LTTE as a freedom movement In defence of the inalienable rights of the Tamil people, the LTTE has been fighting an armed struggle against the alien domination of the Sinhala state. As an organization committed to the principle of self-determination and engaged in a politico-military struggle over a lengthy period, the LTTE has earned the status of a national liberation movement. Having emerged in the early seventies and having struggled for over two decades to win the political rights of the Tamil people, the LTTE enjoys widespread popular support in Tamil Eelam and among the international Tamil community. It is an undeniable fact that the LTTE 's liberation struggle to assert the right to self-determination of the Tamil people has been instrumental for the internationalization of the Tamil problem . Sri lanka's often repeated thesis that the Tamil Tigers are a small band of armed rebels engaging in terrorism and are alienated from the people is baseless propaganda. The very fact that the LTTE has a military and political history extending over a period of 25 years provides ample evidence that the organization enjoys mass support. History has noted that guerrilla movements committed to armed liberation struggles could not have survived without the support and sustenance of the people. The longevity of its existence, its ability to conduct a consistent and sustained armed struggle against formidable military forces (including the Indian army), its capacity to mobilize and organize popular masses for political action, demonstrate the fact that the LTTE enjoys the status of a national freedom movement, with massive popular backing. The LTTE has a standing army, a national liberation force consisting of several thousands of freedom fighters, a capable and responsible command structure, military training facilities, modern weapon systems, vast territories under its administrative control and has the potential and efficiency to engage the Sri lanka armed forces in conventional mode of warfare. The LTTE has a political section with social, economic, educational and cultural organizations and civil administrative units and a law and order system. The structure of the LTTE is complex and multi-faceted and orientated towards conducting an effective armed resistance and political struggle and at the sametime, maintaining a well organized administrative system. Furthermore, the LTTE has a massive international networks operating in several world capitals. Sri Lanka has consistently refused to recognize the fact that the LTTE is a liberation movement involved in the freedom struggle of the Tamils. Such a recognition would entail the acceptance of the Tamil struggle as a national liberation struggle. One cannot expect an admission of truth from a racist state which has for decades continued to violate, abuse, and prevent the course of justice to the Tamils; a repressive state that has always used its powerful propaganda machinery to distort, misrepresent and belittle the Tamil freedom movement. In the racist perception of Sri lanka, the LTTE has always been a terrorist organization and the liberation war of the Tamils a terrorist war. Though Sri Lanka has taken such an extremist stand and condemned the LTTE in unholy terms, there have been several occasions when the Sinhala leadership had no choice but to enter into a negotiations process with the Tamil Tigers recognizing the fact that the LTTE is the dominant politico-military force of the Tamils. Sri Lanka entered into negotiations with the LTTE in Thimphu, Delhi, Bangalore, Colombo and more recently in Jaffna. Entering into negotiations with the LTTE entails implicit recognition that the Tamil Tigers constituted a representative organization of the Tamils. Though this status was accorded to the LTTE during political dialogues, it was abruptly negated when the talks broke down and the LTTE was branded as a terrorist organization. The international community should take note of this rather strange and bizarre attitude of Sri Lanka which can shift its policy to conflicting positions in considering the LTTE as a people's organization during the times of peace and a terrorist organization during the times of war.