Littte and Dravid Destiny Tryst as Indonesia 'might expel' refugees and India Denies Tami Refugees CITIZENSHIP. We Bengalies Know Nothing about OUR Kith and KIN.My Niece was in Love with Australia and Now My Son Dotes for Phillipines as GENERATION Next Refugees land in BLACK Hole Infinite!

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time- One Hundred Ninety Two

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/

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We Bengali Scheduled caste Refugees exiled and scattered worldwide, the Original Aboriginal Black Untouchable negroid Clan since Indian Holocaust, are so engaged in the day to day Near Impossible sustenance, that we happen quite unaware of our kith and clan. Tamil refugees from srilanka are Rehabilitated in DANDAKARANYA and AndamanNicobar Islands side by side, but we have no interaction as we have with the Sikh Refugees in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh!Nevertheless,the Ruling Indian, specialy Bengali Hegemony has launched an Intense Hate Campaign targeted to both kinds of Refugees and Maoists do follow suit.I have encountered Maoists in Karnataka alleging that Srilankan and Bangladeshi Illegal Immigrants have Captured everything in Dandakaranya. As we hear in Uttarakhand Hills nowadays that only Sikh and Bengali Immigrants have caused all the Calamities endangering the Hill people. Even after Six decades and ruled by East Bengal rooted Bengali Zamindars like Jyoti Basu and Clan, the West Bengal GHOTI People do continue to calim that only the East Bengal Refugees have destroyed Bengal whereas Bengal has VIRTUALLY Banished us out of Bngla Geopolitics. Bengali largest Circulated Daily ANANDA Bazar Patrika, the mouthpiece of Ruling Manusmriti Apartheid Hegemony and War Economy, justifies in all possible ways the Infinite Persecution of the Bengali as well as Tamil Refugees, though they dare not to club Tibetan and SIKH Refugees with wretched us. The daily Campaigns for National Deportation Drive and writes EDIT supporting DENIAL of Citizenship and Domicile status for us , Bengali as well as Tamil Refugees. We succeeded to have a Joint Front with the SIKHS but we Never joined the Tamil refugees due to the LITTE HYpe!

My father Pulin Babu had an EXTENDED Family and without any Academia base, he had the Vision to understand our ownversion of the TRYST with DESTINY. He was always Live in touch with his kith and clan. I acompanied him, my poor committed father with unbelievable liabilities across the sub Continent until I succeeded to have a Separate ACADEMIA and professional Identity. I visited the Clan Map with him until Isettled in URBAN Hill Station Nainital andengaged myself in Nationality and environment movements with little bit of Journalism and literature on my part. And thus, I had hardly any time to help my father. My Father`s Cousins expired and the DESCENDENTS reside in Bengal and elsewhere , I Never know.It is the same EXPERIENCE with most of us. Since Indian Holocaust, we are SEPARATED.

A resourceful and committed man like Shankar Chakraborti Visisted ANDAMAN with his family spending Rs. 75 Thousand per head in package and he would get REIMBURSEMENT from hisBank. he visited every site in ANDAMAN avoiding the REFUGEE areas. Bengaliesfrom Wset Bengal including Politiciansdo avoid REFUGEE Settlement as the Tamils replicate the same.What if they practice some EXCURSIONS also seeking new and latest VOTE Bank Equations and bases as Ms MAMATA Banerjee pushing very hard to gain mileage in Uttarakhand, UP and all over DANDAKARANYA eying at our solid carrible mobile Vote bank scattered and unrecognised countrywide and she is CONVERTED in Matua without any sympathy or stance for our people.

Normally, we know nothing about our people the Dravid Nationality as whole in NORTH India! Though Aboriginal Indigenous History and legacy lie with the DRAVID population. We have no interest.

I had some interactions with LITTE and Northeast Extremist groups while I was shooting with Joshy Joseph in Manipur, Imaginary lines! They repent that China NEVER supports their Cause aginst the Popular Hype about Proactive Chinese Interest in India. It wasexposed alsoduring Thundering Spring days in SEVENTIES as CHINA did virtually Nothing to oppose the REPRESSION! Just because the Lackof Chinese Help, North east remains as an integral part of Indian Geopolitics despite so intense Multi Dimensional INSURGENCY. They have to live with us and they know it very well.We are PREDESTINED to livetogether in PLURAL India just because of msot neglected and persecuted HIMALAYAN reality and Relationship!

I talked with GONU who is indulged in the HYPE of Shining Sensex India and have very sweet Dreams as an IIT student should have. he bothers not about the Economy and Privatisation of Knowledge and jobloss as well as Unemployment as far as his Parenst are capable to pay for him.My son TUSSU lives in the same landscape.It is consoling that I was able to talk to the young man landed in Youngistan, but I find myself quite Helpless to locate my only son Partho pratim Tussu now identifying himself as EXcalibur Stevens!

My niece KRISHNA,just passed her Plus Two exams from New delhi was in love with Oceanology as well as AUSTRALIA and I could Convince her the AUSSIE Realities.Now, Tussus has decided for thetime being to settle in PHILLIPINES though depending on VIRTUAL Reality and Online Contact. i may not tell him about the FREE market democracy all over south East Asia and Minority CHINESE Hegemony!

Rather My father was Lucky despite we had very serious IDEOLOGICAL Differences. The problem is the GENERATION NEXT is so ROBOTIC that it has no feeling for anything, personal relations, society, history, art and literature, cultural roots, mother tongue, culture, heritage, legacy, nationality, identity. The CITIZENS of Global Village have no IDEOLOGYat all!

