Is the LTTE a freedom fighter or terrorist? A terrorist is someone who uses violence to achieve his or her goals.

Examples of terrorism are bombing, kidnapping and assassination to intimidate others for political purposes. A freedom fighter is someone who thinks his native ethnic group is not free and is fighting for freedom for his group. It is a relativistic term, which means a person decides by his or her point of view if he call some persons or groups freedom fighters or not. The Tamil minority has been treated unfairly by the government, which is made up of mostly Sinhalese people and favoured the Sinhalese majority more. Thus the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) was formed. Their main objective is to have an independent state because they believe that by doing so; there will be equality for the Tamils. The LTTE, which may have between 7,000 and 15,000-armed combatants (PDF), is notorious for its suicide bombings. Since the late 1980s the group has conducted approximately 200 suicide attacks. The LTTE have invented the suicide belt and pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks. The suicide bombers target places with a large amount of people such as places of worship; airports and they have assassinated a number of high profile people. They are the only organization that has killed two world leaders. They also engage in child abductions and extortion. These children are forcibly taken away from their schools and homes and trained as child soldiers to fight for LTTEs army. The main objective of the LTTE has always been the creation of an independent Tamil homeland, or Tamil Eelam, in the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka. The LTTE use violent actions to achieve political aims. They intimidate people by spreading terror and fear throughout Sri Lanka or the world. The fear and terror they spread is through the kidnapping, killing, mass murder by execution style, child recruitment and suicide bombing activities that they carry out. They are extremists as the actions such as suicide bombing carried out usually occur in a public place with the target surrounded by innocent people. The innocent lives lost are regarded to them as collateral damage, proving to us that they only carry out such activities for personal gains. Using force and killing indiscriminately for own interests makes them a threat to the world. Thus they should be considered as terrorists by al countries in the world. However, all these acts are justified by the LTTE saying that they are doing all these for the discriminated Tamils. One example of the their acts of assassination and attacks is the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at a campaign rally in India in May 1991. Another example is the assassination of Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in May 1993. Thirdly is a pair of suicide bombings in Colombo that wounded Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga in December 1999.

[Amanda: This is all the information I have so far. I hope its ok. You can edit if you want to and add in extra information. Thanks!]