The Suicide Club

Christopher Hazou September 9, 2009 Velupillai Prabhakaran died in May, but the Tamil Tiger leader survives through his most famous innovation: the suicide bomb.

On May 18, cell phones across Sri Lanka flashed with a text message that provoked street celebrations in the capital: Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed by government forces.

Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Prabhakaran had acquired a reputation as a ruthless and resourceful guerrilla commander. Much of that notoriety was due to the suicide-bombing techniques he pioneered in his twenty-six-year quest for an independent Tamil state. His “Black Tiger” cadre—whose members came from mostly Hindu and Christian backgrounds—was the first to use suicide vests, which allowed access to difficult-to-reach targets (including underwater bombings to …

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Summer

ISSUE 36 Summer 2010

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