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Arts and Culture

The challenge of China
HINDSIGHT By F Sionil Jose (The Philippine Star) Updated October 19, 2009 12:00 AM

Illustration By Igan D' Bayan

I was a senior in college in 1949 when Mao Tse Tung defeated Chiang Kai-Shek and his Nationalist Army that ended a long and bloody civil war and united a fractured country. The Hukbalahap rebellion had started, the Cold War had reached the Philippines and the Huks and the communists were demonized. Many of us who were matured by World War II recognized the imperative for agrarian reform like China's, for revolution even, and we cheered Chairman Mao's triumph.

To this very day, I continue to admire Chairman Mao and what he had achieved in spite of the calumny heaped upon him, and the excesses of his Cultural Revolution. Knowing a bit of China's history, how this great nation was exploited and humiliated by the European powers and Japan, I share with them their jubilation when, this month, they celebrated the 60th anniversary of their liberation.

I have always desired to visit China to see what Chairman Mao had done. A generation ago, it was near impossible for us to go there. I tried everything, including flattery, but was unable to get there until 1979, when as a consultant to then Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella, I was a member of the 12-member team officially invited by our giant neighbor.

My earliest memories of the Chinese amongst us were my childhood classmates in grade school, sons of a rice trader. It is in childhood, after all, where such friendships are bonded. I was often invited to their house. They had an altar in their living room with lighted candles, a tray of fruits in season and colorful images of their gods. I took these for granted; after all, many Filipino homes also had similar altars.

Then, in Manila in 1938, there was the street corner Chinese sari-sari store near our accesoria from where one can get for free a pinch of salt, a kernel of garlic. The taho vendor in the mornings, and the junk man buying old newspapers and empty bottles were Chinese. And there was the Chinese panciteria, and siopao, and Gandara in Binondo where shoes were cheaper than in those Florsheim and Walkover shops at the Escolta.

When we lived in Hong Kong in the early Sixties, that was where I really got to appreciate Chinese food. Our Chinese amah from Canton showed my wife her resourcefulness; she cleaned chicken intestines and cooked them.

In 1979 China was different, Deng Xiaoping who inspired China's economic emergence had not yet surfaced from the shadows, the Gang of Four was being blamed for the country's backwardness and the communes still thrived.

This was the stock question I asked the cadres everywhere: If you had a choice, where would you like to live and work? Always, the reply was: I will go wherever the Party would send me.

There was this Party official, however, who sought me afterwards and in broken English said he would like to work in the kitchen because food was always there.

Here now is an official statistic: 30 years ago, with 963 million, 30 percent of the Chinese were hungry. Today, with 1.3 billion people, 97 percent of the Chinese have full stomachs.

It is not just a full stomach which should gladden the Chinese — now they have the atomic bomb, and sent a man into space. Only recently, they touted the Olympics and stunned the world. And China today has trillions of dollars, a hoard that can alter the global economy.

How does this magnificent achievement by a people once demeaned and poor relate to us? Today, China wears a smiling face and claims harmony with the world.

But China is expansionist — not because of Tibet, its claim on the Spratleys and Taiwan. It is expansionist for this is the iron law of nations — when they are strong, they expand and covet raw materials; when they are weak, they contract and look for markets.

China's expansionism could afford us opportunities, but there is one niggling doubt in my mind engendered not by this iron law, but by the fact that we have a Chinese minority, people in our midst — a small but powerful minority whose loyalty to this country is in doubt, to whom I now pose this question, if there is ever a war with the Chinese, on whose side will you be?

This doubt, which had cankered me for so long, is assuaged somewhat by two individuals I knew.

Her real name is April. We met in Hong Kong when we lived there in the early Sixties.

She was born in Binondo, in one of those crowded streets alive with the odors of Chinese cooking, chatter and commerce. She was then in her early twenties, fair-skinned like all Chinese, and she spoke Tagalog without any accent. Her family, she told me, was still in Binondo and she was in touch with them. She had gone to one of the Chinese schools, finished high school, then went on to college.

She spoke Fukien and was fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin, having lived in Hong Kong at the time that we got there for almost 10 years.

Why was she in Hong Kong?

When the communists took control of China in 1949, she was so enamored with them she decided to go to the mainland to help in the reconstruction of that crippled country. She said she was welcome and was soon involved with the cadres.

She was assigned to different communes where she lived as harshly as the others. She did not mind that. But as time went on, the rigid strictures and the doublethink and doublespeak of the communists started bothering her. The final blow to her sense of dignity came when she was not even permitted to cry, and that was when she decided to flee to Hong Kong.

It was easy for her to find work but not meaning to her life. She pined for the warmth, the smells of Binondo but she knew that if she returned, she would be arrested for being a communist. She was so homesick, came a time when she bought a ticket for Manila on one of the President liners. When the ship docked at the Manila pier, she went to the bridge — the highest she could reach — to gaze at the distant skyline of Binondo beyond the rooftops of Intramuros. Then back to Hong Kong.

I lost touch with April when we left Hong Kong two years later and if ever she reads this piece and is back in Manila, I hope she will reach me.

Then, there is the late Wong Lin Ken, former ambassador of Singapore to the United States and Home Minister of that government. I met him in Hong Kong at one of those beautiful seminars sponsored by the Quakers in the mid-Sixties. There were just four of us at that Kowloon seminar, a Japanese scholar and a Malaysian politician. It was Lin Ken with whom I forged the closest relationship. We all spoke with great frankness. I told him of the latent anti-Chinese feeling of Filipinos, of our apprehension of China, that in the Philippines there is a small but powerful Chinese minority whose loyalty was in doubt.

He tried to allay that apprehension. He was born in Penang in Malaysia, and China was important to him but his feelings for that country were inchoate and not strong at all, for when he was homesick, he longed for Penang, for its beaches, the palm trees the food, satay babi (pork barbecue).

