No Surrender

Col. Roopan and Lt. Col. Siriththiran

“If we don’t fight for our freedom, who else will?” – Air Black Tiger Col. Roopan

On Feb. 20^th, two planes belonging to the Tamileelam Air Force (TAF) launched a daring raid on Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) installations in the south of the island. Piloted by Air Black Tigers, the planes were on “kamikaze” missions to SLAF head offices in the Fort area of Colombo and the main air force base in Katunayake.

Both planes missed their intended targets. The first crashed into the inland revenue offices, about ten meters from the SLAF offices; and, the second crashed in the outer perimeter of the air force base.

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement: “Well coordinated communication, early detection and the preparedness of the forces paid off, denying LTTE what defence observers viewed as an abortive attempt to disrupt the prevailing normalcy in South.” TAF planes making their way to within metres of their intended targets is seen as a major embarrassment for the Sinhala state, which for months has claimed to have destroyed the Tamils’ conventional capabilities.

Beyond the surface news, there is another aspect to the Black Air Tiger operation. This daring raid has come at a time when Sri Lanka’s financial backers Norway, US, EU and Japan, and its sleeping partner India are calling on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to surrender.

Since the early ’80s, the LTTE has maintained that it will not lay down arms or surrender until the Tamil people’s right to self-determination has been realised. Indian and Sri Lankan troops have for more than two decades tried, unsuccessfully, to disarm Tamils by military means.

By sending some of their most guarded assets, planes and pilots, on a Black Tiger mission, the LTTE has told the world, loud and clear, that it has no intention of giving up the struggle, regardless of how “challenging” the military situation may become.

Privately, Tamils are aware that the LTTE still maintains conventional military capabilities, despite pundits’ premature predictions of guerilla warfare. However, shrinking landmass and coastal area under the administration of the LTTE does, with time, reduce the likelihood of another unceasing waves.

In the early days of Tamil militancy, when the bookworms of Eelam found life their new jungle homes exacting, they would say to each other that if it is to be easy it wouldn’t be called the struggle. To this day, despite the conventionalism and de-facto state of the past decade, the quest for Tamileelam continues to be referred to as the “struggle” by all Tamils, including the Diaspora.

The crucial message from the air raid: yes times are challenging, but Tamils never expected it to be easy. Thus, whatever trials may come, the struggle will subsist until the people’s right to self-determination is realised.