Last modified: 2013-02-23 by ian macdonald
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The flag is red with a golden rising sun with nine sunrays.
Željko Heimer, 15 May 1996
According to http://www.eelamweb.com/flag/, the Tamil Tiger flag is the national flag of Tamil Eelam. It was adopted on 27 November 1990, the second national heroes day. The tiger was chosen by the Tamil Tiger leader as the national symbol because of it's historically deep roots in Dravida civilisation. It was chosen to illustrate the heroism of Tamils. The tiger also symbolises the characteristics desired in the freedom fighters of the Tamil Tiger movement, that is bravery, fearless heroism, an ambitioin of freedom, agility and aggression.
The yellow in the flag was is seen as reflecting the belief that the fight for liberation and self-government is based on humanity and human honesty. The red colour stands for equality, fairness and social justice - the ideal complete liberation of the Tamil people beyond self-government. The black in the flag stresses the death, destruction and other hardships involved in the fight for freedom.
In the centre of the flag, the freedom struggle is compared with a jumping tiger, with the head and legs of a tiger representing aggressiveness, and the surrounding rounds of ammunition and knives express that the freedom struggle is armed.
Collected by Dov Gutterman, 7 July 2000
Summarised by Jonathan Dixon
An extensive article about the Tamil Tiger
flag is carried on
the Asian Tribune, dated 15 January [2006].
Ron Lahav, 27 January 2006
Some salient points from the article in the Asian Tribune include:
Ian MacDonald, 15 March 2006
The LTTE is organized into three main divisions, namely, a military wing,
political wing and the fund-raising wing. A central governing body oversees all
of the above divisions. The military wing contains the following specific
subdivisions, which are directly controlled and directed by the central
governing body:
Sea Tigers (image of logo at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Tigers) - an amphibious warfare unit
focusing on utilization of naval firepower and logistics, mainly consisting of
lightweight boats.
Air Tigers (also known as Sky Tigers, or Tamileelam Air
Force, TAF) (image of logo at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Tigers) - an airborne group, consisting of
several lightweight aircraft. It is known to be the world's first air force
controlled by an organization proscribed as terrorists.
Black Tigers (no flag
reported yet)
hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTTE_Black_Tiger - a suicide commando unit.
An intelligence wing (no flag reported yet).br>A political wing (no flag
reported yet).
Other LTTE Formations:
- Charles Anthony Brigade (
hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Anthony_Brigade) named after Charles
Anthony, alias 'Col. Seelan' (this was the first LTTE conventional military
fighting unit, established in 10 April 1991).
- eyanthan Brigade (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeyanthan_Brigade), named after Sampukuddi
Pathmanthan, alias ' Ct. Jeyanthan'.
- Women's Military Wing
(also known as Sothiya Regiment. Made up by the Major
Sothiya Brigade (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ta/1/19/LTTE_Major_Sothiya_Women_Commando_Unit.jpg)
and the Kutti Sri Mortar Brigade (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ta/0/0f/LTTE_Kutti_Shirri_Motor_Regiment.jpg).
There's a flag of the Sothiya Regiment (all female fighter group), of the LTTE
The flag of the Sothiya Regiment is found here at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Women_at_war.jpg. There's also another
picture of another flag at
http://sangam.org/taraki/articles/2006/04-10_Freedom_Fighters.php?uid=1642
(this may be a Company within the Regiment). The Sothiya Regiment is named after
Maria Vasanthi Michael, alias 'Sothiya or Sothia' (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Sothiya#Maria_Vasanthi_Michael)
-
Maalathi Regiment (no flag reported yet), named after alias '2nd Lt. Maalathi'.
- Victor Anti Tank and Armoured Unit. Source:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ta/7/77/LTTE_Vicotor_Anti_Tank_Battilion.jpg,
named after Mr. Marcelin Fuselus, alias 'Victor'.
- Imran-Pandiyan Unit LTTE
Anti-Aircraft Unit, named after alias 'Imran' and alias 'Pandiyan', two trusted
bodyguards of the LTTE's top commander, Velupillai Prabhakaran alias 'Thambi'.
- Kittu Artillery Unit, named after Sathasivam Krishnakumar, alias 'Col.
