Analyzing the Prabhakaran Factor..!

Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. PhD

Velupillai Prabhakaran (1954–2009) was the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and he launched a destructive proxy war against the Sri Lankan government for over nearly three decades. Prabhakaran was the most lethal and cataclysmic force experienced by the Sri Lankan state in recent history. For many years, he was able to continue his ferocious attacks against the people and the state of Sri Lanka. Following these aggressions, over 100,000 lives were lost, and millions of dollars’ worth of property were destroyed.

His roll as a Trauma Creator.

Prabhakaran permanently changed the Sri Lankan political landscape and created a collective trauma among people. He became the public enemy number one in the South. Furthermore, he turned the rich Tamil values that are flourished with the doctrine of Hinduism and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi into a totalitarian cyanide culture. Although Prabhakaran was considered a megalomaniac or a mass murderer in the South among his followers, they used to worship him as a demigod.

They hailed him as a hero, a messiah, or a deliverer. Some compared him to the ancient Tamil warrior Sagkillian, who fought against the Portuguese. According to them, Prabhakaran was the person who brought respect and identity to the Tamil people. He had been recognized de facto as the sole representative of the Sri Lankan Tamils, despite the fact that he had eliminated thousands of Tamils, including intellectuals like Dr. Rajini Theranagama, Dr. Nelan Theruchelvam, Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar, PC, etc. Some of his blind followers still believe that Prabhakaran is alive and is secretly living in Eritrea.  

As a Killer.

Prabhakaran committed high-profile killings. He was directly involved in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India. Also, under his orders, Ranasinghe Premadasa, the 3rd President of Sri Lanka, was killed. Moreover, he violated local and international laws, killing statesmen, ministers, and civilians. Also, he was accused by the United Nations of nonstop child conscription. His involvement in human rights abuses was seriously questioned by the West. However, his alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity were not taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Upon his death in 2009, he got away with war crime charges. 

Although Prabhakaran was a destructive force, he had military capabilities and organizational skills and knew how to motivate people and convert them into diehard fighters and suicide bombers. His leadership qualities were exceptional. His cadres feared and respected him. He was a tactician and had remarkable skills in the military operations. He launched a number of attacks against the Sri Lankan forces, sometimes overrunning military camps. Furthermore, he was a lethal force that kept fighting for nearly three decades. Even the Indian Army, which is the second largest in the world after China and has over 1.4 million active troops, could not defeat him. One time, he was invincible. 

His Immense Killing Machine.

His war machine faced a number of experienced military commanders. Was he a military genius or a skilled tactician? Some say he followed the war tactics of the great Vietnam General Vo Nguyen Giap, who launched massive attacks against the American forces. 

According to Narayan Swamy.

In his book “Inside an Elusive Mind, Prabhakaran M.R. Narayan Swamy describes him as the world’s most ruthless guerrilla leader. Moreover, M.R. Narayan Swamy highlights some of Prabhakaran’s personality traits. According to M.R. Narayan Swamy, these personalities and psychological features transformed Prabhakaran into a remorseless, unsympathetic, and vindictive person. However, in my opinion, M.R. Narayan Swamy had not gone deep enough inside Prabhakaran’s inner psyche to analyze his behavior and personality traits. 

Indeed, (according to his assumptions), Prabhakaran had valid reasons to start his vicious military campaigns against the Sinhalese and the Sri Lankan government. As a child, he observed Sinhala nationalism and ethnic riots against innocent Tamil civilians. These events created a blazing hatred for the Sinhalese nation. 

Once, when I delivered a lecture on war trauma in Sri Lanka at Washburn University in Kansas, USA, in 2006, one of the professors asked me a direct question. He asked me whether the Prabhakaran factor was created by Sinhala–Buddhist Chauvinism. According to Professor Daya Somasundaram of the University of Jaffna, Tamil militancy was a creation of the Sri Lankan State and armed forces (Page 56: Scarred Minds by Daya Somasundaram). Perhaps these statements do not validate the rising of the Prabhakaran factor. There were other certain personality traits that made the former LTTE leader a ruthless killing machine. His remorseless, die-hard personality made him one of the most callous paramilitary leaders in recent history. 

The Fate of PLOT and TELO Leaders

Undeniably, specific personality factors contributed to Prabhakaran’s character and his destructive nature. Along with Prabhakaran, other Tamil militants like Sri Sabarathnam (Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) leader) and Uma Maheswaran (People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) leader) launched attacks against the Sri Lankan security forces. 

The other two leaders were more moderate, and they had no strong prejudice or racial hatred towards Sinhalese people. They were more educated than Prabhakaran. The PLOTE leader, Uma Maheswaran, had Marxist ideas, and he was willing to collaborate with the Sinhalese people who respected the right of nations to self-determination. But Prabhakaran was an uncompromising nationalist. He condemned Uma Maheswaran and Sri Sabarathnam and later killed them. 