He occupied the distinguished Raffles Chair at the University of Singapore and one afternoon we went around the antique shops looking for a Raffles chair for me to bring to Manila. He said there really was one which was used by Singapore's British founder.

Lin Ken told me his father was so enamored with Abraham Lincoln, he named him after the great American president. He was a perspicacious teacher and innovative thinker who challenged barnacled orthodoxies. We even had a very spirited argument because he maintained that the countries in the region were better off when they were colonized for they had good governments. There is some truth to what he said, particularly when we think of those days when we were an American colony. I reminded him of the logic of colonialism. He said yes — these countries were exploited—but now, they are exploited by their own elites.

Lin Ken was very sensitive — he could not take the stigma when Lee Kwan Yew dismissed him for incompetence as Home Secretary. Shortly after, he committed suicide.

April and Lin Ken touched my life and gave me a precious insight about how some Chinese feel about their roots and their adopted homeland.

But there are Chinese and then there are Chinese, so that this anti-Chinese feeling in Southeast Asia persists in so many forms and is, perhaps, the most vicious in Indonesia where in the recent past, ethnic Chinese were killed.

Still, our region will certainly be dominated by China which will soon be the world's second richest country, ousting that position from Japan which is just as conscious and apprehensive of a resurgent China.

The American hegemony is now challenged; the dollar as the international currency is being questioned not just by China but even by lesser economies which have suffered with the near collapse of Wall Street the other year. Globalization which the United States had promoted is, of course, unstoppable not because the United States desires it but because the economies of different countries are now interlinked. The creation of regional groups is imperative, and such groupings have spurred growth, to wit the European Union, and ASEAN as well. But as Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew insists, Asia needs a continued and strong American presence to give stability to this vast region.

How well can we manage our affairs in these rapidly changing times is doubtful because the Philippine state is weak and political bickering has stymied so much of our potential. Our leaders can do much, but only if they are Filipinos, and not Chinese, Spanish or recalcitrant Indios. In this light I would ask our taipans who wield vast influence what, if at all, they can do to make this unhappy country secure.

Loyalty to Chinese culture should not, must not translate into loyalty to the Chinese state. Those born of Chinese ancestry in this country should not be beholden to the Mainland although their relatives may still be there — this is where they live, where they made their wealth. They must not abandon their culture, which, after all, gives them their truest identity, which after all is respected in this country assuring as it does the diversity that is enshrined in the Philippine Constitution.

Moreover, Filipinos as a whole have so much to gain from the strengths and virtues of the world's oldest civilization.

It is for this reason why many Chinese Filipinos then and now have given so much of themselves, to this country.

It is for this reason why we should appreciate the persistent striving of our ethnic Chinese like Teresita Ang See.

The truth is we are fast becoming, genetically, a mestizo nation.

Way back when I visited Tanauan, in Leyte to meet my wife's aunts and uncles, I saw a photograph of her grandfather who had come to the Philippines at the turn of the last century from Fujian.

He had pigtails.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=515349

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[Research Day Paper June 2009]

A Decade of War Veterans-led Occupations
Wilbert Sadomba

Part 2
(to return to Part 1 click here)

The Fast Track Land Reform Programme

The FLRP was an immediate strategy formulated by government and ruling ZANU PF to deal with the land movement. At this time the state shifted its role from one of the actors of the movement to that of a power above the movement exercising the authority of 'legalizing and regulating the occupations' (Haar van der G. 2005:5) . However, latently its objective was to usurp control of the land movement from the war veterans' leadership and sway it from its original objective of land redistribution to the land hungry. Through FTLRP the state regained legitimacy and assumed authority to take charge of and structure the land occupations. However, state support favoured the rising petty bourgeoisie (Moyo S. 1995; Kinsey B.H. 1999a; 1999; Sholtz D. 2004) , enhanced during ESAP in the 1990s. Implementation focused on attacking and weakening the land movement leadership. Organisationally the FLRP had a national task force to study the movement, create structures and re-establishing state control. Provincial committees were created and similar structures were set at district level. District committees and lower tier structures called Committees of 7, were frontline structures of FLRP, to negate war veteran leadership of the movement.

The first manifest clash between the state and the land movement was based on the new structures imposed by the state. At national level there was neither representation of war veterans nor any actors of the movement. At provincial levels war veterans employed by government were used to represent land occupiers despite the fact that these might have had nothing to do with the occupations. At district level the DA and the committee sidelined the actual war veterans who were leaders of the land movement, and replaced them by some hand-picked individuals that they preferred to represent the land movement constituency. Many such tactics were used but the land movement actors resisted, resulting into serious clashes which at times, degenerated into physical assaults (Sadomba 2008).

FTLRP involved land assessment to determine carrying capacity, demarcation into plots, settler selection and followed placement. Three tier tenure systems resulted where A1 plots were based on a communitarian policy and A2 was for commercial farming; communal lands remained unchanged. The objective of the land movement was in line with the A1 model where as many peasant farmers as possible would be resettled through the scheme. It turned out that the A2 model became very controversial as it was distributed for patrimonial reasons, handled directly by the Minister of Lands and Agriculture.

Moyo (2001) illustrated the fluctuations of the land movement over a period of time which other scholars fail to do (Hammar A. and Raftopolous B. 2003) thereby failing to note different phases of development of the land movement in the post independence period. However no analysis has been made to distinguish different phases of the war veterans-led occupations from 1997. This is erroneous in that failure to distinguish the various phases conceals many factors that help us understand the dynamics of the movement in space and time. The land occupations differed markedly between the nature, approach, objective and motive of war veterans-led occupations and state and ZANU PF led occupations during the fast track period. These occupations were mainly carried on occupied land, dispossessing occupiers in order to give it to ZANU PF elites, civil servants or relatives of those in the system. War veterans dubbed this wave of occupations jambanja 15 on jambanja meaning that they were occupations of occupied land. The fast track was not about bringing order to a disorderly operation but the contrary, it started to introduce disorder and new waves of occupations.