Kittu'
- Ponnamman Mining Unit (no flag reported yet), named after Yogaratnam
Kugan, alias ' Col. Ponnamman'.
- Ratha Regiment (no flag reported yet),
named after alias 'Lt. Col. Ratha'
- Civilian Support Unit (not reported on
Wikipedia) (image of logo at
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ta/f/fc/LTTE_Civilian_Support_Unit.jpg.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTTE and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_Tigers_of_Tamil_Eelam#Other_LTTE_Formations.
Esteban Rivera, 13 March 2009
image by Eugene Ipavec, 14 March 2009
image by Eugene Ipavec, 14 March 2009
image by Miles Li, 4 June 2009
The Sea Tigers were the navy of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers), which has recently
been officially defeated by the Sri Lankan military. Badge based on
http://aruchuna.net/details.php?image_id=1211.
Note that this flag has a sinister hoist (the writings are displayed correctly
on the reverse side only), for unknown reason. Also note that this flag was
intended to complement, rather than to replace, the red LTTE flag on Sea Tigers
boats.
Miles Li, 4 June 2009
There's a picture at
http://aruchuna.net/details.php?image_id=1227 showing an LTTE Sea Tiger boat
with the red flag as mentioned by Miles, to show that one or the other flag are
hoisted on these boats.
Esteban Rivera, 4 June 2009
There was a photo yesterday on Reuters, but it's gone now. It was of a road
in Sri Lanka lined with flags in the Tamil colors twice as wide as long, red
over yellow, commemorating the anniversary of the first Tamil Tiger suicide
bombing. The flagpoles were also painted in these colors banded - I wonder if
this flagpole coloring is unique. I'm not sure if some might count these as
banners or something - I don't know their official status - but they certainly
flew as flags.
Richard Knipel, 6 July 2004
image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 14 January 2008
At http://www.plote.org/ one sees the
organisation's flag, a red over black bicolour with a yellow 5 pointed star on
the red part in the fly. At
http://www.tamiltigers.net/othergroups.html one find a short description of
PLOTE and other dissident Tamil Eelam groups, which no doubt might be
vexillologically interesting.
Knut A. Berg, 3 April 2006
image by Eugene Ipavec, 14 March 2009
I found another symbol for this group, PLOTE. I am not sure if
it's another flag or just the coat of arms on an accidentally light blue background
that just so happens to have a rectangular shape, thus looking like a flag.
Esteban Rivera, 13 March 2009
image by Eugene Ipavec, 24 November 2007/p>
Horizontally divided medium-red/white/green, with a darker-red seal in the center, covering maybe 80% of the white stripe. Can also be seen at the bottom of http://www.telo.org; a plain tricolor is also shown in the header:
image by Eugene Ipavec, 24 November 2007
image adapted by Eugene Ipavec from BBC website, 11 March 2008
There's an article on BBC News reporting the existence of a breakaway faction
within the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), which is called the
Tamileela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal party (TMVP) which "is made up of former
Tamil Tiger rebels, and they have not laid down their arms."
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7286378.stm
So far the logo has been located at
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk, and there's some background info as well at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TamilEela_Makkal_Viduthalai_Pulikal. I believe
the flag is all yellow background with logo on the middle, but his is not
confirmed.
Esteban Rivera, 10 March 2008
There is a photomontage, which seemingly shows the flag on
this image in context at
http://www.asiantribune.com.
Ned Smith, 12 March 2008
image by Eugene Ipavec, 14 March 2009
The flag is very approximate but I believe that it has a narrow vertical
green stripe at hoist and a narrow vertical red stripe at fly according to the
attached image.
Esteban Rivera, 12 March 2008
image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 14 January 2008
At
http://www.epdpnews.com/Photos/FLAG/FLAG3.jpg is what seems to be the flag
of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party. More info about this Tamil party at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eelam_People%27s_Democratic_Party.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 14 January 2008
Flag of the EROS (Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students) proscribed as terrorist and affiliated to the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).
Source:
http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news%5C2007%5C11%5C21318_image_headline.html
(published on Sunday, 11 November 2007)
eriveravelez, 26 January
2013