LTTE’s eastern commander, known as ‘Colonel Karuna’, leads a split in the LTTE movement and goes underground with his supporters.

Sources
5,000 rally for breakaway Tiger, BBC, 19 March 2004; Sri Lanka’s bad moon keeps rising, Asia Times, 7 April 2004; Tiger vs Tiger, DBS Jeyaraj, Frontline, 9 April 2004.

Quotations

“[Karuna betrayed] the freedom struggle. To safeguard our nation and our people, it has been decided to get rid of Karuna from our soil. Anybody who opposes disciplinary action against Karuna will be considered as a traitor to the Tamil national cause,” LTTE statement, 25 March 2004.

“Karuna, who spent 22 years in the Tigers, said he broke with Prabhakaran in a dispute over Norwegian-brokered peace talks. Karuna thought there was a good deal on the table but Prabhakaran wanted to restart the war, he said. So Karuna announced he was leaving. “[Prabhakaran] got angry with me, but he’s a very angry person. I told him, ‘I don’t want to fight with you, we are brothers and sisters’,” Colonel Karuna, interview published in Inside Sri Lanka: Your cash going to arms, say ex-rebels, 22 September 2008.

“In March 2004, then LTTE’s eastern commander, Colonel Karuna, split from the LTTE protesting against alleged discrimination of the eastern Tamils by the Tiger’s northern leadership. The LTTE, on the other hand, alleged that Col. Karuna was forced to quit as he was involved in corruption and violated the Tiger’s code of conduct. Sri Lanka’s United National Party leaders claimed credit for successfully engineering the most serious split in the LTTE.” Asian Centre for Human Rights, Proposed Sri Lankan Peace talks: The Karuna Factor, 11 October 2006

“The military balance between Karuna and the mainstream LTTE is quite interesting and precariously fluid. In recent times, the Eastern component comprising Batticaloa and Amparai has become almost indispensable to the LTTE. The cadre strength of the LTTE is about 25,000 now. Of these, around 7,000 are either seniors whose fighting days are over, or injured and maimed fighters who cannot engage in active fighting now. This leaves about 18,000 fighters, including men and women. About 7,500 of them are from Batticaloa and Amparai districts. The region has become the provider of the largest segment of Tiger cadre in recent times. More than 2,000 cadre were recruited or conscripted from the Eastern region after the ceasefire came into force. The rest of the North-East could swell their numbers by only 500 to 600 during the ceasefire …

“If the Karuna crisis had erupted during a time of war as in the case of Mahatiya, the Tigers could have swiftly decimated the “offenders”. The former LTTE deputy leader, Gopalaswamy Mahendrarajah alias Mahatiya, was arrested along with around 250 of his suspected supporters on charges of treason on July 31, 1993. He was detained, tortured and interrogated by the Tiger intelligence wing, led by Pottu Amman, at an undisclosed location. A confession of guilt was forcibly extracted, filmed and shown on video to Tiger cadre. Thereafter Mahatiya was executed. So too were many of his one-time bodyguards and supporters. Several hundreds of suspected Mahatiya confidants were detained for prolonged periods and released. The LTTE was purged of all alleged pro-Mahatiya elements.” DBS Jeyaraj, Frontline, 9 April 2004.

Related events
Colonel Karuna’ becomes Member of Parliament
Karuna Amman arrested by British authorities
TMVP (formerly ‘Karuna faction’), wins control of the Eastern Provincial government
Karuna arrested by British authorities
UN Secretary-General recommends “targeted measures” against LTTE and Karuna faction