July 20, 2007: While the LTTE is largely
defeated in the east, they have made good their promise to wage a terror
campaign. On the 17th, an LTTE assassin murdered the chief administrator of the
east. More such killings can be expected. Most of the organized killing is now
in the north, where fighting grows more common and intense, and there are now
several hundred casualties a week. In the north, the Tamil population is
increasingly demoralized. There is growing resistance to LTTE demands for
people (at least one adult per family) for combat or support duties. There's
not much else to take, because the economy in the north has been wrecked by the
war. The majority of the population is living off foreign aid, which the LTTE
taxes as well. Meanwhile, LTTE fundraising efforts (both voluntary and
compulsory) among expatriate Sri Lankan Tamils are being destroyed by local law
enforcement. Now that the LTTE is considered a terrorist organization in most
parts of the world, raising money for them is considered illegal. Thus, LTTE
income has dropped from about a quarter billion dollars annually a few years
back, to under $10 million a month currently.
The LTTE refuses to negotiate
with the Sri Lankan government, and apparently hopes that some spectacular
commando operation will turn things around for them. That seems unlikely, but
the LTTE has no option but to try. In the last three decades, nearly
70,000 have died in this war, and at least a few thousand more may die before
it's over.
