti-Tamil pogoram leaving a lasting legacy. I have read it somewhere but need the source. Thanks RaveenS 22:10, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
NPOV Tag
Find the following paragraphs rather POV , specially the part about weak and babbling moderates(almost all of whom are dead courtesy of LTTE). Babbling -- how is this NPOV. I guess its ok to murder the moderates if they are weak and babbling.
Known by many Tamils as "Thambi" (English: "Younger Brother"), Prabhakaran has allowed and promoted himself as the object of a cult of personality. The cult is built around several factors. First, he is considered as a historical emergence along the “Great Chola Emperors”. He is often described as a marvel to be born after one thousand years. Thus, he was inserted into a powerful grand narrative for the Sri Lankan Tamils.
Second, he is described as a strong and action oriented personality among the weak and “babbling” moderates. .
Prabhakaran’s contribution to deligitimization of caste within Sri Lankan Tamil society is instrumental.
I have added edits to make this more NPOV but lot more work need to be done on such a controversial figureRuchiraw 11:55, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
Still very POV
The entire article as it stands is very biased against Prabhakaran. Particularly offensive is the "Cult of personality" section, and "Prabhakaran today" contains a lot of unsourced material which frankly sounds fishy to me. I have read the Swamy book listed in the References section; it is far from friendly to Prabhkaran, but does not go near as far as this article. Nor does the second link which is to a pro-LTTE web site. So what is the source of this material? Tyronen
This is very biased in favor of a wanted criminal, terrorist as recognised by the UN, USA, NATO..etc etc 222.155.12.62 19:00, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
Militarism, Violence, and Terrorism
Unidentified user deleted parts of this , have restored it Ruchiraw 01:01, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
Cult of personality
I had removed some of the more POV material in this section but it has been restored. The mere title "Cult of personality" is POV; "leadership style" would be more appropriate. Many of the claims are unsourced and seem outlandish to me, particularly:
- Prabhakaran has a cult of personality - that is an opinion, not a fact, and should be stated as such (and cited).
- Prabhakaran lets himself be worshiped as a Sun God - proof?
- Prabhakaran personally takes credit for every LTTE victory - proof?
- Prabhakaran is the "single biggest obstacle to peace" - the TIME article cited takes this from a single analyst at RAND corporation. This is POV, protected by the "Critics describe..." these are what are called weasel words.
- Description of him as totalitarian. It is true that case can be made as such based on the LTTE justice web site, but that should be presented as an argument, not a fact.
Meanwhile, we still need to add an actual biography, rather than blanket descriptions of the man. Tyronen 17:03, 11 August 2006 (UTC) I added the to this section.
- I thought VP is comming from a fisshing village in north. how come chollas are so called low caste fisherman.
--Terrance 07:27, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
Needs complete revision and admin intervention
As per NPOV policies, this article is completely lopsided and does not project the Tamil Eelam perspective on Velupillai Prabhakaran, and does not have a balance in describing about Velupillai Prabhakaran. Needs complete revision to maintain a neutral stance.
It only shows Velupillai Prabhakaran as a barbaric, ruthless tyrant and does not include mentions of his achievements in terms of being the non-political representative of the Tamils in Sri Lanka and also about the de-facto nation Eelam that has been carved out within SL, which is completely controlled by the LTTE.
To straight-jacket Prabhakaran as a Terrorist or as a Child Killer, as per earlier edits and claims in this article, adheres to the biased version of the Sri Lankan govt which only talks of Velupillai Prabhakaran to be an outright barbarian whereas there are number of incidents and quotes available online which highlights his entire career and this needs to be revisited to maintain the neutral perspective on Prabhakaran. The existing article condones the Sri Lankan govt's killings and the turn of events that led to the formation of the LTTE and Velupillai Prabhakaran and therefore this article cannot be concluded to contain any real information as a biographical source of information about Velupillai Prabhakaran.
- First of all, please sign your comments on the talk page using ~~~~.
- If you disagree with what is written you can change it, but you have to cite reliable sources, accroding to WP:RS policy. You cannot just write your opinion on Misplaced Pages.
- And plase don't write your commentary on the main article. That is agianst WP policy. --snowolfD4 02:05, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
'
Re: Needs complete revision and admin intervention
>>:First of all, please sign your comments on the talk page using ~~~~.
- If you disagree with what is written you can change it, but you have to cite reliable sources, accroding to WP:RS policy. You cannot just write your opinion on Misplaced Pages.
- And plase don't write your commentary on the main article. That is agianst WP policy.'
While I completely understand, pls refer to the history of this page and I had posted on the negative-bias on it already. Due to lack of time, I really am not able to revamp this though there really are citable evidence to strike balance.
To begin with all the info in this page pertains to the 'terrorist' Prabhakaran which is documented mostly by the Sri Lankan government. All I am trying to argue for is the presence of the other side of Prabhakaran, showing his accomplishments as the head of an organization, the evidence for which is available in a number of Canadian and British publications. If anti-Prabhakaran info is deemed to be 'valid' then so is 'pro-Prabhakaran' info.
Do you want to take info about Bhagat Singh from Indian media or the British Media? I'd say take it from both, so that it highlights him both as a martyr and a warrior and also the other perspective of him as a terrorist. Let the readers decide.
Reading the current article, readers are not given a choice of informed decision, if you would kindly understand what I mean. User:Sudharsansn
Re:Re: Needs complete revision and admin intervention
Snowfold, I am also a Sinhala speaker, as you are but yes, I want the readers to take a completely informed decision, something that is done when both sides are projected.
This article is being Vandalized and the Alfred Durairaj incident is being blown up beyond proportions when not much information is being given on what he did. Velupillai Prabhakaran, not adhering to his own principles are only to give a negative 'Cult of Personality' image and are completely not cited, and almost every piece of info in this article is biased towards the SL govt views as evident from the SL Wikipedians working on this article to promote their govt's stand on LTTE.
Needs Admin intervention, completely to prevent vandalism by pro-Sinhala, Anti-Tamil activists. Needs balance to be maintained. Readers are not given a choice of informed decision.
Categories: