| Submit your comments on this article |
| Sri Lanka |
| A look at the Tamil Tigers' suicide pill necklaces |
| 2009-05-20 |
| What made the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) stand out from other militant organisations was that its fighters wore a cyanide capsule strung around their necks. If they were in danger of being captured by the Sri Lankan armed forces, they bit the capsule and died – to prevent the armed forces from capturing them alive. For if they were to be captured alive, they may be forced to reveal the organisation’s secrets. Anyone ever hear of what death by cyanide is like? Nice of him to give that to so many of his loyal followers. LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran himself wore two cyanide capsules around his neck. Just before this reporter began his interview with Prabakaran in the LTTE office in Tirunelveli in Jaffna on August 4, 1987, the Tigers supremo noticed the movement of a few men outside and immediately asked Yogi, a senior leader, to find out who they were. When he came back and said they were “our men,” he asked Yogi whether he was wearing the capsule. The leader showed Prabakaran his capsule and the chief, in turn, told Yogi that he wore capsules too and displayed them. But he declined to be photographed with the two capsules in a string around his neck. In an interview to The Hindu published on September 5, 1986, when Prabakaran was asked whether it was an exaggeration that all the LTTE fighters wore cyanide capsules, he said: “Yes, we have adopted this measure from the very start. As a consequence, many comrades have sacrificed themselves. You won’t find people from our movement in jail – at any rate, not more than you can count on your fingers – perhaps two or three persons, but even those would not be involved in the inner circle of our activity. That is to say our fighters, through laying down their lives, protect our sympathisers and contacts and the people who give us support and assistance. Otherwise, the great mass of our people who support us and their families would be herded into jail. But that is not the only reason for this practice. "It's much more convenient for me this way, you see." “It is this cyanide capsule which has helped us develop our movement very rapidly. Carrying cyanide on one’s person is a symbolic expression of our commitment, our determination, our courage. For example, Kittu, our Jaffna area commander, has stated in an interview: “as long as we have this cyanide around our neck, we have no need to fear any force on earth. In reality, this gives our fighters an extra measure of belief in the cause, a special edge. It has instilled in us a determination to sacrifice our lives and our everything for the cause. While attacking, our fighters don’t count their lives. They will advance nonchalantly through an artillery attack or a hail of bullets.” Cult of death and esprit de corps. Mario knew what he was doing. The SS was the same way. Prabakaran had escaped being surrounded by the Sri Lankan Army and the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) several times. When this reporter asked him whether he was surrounded by the Sri Lankan Army in Vadamarachchi in the Jaffna peninsula during the Army’s “Operation Liberation” in 1987, he said the LTTE had definite, prior information about the Army’s movements in the Vadamarachchi area and so he and his men had moved out a few days earlier. During the IPKF-LTTE confrontation too, he had escaped a few times from the IPKF’s dragnet. Yogi had said, “There were times when Prabakaran and I would be standing next to the IPKF soldiers and we had escaped.” The SL army used to be incompetent, and still could have destroyed Mario many times. But he always broke out, by force, by bribery, by soldiers going to sleep on the FDL. This time, he didn't. |
| Posted by:gromky |
| #1 At least cyanide is better than what the Japanese issued in WWII - bichloride of mercury (HgCl2). When diluted a lot in water, it makes a good disinfectant. Taken in pill form, it acts like thermite in the stomach, burning its way out. Then it keeps going. It takes a long time to die, and you get to enjoy every moment of it. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-05-20 19:18 |