The process of the FTLRP was summarised in a document presented to the Provincial Stakeholder Dialogue held from 23 to 24 August 2004, organised by African Institute of Agrarian Studies. War veterans wrote:

Arrests of land occupiers has been orchestrated and well planned so much that strategies are made to create crimes where war veterans [are] fast-tracked to cells, court and jail. It's a well organized syndicate of officials from the mass that is used ... police details who arrest, magistrate and his public prosecutor who make sure you [go] to jail. When others [occupiers] realize this humiliation, they … go back to [their] towns of origin, and the so-called politicians become happy and celebrate. But can we say they will have solved the problem? No! … Already there is political discontent and distortion in the Agrarian Revolution. (Mashonaland West War Veterans Association 2004) .

As soon as the fast track took root, it started to weed out war veterans and other land occupiers, opening for commercial farms for the elite. These were mainly government officials, party loyalists and the ruling oligarchy who were given whole farms to themselves as opposed to subdivision applying to A2 farmers. They chose prime land with good infrastructure and farm houses, chasing away the land movement actors. Moreover the government input scheme favoured these large scale farmers than the small A1 farmers. For example A1 farmers, occupying 98 percent of the resettled land, got at most one eighth of the funds, with the balance going to commercial farmers on A2 farms. In the 2006 Government budgeted about ZW $1 trillion for '2005-6 season crop input finance to support A1 and communal farmers' forming more than a million farmers, to be conservative. A2 farmers got, through the Central Bank programme called Agricultural Sector Productivity Enhancement Fund (ASPEF), 'ZW $7 trillion and other private financing schemes' (World Bank 2006: 59 Gono 2008).

Many no longer had the energy to fight and they simply returned to their houses in towns or their rural homes. The fast track was marked by many violent clashes between the state and the land movement. Moreover many of those who were given the land, for large scale A2 commercial farming wherefrom land movement actors had been removed, were not capitalist farmers and were accused of assert stripping (14) (War veterans Grievance document 2004) .

Murambatsvina (15) Period

This paper argues that the decade of war veterans land movement is a tale of class conflict within the liberation movement and without. Class antagonisms reached their climax during the Murambatsvina phase. In this section we examine the position of the land movement in the Murambatsvina period from mid 2004 to 2008. Many scholars and analysts have looked at Murambatsvina in partisan terms arguing that it was retribution on MDC supporters. This paper disagrees with this analysis and it argues that Murambatsvina was an attack on the land movement. It further argues that Murambatsvina occurred both in rural as well as urban areas and it started before 2005. Murambatsvina was imbedded in an overall strategy to deal systematically with the land movement that had been developed by the state from the rupture in 2000.

The state designed a strategy comprised of three options for formal intervention into the land movement. The first option was simple cooptation of the movement through ZNLWVA leadership structures aimed to diffuse the movement's autonomy and to subdue it. This option was embarked on soon after the February referendum in 2000, when Mugabe invited Hunzvi to spearhead electoral campaign at the ZANU PF Politburo post-mortem meeting that was held a week after the referendum. The second option was to create parallel state structures that would antagonise those of the land movement in the hope that the later would succumb. The third and last option was to smash the movement violently and dissipate it. The fast track was a process of executing these three options in that order and Operation Murambatsvina was a culmination of that long term strategy. During execution the options overlapped although they remain distinguishable and severable.

The attempt to co-opt the land movement failed for a number of reasons including but not limited to, complex horizontality of movement organisation, localisation, divisions within state organs (16) and effective negation of land movement structures that continuously made war veterans suspicious about the actual agenda of the state and ZANU PF elites. Although parallel structures were created in the form of Task Force Committees, land committees, village committees of seven and rejuvenation of traditional leadership, the land movement under war veterans leadership did not succumb. This left the state with no option but to implement the third alternative, then code-named Murabatsvina.

Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order began much earlier than 2005, as continuation of clashes between state organs and the land movement, particularly war veteran leaders. In Mashonaland west and Central for example there were continuous brutal evictions of occupiers by the state in Zvimba, Mazowe and Shamva Districts. Tactically, government postponed widespread violent onslaught on the land movement until the general elections of 2005 (17). It is notable that ZANU PF won the elections overwhelmingly, reflecting the effect of land movement both in rural and urban areas (Masuko L. 2008; Sadomba W.Z. 2008) . It is illustrative that ZANU PF regained the only seat in the traditional stronghold city of Harare both in 2005 and 2008 parliamentary elections and that seat was won by a war veteran candidate Nyanhongo, who rose from being councillor.

As a long term strategy to consolidate the land movement, War veterans decided to take over the political leadership of ZANU PF by mobilising support through the land movement. Their first step was to strengthen ZNLWVA. To do so they had to identify a courageous leader for the association, after the death of Dr. Hunzvi. Jabulani Sibanda, then chairman of Matebeleland Province, had emerged as a fearless leader when he publicly denounced the 'old guard' politicians of Matebeleland. The state and ZANU PF ruling elite backed Joseph Chinotimba. The Joint Operations Command tried to influence (18) the choice of war veterans but to no avail and Sibanda became the new Chairman (personal observation ZNLWVA meeting, 2004, Mutare). However he also was later coopted, foiling the plans of the association and the movement.

The second step of war veterans was to get into Parliament in massive numbers. Many registered for ZANU PF primary elections but were removed from the list by the party elite and were replaced by other individuals. Ironically, war veterans campaigned for these imposed candidates in the general elections. The vision of war veterans and their political tactics are in this sense, baffling. However this reflects the complexity of the situation where a movement has to confront catalysing neo-colonial tendencies (displayed by MDC), nationalist bourgeois tendencies of ZANU PF elites, settler and international capital. Determining the priority enemy at any given time might be tricky and debatable. Why did they not insist on getting into Parliament when ZANU PF was at its weakest point and they (war veterans) were powerful? Indeed this weakened the land movement. This is where Moyo and Yeros (2005) criticism is relevant. War veterans, despite ideological clarity and long term-strategies, were tactically sterile. A retreat at this point was tantamount to bolstering the position of ZANU PF elites giving them the tactical advantage which they were quick to exploit and swiftly smashed the movement by Murambatsvina. This tactical error grossly and dearly cost the land movement.

Soon after the general elections in 2005 the postponed 'violent retribution by the state,' to borrow Jun Borras' (2001:548) words, was commenced on the land movement (19). The operation started by demolishing houses of cooperatives in the urban areas. (20)The demolition was done by local authority operatives using earth-moving equipment accompanied by the police and army. Illegal structures in high density properties were also razed to the ground as were the established informal sector production sites and workshops. As there was no warning property was lost, and worse still means of urban livelihood were destroyed as tools and equipment for the small scale manufacturers were destroyed in the process. Above all the operation was life threatening as it left many families without housing and the effect on the urban land movement was clear as Masuko (2008:204) writes, '... in doing so (government) dashed the hopes of the low income urban homeless and of one of the most radical housing developments ever initiated in Zimbabwe. However ... the occupiers remained on the occupied farms minus all the structures that they had built ...'

The most intriguing question that scholars have glossed over or totally ignored is, what was the motive of the regime in carrying out the operation? ZANU PF had clearly started to regain popularity throught the land movement, winning more than two thirds majority in the 2005 general elections (Masuku 2008). Why did Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF forge genuine unity with war veterans and the land movement? The answer seems to lie in the intrinsic class contradictions and class struggle. War veterans feel that Operation Murambatsvina was targeted on them specifically and the land movement generally. Operation Murambatsvina was not the only operation of this period. There another one was Operation Chikorokoza Chapera that was carried in 2006. This was a rural operation that focused on specific occupied farms and mineral exploitation that had become the new source of livelihoods for dispersed Murambatsvina victims. Although Chikorokoza Chapera was countrywide, the most severe attacks were in Chimanimani gold mines and Chiadzwa diamond mines, both in Manicaland, where the state killed people to remove victims of Murambatsvina according to various accusations.

Structural reconfigurations also occurred during the Murambatsvina period. The state, ZANU PF and Mugabe, realising the cruel attacks they had made on the land movement and war veterans, it decided to forge a new alliance. This time it chose the traditional leaders to replace the mobilisation role of the land movement actors. The countryside was not being democratised by going back to traditional authority. Rather, this structure was, like in the case of the Phillines, being elevated and entrenched into an elite 'to dominate rural polity' and with state resources and delegated powers could 'use extensive patronage networks that combine (partial) provision of daily subsistence needs of rural poor households with the threat and/or actual use of violence' (Borras S.M. 2001:550) . In addition the executive of ZNLWVA was co-opted through material benefits including houses, double cab vehicles and money, as had been done to traditional leaders.

First, chiefs were allocated prime land with good farm houses and infrastructure. In addition they were given grants of seed and chemical fertilisers. They were also given double cab vehicles for personal transport and administrative personnel including secretaries and messengers. Powers of traditional leaders were also increased and they were given more functions as commissioners of oaths. In 2006 new agricultural programmes were initiated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. These were: Productive Sector Finance Facility (PSF) in 2003 and Agricultural Sector Productivity Enhancement Facility (ASPEF) (Gono G. 2008:148-150) . The farm mechanisation programme under ASPEF included many schemes for drought relief food, seed, fuel, livestock, liquid money, farm equipment like tractors and combine harvesters. This was a bourgeois class under formation rising from the ashes of the destroyed small scale industrial producers. Chiefs were not only direct beneficiaries of this project but also distributors, giving them extra advantage of consolidating their social networks. Basic Commodity Supply Side Intervention Facility (BACOSSI) "under which primary secondary and tertiary producers and suppliers in targeted key sectors of the economy were afforded concessional production-linked financial support for working capital requirements" (Gono G. 2008:151) . However this caused high inflationary pressures on the economy as it distorted prices and as some of the inputs were abused, and were not channelled into production (21).

Much has been written and debated (22) about the evil nature with which Operation Murambatsvina was carried out by the state (Tabaijuka A.K. 2005; Toriro P. 2005; Mahoso T. 2008; Masuko L. 2008; Mhiripiri N. 2008; Mlambo A. 2008; Moore D. 2008; Vambe M. 2008; Vambe M. 2008) but little or no analysis has been offered on the class nature of the state operation. As a result the analysis is at best shallow and at worst confused. For example simple empirical facts are contested, like who was targeted by Murambatsvina. Vembe (2008:3) argues that 'both rural and urban areas; ZANU PF supporters and MDC supporters and non-aligned, were targeted'. However others see the operation as partisan, attacking MDC city strongholds as 'punishment' for 'voting for MDC' and desire of the ruling party to unwind time of the urbanites to 'year zero' rural homelands' ( Moore 2008:28). In desperate defence of state action, Mahoso (2008:160) tried to separate Murambatsvina from the land movement itself saying 'the African land reclamation movement [was] rural and [had] little to do with urban slum clearance'. Vembe's view is correct and supported by empirical evidence. Scholars failed to grasp the class conflict in Murambatsvina and its linkage to the overall land occupation movement. Moore's argument can be challenged on grounds of lack of imperical data to based on fieldwork which such a controversial study demands. It sounds more reasonable that urbanites who voted ZANU PF in 2005 were influenced mainly by the land movement and it this signified a shift from MDC considering that the party's land policy and alliance with white commercial farmers were seen as negating the land movement. Moreover, utterances by Morgan Tsvangirai that land occupiers were sprouting in a disorderly fashion like mushroom, warning a disaster of hunger, enhanced this perception about the MDC.

