Between Coercion and Representation: Exploring Variation in Support Relations between Tamil Civilians and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)


Abstract


This article explores the multi-faceted, contextual, and ambivalent character of support relations between the LTTE and Tamil civilians. It demonstrates how distinct support patterns emerge from particular power constellations and manifestations of violence in the localities where respondents lived and interacted with the LTTE. The social ties between respondents whose political socialization was shaped by the escalation of the conflict and who, later, lived in government controlled areas were predominately based on a sense of political representation and characterized by subtle notions of socio-spatial distance; by contrast, for interviewees living in militarily contested zones, fear and coercion but also affective connections to LTTE members played a crucial role in their interactions with and orientations towards the LTTE. Lastly, in LTTE controlled areas, notions of support oscillated between perceptions of effective service provision and fear of recruitment.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v15i1p157

Keywords: civil war; political violence; rebel governance; Sri Lanka; support relations; armed group

References


Arjona, A. (2014), “Wartime Institutions: A Research Agenda”, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 58 (8): 1360–89.

Arjona, A. (2016), Rebelocracy: Social Order in the Colombian Civil War, Cambridge: University Press.

Arjona, A. (2017), “Civilian Cooperation and Non-Cooperation with Non-State Armed Groups: The Centrality of Obedience and Resistance”, Small Wars & Insurgencies, 28 (4–5): 755–78.

Auyero, J. (1999), “Re-Membering Peronism: An Ethnographic Account of the Relational Character of Political Memory”, Qualitative Sociology, 22 (4): 331–51.

Barter, S. J. (2014), Civilian Strategy in Civil War: Insights from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Blee, K. M. (2003), Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Boyden, J. (2007), “Of Tigers, Ghosts and Snakes: Children's Social Cognition in the Context of Conflict in Eastern Sri Lanka”, Oxford: Queen Elizabeth House Working Papers.

Bosi, L., N. Ò Dochartaigh, and D. Pisoiu (2015), Political Violence in Context: Time, Space and Milieu, Colchester: ECPR Press.

Brun, C. (2008), “BIRDS OF FREEDOM: Young People, the LTTE, and Representations of Gender, Nationalism, and Governance in Northern Sri Lanka”, Critical Asian Studies, 40 (3): 399–422.

Collins, R. (2008), Violence: A Micro-Sociological Theory, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Fujii, L. A. (2008), “The Power of Local Ties: Popular Participation in the Rwandan Genocide”, Security Studies, 17 (3): 568–97.

Harendra de Silva, D. G. (2013), “The Use of Child Soldiers in War with Special Reference to Sri Lanka”, Paediatrics and International Child Health, 33 (4): 273–80.

Kalyvas, S. N. (2006), The Logic of Violence in Civil War, Cambridge: University Press.

Klem, B., and S. Maunaguru (2017), “Insurgent Rule as Sovereign Mimicry and Mutation: Governance, Kingship, and Violence in Civil Wars”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 59 (3): 629–56.

Lilja, J. (2009), “Trapping Constituents or Winning Hearts and Minds? Rebel Strategies to Attain Constituent Support in Sri Lanka”, Terrorism and Political Violence, 21 (2): 306–26.

Lubkemann, S. C. (2005), “Migratory Coping in Wartime Mozambique: An Anthropology of Violence and Displacement in ‘Fragmented Wars’”, Journal of Peace Research, 42 (4): 493–508.

Malthaner, S. (2011), Mobilizing the Faithful: Militant Islamist Groups and Their Constituencies, Frankfurt am Main: Campus-Verlag.

Malthaner, S. (2015), “Violence, Legitimacy, and Control: The Microdynamics of Support Relationships between Militant Groups and Their Social Environment”, Civil Wars, 17 (4): 425–45.

Mampilly, Z. C. (2011), Rebel Rulers, Cornell: University Press.

Miriyagalla, D. (2014), “Socio-Economic Reintegration of Former LTTE Combatants in Sri Lanka: Self-Employment, Sustainable Incomes and Long-Term Peace”, Global Change, Peace & Security, 26 (3): 251–62.

Petersen, R. D. (2001), Resistance and Rebellion: Lessons from Eastern Europe, Cambridge: University Press.

Sarvananthan, M. (2007), “In Pursuit of a Mythical State of Tamil Eelam: A Rejoinder to Kristian Stokke”, Third World Quarterly, 28 (6): 1185–95.

Schlichte, K. (2009), In the Shadow of Violence: The Politics of Armed Groups, Frankfurt am Main: Campus-Verlag.

Schlichte, K. and U. Schneckener (2015), “Armed Groups and the Politics of Legitimacy”, Civil Wars, 17 (4): 409–24.

Sivakumar, C. (1989), “Social Origins of the Sri Lankan Tamils’ Militant Movement”, Sociological Bulletin, 38 (1): 119–39.

Stokke, K. (2006), “Building the Tamil Eelam State: Emerging State Institutions and Forms of Governance in LTTE-Controlled Areas in Sri Lanka”, Third World Quarterly, 27 (6): 1021–40.

Terpstra, N. and G. Frerks (2017), “Rebel Governance and Legitimacy: Understanding the Impact of Rebel Legitimation on Civilian Compliance with the LTTE Rule”, Civil Wars, 19 (3): 279–307.

Terpstra, N. and G. Frerks (2018), “Governance Practices and Symbolism: De Facto Sovereignty and Public Authority in ‘Tigerland’”, Modern Asian Studies, 52 (3): 1001–42.

Thiranagama, S. (2011), In My Mother’s House: Civil War in Sri Lanka, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Wood, E. J. (2003), Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador, Cambridge: University Press.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.