Prabhakaran was unschooled and a dropout. His school education was limited to year 10. Some of Prabhakaran’s contemporaries indicate that he had a dislike and resentment towards educated people. He had feelings of inadequacy and inferiority when he dealt with educated people. He refuted a number of Tamil intellectuals and even went to the extent of physically eliminating them. Prabhakaran disrupted the school education of thousands of children and sometimes forcibly conscripted them to his baby brigade. 

The Dual Nature of Such People.

Dr. Gustavo Gilbert, a renowned American psychologist, analyzed some of the Nazi leaders, like Hermann Göring and the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, during the Nuremberg trial. Dr. Gilbert found an explicit factor that was specific to the Nazis. He identified that the Nazis had a low level of empathy. Also, they had some kind of dual nature. In their private lives, they loved their wives and kids, but when the savage side came into action, they could kill tens of thousands of women and children in gas chambers. There are marked personality traits that were characteristic of Prabhakaran. 

At school, Prabhakaran was mediocre. He was struggling and falling behind in school. He continuously had learning difficulties. Furthermore, he displayed cruelty toward animals, especially cats, squirrels, and birds. Also, he practiced unusual pain-inducing rituals like pricking himself with needles and sleeping in gunny bags with chili powder. These show sadistic and masochistic instincts, which he displayed during the adolescent period.

As a child, Prabhakaran had an inclination towards violence. He hardly obeyed the social rules. Sometimes he used to steal chemicals from the school laboratory to make primitive bombs. On several occasions, he ran away from home and stayed with his relatives. At the age of 16, he set fire to a bus that belonged to the Ceylon Transport Board. At a certain point, young Prabhakaran was uncontrollable to his parents. His adolescent spitefulness and vindictiveness later turned into mass social aggression. 

Aggressive Behavior.

It is possible to believe that young Prabhakaran suffered from conduct disorder. As described by Fairchild and colleagues (2019), conduct disorder (CD) is a common and highly impairing psychiatric disorder that usually emerges in childhood or adolescence and is characterized by severe antisocial and aggressive behavior. Conduct disorder usually emerges in childhood or adolescence and lies on a spectrum of disruptive behavioral disorders. Conduct disorder demonstrates aggression and violations of the rights of others and evolves over time.  Often, they have repetitive and persistent antisocial behaviors. 

However, there was another side to Prabhakaran. He was a loving father and a cordial person to his personal friends. Anita Pratap, who is an Indian writer and journalist, met Prabhakaran in person and describes him as a charismatic and charming person. In 2003, I interviewed Karate Grand Master Shihan Bonnie Roberts, who met Prabhakaran in Vanni. Mr. Bonnie Roberts stated that Prabhakaran was a friendly and warm person. Nevertheless, his warmth never extended to Sinhalese people.

During his childhood, Prabhakaran frequently heard horrendous stories about the Sinhalese people and their atrocities committed against Tamil people. During the 1958 communal riots, Prabhakaran was a four-year-old child. He heard many stories that revealed brutalities unleashed by Sinhalese people against the Tamil people. During that era, such stories were often fabricated and exaggerated by both parties in order to arouse national feelings. As a child, Prabhakaran often heard these stories, and naturally he developed an animosity against the Sinhalese people. 

Experiences of His Young Age.

Young Prabhakaran had a private tutor, and he was an ultranationalist. This tutor became one of the most influential men of his life, and he injected racial venom into young Prabhakaran. Prabhakar grasped many ideas and racial prejudices from this tutor. 

Another unconfirmed story (told to me by Capt. Amith of the Military Intelligence Corps – Sri Lanka) describes how seven-year-old Prabhakaran witnessed one of his uncles being savagely beaten by a police constable in Jaffna. I think this story has some credibility. During the fifties and sixties, even in the seventies, many policemen who went to serve in Jaffna went with wrath and discontentment. Many police officers were sent to the North following disciplinary issues. Those who went to Jaffna following punishment transfers. These people suffered from severe work-related stress. Their anger and frustration were often focused on the civilians living in the Northern peninsula. Unlike in the South, the police brutality was interpreted in racial terms. 

His birthplace, VVT, or Valvettithurai, was famous for illicit smuggling. This village was often raided by the Sri Lanka Police and the Navy. The first Sinhalese people Prabhakaran saw were these law enforcement officers. Little Prabhakaran became emotionally shattered when he heard about the killing of a poosari in Panadura during the 1958 anti-Tamil riots. This event was described in Malith Jayathilaka’s book titled Alimankada as well. The poosari was savagely beaten and burnt alive by the mob.

