Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil: தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள் Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, Sinhalese: දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි Dhemala īlām vimukthi koti, commonly known as the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers) was a militant organisation that was based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a secessionist nationalist insurgency to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for Tamil people. This campaign led to the Sri Lankan Civil War, which ran from 1983 until 2009, when the LTTE was defeated by the Sri Lankan Military during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Due to its military victories, policies, call for national self-determination and constructive Tamil Nationalist platform the LTTE was supported by major sections of the Tamil community.University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) claimed that "by combination of internal terror and narrow nationalist ideology the LTTE succeeded in atomizing the community. It took away not only the right to oppose but even the right to evaluate, as a community, the course they were taking. This gives a semblance of illusion that the whole society is behind the LTTE."