This paper argues that the land movement of Zimbabwe for the past ten years has seen the climax of especially class but also racial conflict. Politics of power at this juncture transcended partisan interests as the real bone of contention was protection of class interests and class domination by ZANU PF elites and petty bourgeoisie against peasants, rural and urban working classes. Political power was under formidable threat from the land movement that had now mobilised both urban workers and peasants. At no point in Zimbabwe's liberation struggle had such a powerful alliance of urban working class and rural peasants been forged. ZANU PF ruling elite, petty and rising national bourgeoisie were worried of the imminent power shifts threatening to take place in favour of the lower classes comprising the land movement and war veterans.

The myth that war veterans were incapable of leading the Zimbabwean society had been utterly dispelled and a revolutionary climate had developed. "The situation had presented itself" (Interview DTM, a war veteran leader of occupations in Mazowe District, 2000). Leadership capabilities of war veterans had been demonstrated by organising the land hungry, homeless, informal sector producers and farm workers, sending unequivocal signals that it was only a matter of time the movement was to take over state power. This of course sent shivers to the ruling elite who immediately took the third option - the real 'hidden dimension of operation Murambatsvina' – a violent retributive class attack of the urban and rural poor in the land movement. The impact of the housing cooperatives and Unions are illustrative of this new and rising power of the peasants and workers with marginalised war veterans as vanguard, against both capital and elitism.

A question that has been debated is whether or not the land movement dissipated and disintegrated after Murambatsvina. What became of the land movement and what is its status today? This question can be answered by viewing the agency of the land movement actors from 2005. Many war veterans that were interviewed in connection with Operation Murambatsvina, were bitter. More than 10 000 properties at different stages of development were destroyed including and especially those of the war veterans (23). Members of the land occupation movement were scattered across the country as a result of operation Murambatsvina and Operation Chikorokoza Chapera (24). Counter strategies by war veterans included ousting ZANU PF elites in 2008 elections (interview Muchaneta 2006). Dispersal of the land movement actors – Murambatsvina victims - effectively spread widely mobilising agents against the ruling ZANU PF elite, Mugabe and their bourgeois counterparts.

Strategically war veterans mobilised the ZANU PF electorate to be elected towards Parliamentary elections of 2008. However, the politburo sought ways of weeding out war veterans by applying unconstitutional qualifications, outlining that a ZANU PF Parliamentary candidate had to have been in the provincial executive for at least five years. In 1980, at Zimbabwe's independence ZANU PF had issued a directive barring war veterans from participating in the leadership of the party at any level, which condition was only lifted during the occupation period, by default. It was impossible that under normal circumstances one would have risen through the ranks to occupy a provincial level post, so this was clearly to exclude war veterans (25).

Many war veterans lost their meagre income campaigning to be parliamentarians, only to be weeded out (26). Similar to Das' observation, sheer numbers of the land movement 'constitute[d] a political threat to [the] regime overlooking their interests, either through elections or through non-electoral agency' (Das R.J. 2007) . Jabulani Sibanda, who tried to silence war veterans sidelined in the primary elections, was viciously snapped at in meeting of war veterans (January 2008, Fourth Street Offices, personal observation) . The angry crowd threatened the doom of the party in the 2008 elections. Some of the war veterans candidates, for example in a Marondera constituency and Mutasa, refused to step down with disastrous consequences to the ruling party. Others took the primary elections irregularities to the High Court but many others simply withdraw like war veterans in Goromonzi, Zvimba and Harare (personal observation, 2008).

The ballot became the new "weapon of the weak", now mobilised by the Murambatsvina victim scatterings comprising of urban informal sector producers, urban homeless and some dispossessed A1 settlers and marginalised war veterans. War veterans and land movement actors were disgruntled by the process and the sidelining of land movement candidates. This anger, disillusionment and mobilisation by Murabatsvina victims changed the traditional voting behaviour in the rural areas leading to ZANU PF defeat generally. Mugabe was also defeated by Morgan Tsvangirai in the March 29 elections. With panic, the state reacted by unleashing retributive violence on both the rural and urban electorate in a military operation code named Operation Mavhotera Papi? (Operation whom did you vote for?). The army was engaged to 'mobilise' or is it to 'coerce' voters. A shift in use of the army instead of war veterans clearly explains that the state had terminated its alliance with the later. A re-run of the presidential elections was marred by organised state violence resulting in Morgan Tsvangirai's withdrawal from the race and seeking refuge with the Dutch embassy in Zimbabwe. Murambatsvina had pushed partisan but especially class contradictions to their zenith.

War veterans heavily criticised regimentation, threats and violence against the electorate in the run up to the presidential run-off (27). The elections, that put Mugabe back into power, have been widely considered scandalous and were widely condemned regionally and internationally. This forced ZANU PF to concede to a power-sharing deal, forming a Government of National Unity with the two MDC parties (28). Omission of the land movement and particularly war veterans, in this GNU is conspicuous, raising questions of future of both the GNU and the land movement.