In his childhood image, the Sinhalese people were brutal, disrespectful to the Tamil people and their culture, and violent by nature. He believed that the majority Sinhalese were constantly tormenting the Tamil people. He wanted to take revenge someday, and he was determined. He wanted to create a brutal, violent force to fight against the Sinhalese.

The Cast System in Jaffna.

Certainly, there were a number of atrocities committed against the Tamil people by some Sinhalese factions. Most of them were politically motivated. These atrocities were not accepted by the peace-loving Sinhalese majority, and they condemn such attacks. Even during the 1983 communal riots, many Sinhalese families protected their Tamil neighbors from mob attacks. Professor Rajan Hoole describes the 1983 communal riots as well-planned, politically organized terror against Tamil civilians. According to him, it was not a racial attack due to the high emotions of the Sinhalese public. The burning of the Jaffna Public Library in 1981 was a form of cultural attack against the Tamil people. This malicious act was orchestrated by a group of politicians, and the blame went to the Sinhalese people. 

Prabhakaran was a victim of caste discrimination. social exclusion, stigmatization, and marginalization by the high-caste Tamils made him indignant. Prabhakaran belonged to the fishing (Karayer) caste. The caste system was very much authoritative in Jaffna, and the people of the Karayer caste could not freely move with the high-caste Vellalar Tamils. As a matter of fact, Prabhakaran and his family suffered caste oppression, and it created insecurity, low self-esteem, and an inferiority complex in him. Moreover, he had anger and resentment towards high-caste Vellalar Tamils.

His attacks against Vellalar Tamils were less discussed. His first victim, Alfred Thangarajah Duraiappah, the mayor of Jaffna, was a well-respected high-caste Vellalar Tamil. He demanded respect from the Vellalar Tamils, and once he kidnapped a Vellalar girl. This girl, Mathivathani Erambu, later became his wife. Moreover, he arranged Vellalar brides for his lieutenants, such as S. P. Thamilselvan, who belonged to the Ambattan caste. The Ambattans are the Tamil barbers. (S. P. Thamilselvan was the leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).

The Failure of Bastianpillai.

Prabhakaran became a fugitive in 1975 after killing the mayor of Jaffna. In 1976, he was charged with a bank robbery. Prabhakaran closely associated with many outlaws, like Sivakumar, Kuttumani, Sellakelli, etc. But he had his own uniqueness.

From 1972 to 1978, Police Officer Bastianpillai was behind Prabhakaran. He was determined to arrest Prabhakaran and put him behind bars. But many times, he failed. The main reason for the failure was that Inspector Bastianpillai thought Prabhakaran was a conventional criminal. But he was more than a conventional criminal, even in his early years. He was different from other Tamil outlaws. The authorities were able to arrest his associates, but they could not track Prabhakaran.

Prabhakaran never had any constant, sincere friends. Over the years, he was close to Gopalaswamy Mahendraraja, aka Mahattaya, and Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, alias “Karuna Ammaan.” Later, he disliked and suspected them, and both became his enemies. Prabhakaran killed Gopalaswamy Mahendraraja. However, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan was able to escape from Prabhakaran’s deadly claws.

For Prabhakaran, friendship had no meaning. He was manipulative and used people for his own gain. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President Premadasa underestimated his manipulative nature. They thought he was genuine. But they made a fatal mistake. 

Raheem as a close member of Prabhakaran.

The former LTTE member Srikumar Selvarajah Kanagaratnam, Raheem, was with Prabhakaran from 1983 to 1990. According to Srikumar Selvarajah Kanagaratnam, Prabhakaran was a religious person but not a religious extremist, and he worshiped the Lord Muruga. Once Prabhakaran went to Palani Murugan Temple in Tamil Nadu to prove a pledge. Selvarajah Kanagaratnam further says that Prabhakaran was a teetotaler and never even drank tea or coffee. He was soft-spoken and never went into a rage throwing tantrums. Srikumar Selvarajah Kanagaratnam once saw Prabhakaran shedding tears while resolving an internal dispute. He was a sensitive person, says the former LTTE member who is now living in Canada.

 Prabhakaran admired Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Mao Zedong, and the freedom fighters of the Indian struggle, mainly Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh. However, Prabhakaran never had any specific political ideology or vision. The LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham Stanislaus was a Marxist. But Prabhakaran had no deep knowledge of Marxism or Leninism. His religion and ideology were Tamil ultranationalism. 