Conclusion

From the time veterans led the land movement localised and isolated peasant actions were transformed into a national land movement transcending urban and rural divide and partisan dichotomies of ZANU PF and MDC. This had wide political ramifications threatening seizure of power by the marginalised classes of peasants, farm and urban workers, under the leadership of war veterans. War veterans changed the land movement in terms of tactics and long term strategies and ideological depth. War veterans started to mobilise an alliance of workers and peasants and form decentralised structures (housing co-operatives and unions, and committees in the occupied farms). The political base of both ZANU PF and MDC was at threat and the later was losing its grip on the state.

The class conflicts necessitated the inception of fast track land reform programme that aimed at negating the land movement objectives and thwarting it in the end. The state failed neither to co-opt nor to thwart the movement through imposition of parallel structures and technocratic planning and land allocation that favoured the elite. Its last resort to deal with the surging movement, was violence epitomised by three national operations of military style: Operation Murambatsvina, Operation Chikorokoza Chapera and Operation Mavhotera papi? All three were rooted in state reaction to land occupation movement which threatened political power in the hands of ZANU PF elites and black bourgeoisie.

However current academic analysis has ignored the issue of class in the land occupation movement, tied as they are to partisan views. This has made the debate shallow and confusing. Grounded research reveals that the war veterans-led land occupation movement in Zimbabwe has much wider ideological as well as political consequences which scholars have yet to grapple with in their quest to unravel the unfolding social phenomenon. It is worthwhile to bear in mind that at the core of it is class contest for state power, under neoliberal socio-economic order as Das (2007:4) observed elsewhere:

Just as the neoliberal society is a class society, so the neoliberal state is a class state. In short, neoliberalism had made no difference to the fact that the state must protect capitalist property relations. Indeed, government policy is much rather about the restoration of class power, and increasing capitalist control over society's material resources (Das R.J. 2007:4)

The onslaught on the land movement (urban and rural) through the three national operations, the land tenure policy entrenching capitalist farming, elite protection and economic support from state resources all bears testimony to this class struggle and domination of the poor. The new Government of National Unity (GNU) provides little hope for the working classes as it reflects another alliance of the elites and a significant return of the White Rhodesians in active politics of the country. The question therefore is whether the land movement will be able to sustain its struggle against the elite. This depends on the ideological clarity of the war veterans or any other force that will emerge as vanguard of this land revolution.

Footnotes

13. "Jambanja" is a colloquial Shona word which connotes simultaneous expropriation and suspension of the law.

14. For example these new A2 farmers started to remove parts like plumbing materials, fancy lamp sheds etc. from the farm houses and sell or replace similar parts of their houses in town.

15. Murambatsvina is a Shona word which literally means "one who rejects dirt or garbage". It was coined on environmental health technicians because of their message of refraining from dirt. Mu is class one noun prefix ramb is a verb root meaning "refuse" or "refrain from" tsvina is noun meaning dirt or garbage. However tsvina is also euphemistically used to mean human excrement, but in this context excrement, as Judith Todd (2007:102) interprets, is a misnomer.

16. Dumiso Dabengwa, former Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) intelligence supremo, then Minister of Home Affairs, sent police to evict occupiers in March and April 2000. Joseph Musika, acting as President while Mugabe was out of the country, did the same later. In August 2000, Minister of Lands, John Nkomo, announced that occupations had to stop. War veterans actually clarified their position telling prospective members of parliaments that "… if government was saying 'land to the people' as a political gimmick, we were on our part, serious." (interview DM, 2000). Around March 2000 war veterans locked ZANU PF Provincial Offices and demanded audience with Mugabe, complaining that the ruling party and government were not pushing government and ZANU PF to unequivocally support their land occupation initative who sent Didymus Mutasa and Joseph Musika for negotiations (interview DM, 2000).

17. Government is always tactical the closer to elections the timing is; e.g. they only intensely executed fast track after 2002 presidential elections.

18. A day before the congress the outgoing executive and provincial leaders were addressed by the Joint Operations Command (commanders of the uniformned forces and the Central Intelligence Organisation) at King George VI (KG VI) Barracks. According to a report back by one of the attendants, C, the meeting had two objectives. One was to advice the leadership not to wash their dirty linen in public, meaning that their contradictions had to be shelved in the light of the focus by the international community on the events taking place in the country. The second was trying to impress upon the organisation to elect members who would be acceptable to the political leaders. It is possible that C wanted to use the report back to gain mileage as he was clearly a candidate sponsored by the politicians. He was heavily de-campaigned in Mutare and he could not become the Chairman of ZNLWVA a post that went to Jabulani Sibanda. Sibanda was preferred by war veterans for demonstrating courage against ZANU PF old guard in Matebeleland but was however later coopted and became an ally of Mugabe in the campaign for ZANU PF congress in 2007.

19. The main characteristic feature that distinguishes Murambatsvina period are is retributive violence, epitomised by state coined operations, namely: Operation Murambatsvina, Operation Chikorokoza Chapera (mainly rural) and Operation Mavhotera Papi?

20. One of the most widely publicized cases of Murambatsvina was the destruction by a bulldozer of Chinx Chingaira's house. Chingaira, a prominent singer, was a war veteran and had acquired a stand through the housing cooperatives. He tried to stop destruction of his house by standing on top of it but was pulled down and severely beaten by the police, warning the rest that the state meant business.

21. In many cases fuel was resold on the parallel market and production vehicles like tractors were converted into taxis for desperate commuters (personal observation 2005-2008).

22. Research in Zimbabwe has largely mimicked the political polarity thereby clouded with non-academic pursuits by scholars.