Prabhakaran had a deep mortal fascination with torture, and he often used torture to eliminate his enemies. Pottu Amman (Shanmugalingam Sivashankar), LTTE’s intelligence chief, was Prabhakaran’s personal instrument of terror. Pottu Amman’s role could be described as that of the SS chief, Heinrich Himmler, or Lavrentiy Beria of the NKVD. According to an eyewitness’s testimony, Prabhakaran had a torture house in Devipuram village, Kilinochchi, in Northern Sri Lanka. Whoever went to Devipuram Torture House endured unimaginable torture and was finally driven to death. Torture had become a method of political control for the LTTE.

According to Mr. Dixit About Prabhakaran.

Prabhakaran had an ultimate fantasy in his mind. He wanted to create a Great Chola Empire. (The Chola Tamil dynasty originated from southern India and at its peak achieved imperialism under the Medieval Cholas in the mid-9th century CE.). This may have looked absurd, but his inner mind was geared towards this fantasy. Mr. J. N. Dixit, former Indian High Commissioner, has also described this fantasy in his book “Assignment Colombo. Prabhakaran closely interacted with Hindu mythology. Unconsciously, he wished to be the Great Destroyer and the Great Creator. Prabhakaran’s inner fantasies had caused severe human trauma. As a result of three decades of armed conflict, many had lost their lives, and a large number are suffering from various physical and psychological ailments, especially PTSD.

The paradoxical feature of Prabhakaran’s character was fear of death. The Tamil poet Archives Kasi Ananthan stated that Prabhakaran had extreme fears of his death. (Inside an Illusive Mind Prabhakaran by Narayan Swami). He felt anxious about death from time to time. Following “death anxiety,” Prabhakaran took drastic measures to strengthen his security. Even the Indian Army could not reach him. However, he experienced negative emotional reactions in his mortality, which forced him to eliminate his opponents.

Divine Power.

Some followers of Prabhakaran thought that he had some sort of divine guidance and some sort of divine power. This was a part of Cult Prabhakaran and the veneration by his supporters. The suggestibility was very high among his followers. They blindly contributed to his fantasy. His fantasy of Greater Eelam” encompasses Tamil Nadu and the other South Indian states (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala). It’s interesting to know that the dictators like Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, etc., had fantasies too. Pol Pot wanted to take Cambodia to the ancient Angkor Civilization via killing fields. Saddam Hussain believed that he was the reincarnation of King Nebukad Nazar. This nostalgia caused the deaths of tens of thousands. Similarly, Prabhakaran’s Great Chola fantasy caused a lot of deaths and chaos.

The End of Prabhakaran.

Prabhakaran created a cult of personality that glorified violence and death. He created the Black Tigers, who were motivated to kill and get killed. He used children as young as 10 to kill and inflict torture, becoming the world’s most ruthless terrorist leader. In the latter stages he was overconfident and thought that he was invincible. With such a pompous attitude, he closed Mavil Aru’ sluice gates in July 2006, depriving over 15,000 farmers of water. It was the beginning of his downfall. The Prabhakaran saga ended in May 2009 in the Nanthikadal lagoon. According to General Kamal Gunarathna, Prabhakaran was killed by a senior NCO of the 4th Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment. However, the former LTTE member Srikumar Selvarajah Kanagaratnam (Raheem) believes that in the final moment, when he realized that there was no escape, Prabhakaran shot himself.

Interviews

1.     Interview with the Late Lt. Col Thuwan Meedeen Military Intelligence Unit Sri Lanka Army 2002/ 2005

 2.     Interviews with Lance Corporal PS (Former POW for more than 5 years)

 3.     Interview with Mr. Jayalath -POW and a civil worker attached to the Poonariyn Camp

 4.     Interview with Major P Military Intelligence Unit Sri Lanka Army

 5.     Lt Gen Gerry De Silva – Former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army

 6.     Ravi De Siva – Undergraduate Rochester University USA –

 7.     2 Interviews with Mr. X – Former member of the LTTE

 8.     Interview with Mr. R – Member of the LTTE

 9.     The former LTTE member Srikumar Selvarajah Kanagaratnam aka Raheem

 10. Corporal Th Member LLRP Special Forces

 11. Lt Col Sarath Embawa Special Forces Sri Lanka Army

 12. Re Fr A – LTTE Sympathizer from Mulangavil Killinochi

 13. Brigadier Roshan Silva – Director Infantry Sri Lanka Army

 14. Brigadier K. H Thammita

 15. Brigadier D.S.G Kempetiya

 16. Maj. General Wajira Wijegunawardana Former Commander of the East

 17. Maj General Sunil Thenakoon Former Commander of the North

 18. Dr. Jayalath Jayawardana M.P

 19. Mr. Bonny Roberts – Who met Prabhakaran in 2005

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Selma Fraiberg (1982) Pathological Defenses in Infancy. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 51:612- 635.Sigmund Freud (1930) Civilization and its Discontents. 

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Ruwan Jayatunge

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