23. Destruction of war veterans' houses like that of Chinx Chingaira, a popular singer since the liberation, was very conspicuous. Chingaira climbed on the roof of pleading with for his house to be spared but he was brought down, beaten thoroughly as the house was razed to the ground by a bulldozer. Another war veteran leader of a housing cooperative in Malborough collapsed and died at the news of destruction of the houses.

24. The whereabouts of Murambatsvina victims and their impact wherever they went is yet to be studied. I carried out some research in 2006 in Zvimba, in 2007 in Marange (Chiadzwa diamonds mines) and 2008 in Uzumba, assessing Murambatsvina outcomes. It showed that Murambatsvina victims are spread in all social groups of the country and in all areas. In some cases the victims were allocated land by local leaders, establishing whole communities (personal observation Nyabira 2006, personal communication with victims Uzumba 2008, interview war veterans and traditional leaders of Marange and Chiadzwa 2007)

25. However, noting that there were other elites who had to be included but did not satisfy the condition, an exemption clause was put for such members as those who had been on diplomatic missions.

26. Personal observation (Goromonzi, Chinhamora, Mutasa and Harare South constituency, 2008).

27. Personal observation Concession (April-May, 2008). At a meeting organised by the Zimbabwe National army war veterans challenged them diffusing the violent plots in the area.

28. MDC split into two with one led by Arthur Mutambara and the other by Morgan Tzvangirai. The Mutambara party is known as MDC while the Tsvangirai party is referred to as MDC-T.

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Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard Australian customs ship Oceanic Viking moored off Indonesia - 28 October 2009

The Sri Lankas have been on this Australian customs ship for 11 days

Indonesia says the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers moored in a boat off Sumatra must co-operate with authorities over identity checks or risk expulsion.

The Sri Lankans were intercepted in Indonesian waters eleven days ago while trying to reach Australia.

Australia and Indonesia agreed to a deal last week which in principle would see the asylum seekers moved to an Indonesian detention centre.

But the Sri Lankans, ethnic Tamils, are refusing to leave the ship.

'No choice'

Indonesia's foreign ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizahsyah has told the BBC that Indonesia will only be able to host the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers once they have been clearly identified.

The refugees have so far resisted any efforts to get off the Oceanic Viking, an Australian customs ship that picked them up in Indonesian waters.

Mr Faizahsyah says if this stand-off continues, Indonesia will have no choice but to expel the Sri Lankans.

This has turned into an embarrassing problem for the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who last week agreed to a deal with Australia to look after the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers in Indonesia.

The deal has been seen as a prelude to a wider-ranging agreement between the two nations which is expected to be signed formally at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.

It has been dubbed the Indonesian solution.

In theory it would see Australia handing over cash to Indonesia, in exchange for Jakarta ensuring that ships heading for Australia with asylum seekers on board are intercepted.

But the agreement has been criticised by some in Indonesia who say it is just a way for Australia to outsource its problems to this country.

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Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
The official emblem of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Dates of operation	May 5, 1976 – present; Defeated as a conventional organization on May 17, 2009
Leader	Visvanathan Rudrakumaran^[1]
Motives	The creation of a separate Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka
Active region(s)	Canada^[2] United Kingdom^[3], Norway And Others ^[4]
Ideology	Tamil nationalism
Notable attacks	Central Bank bombing, Palliyagodella massacre, Dehiwala train bombing and others.
Status	Proscribed as a terrorist organization by 32 countries.^[5]
Annual revenue	$300–500 Million
Means of revenue	Donations from expatriate Tamils, Sale of Narcotics,^[6] Extortion^[6]^[7] Shipping, Sales of weapons, Taxes under LTTE controlled areas, Bank of Tamileelam

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil: தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், ISO 15919: tamiḻ īḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ; commonly known as the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers) is a separatist organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976, it waged a violent secessionist campaign that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka.^[8] This campaign evolved into the Sri Lankan Civil War, which was one of the longest running armed conflicts in Asia until the LTTE was militarily defeated by the Sri Lankan Military in May 2009 .^[9]^[10]

The Tigers, who during the height of their power possessed a well-developed militia cadre, were notorious for recruiting child soldiers, for carrying out civilian massacres, suicide bombings and various other high profile attacks, including the assassinations of several high-ranking Sri Lankan and Indian politicians like Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993, and former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.^[11] They invented the suicide belt and pioneered the use of suicide bombing as a tactic.^[12]^[13] They also pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks,^[14] and used light aircraft in some of their attacks.^[15] They are currently proscribed as a terrorist organization by 32 countries (see list of countries), but have extensive support amongst the Tamil diaspora in Europe and North America, and amongst Tamils in India.^[16]^[17] Since its inception, and until his death, the LTTE was headed by its founder, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Over the course of the conflict, the Tamil Tigers frequently exchanged control of territory in north-east Sri Lanka with the Sri Lankan military, engaging in fierce confrontations in the process. They were also involved in peace talks to end the conflict four times, each time unsuccessfully. At the start of the final round of peace talks in 2002, they had a 15,000 km² area under their control. However after the breakdown of the peace process in 2006, the Sri Lankan military launched a major offensive against the Tigers, bringing the entire country under their control and defeating the LTTE militarily. Victory over the Tigers was declared by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 16, 2009,^[18] and the LTTE admitted defeat on May 17, 2009.^[19] Prabhakaran was subsequently killed by government forces on May 19, 2009. Selvarasa Pathmanathan took over the leadership, however he was arrested, and interrogated by the Sri Lankan authorities.^[20] Following Pathmanathan's arrest, Visvanathan Rudrakumaran became the de facto leader.^[1]

[hide]

[edit] History

[edit] Founding

[edit] Rise to power

Initially, LTTE operated in cooperation with other Tamil militant groups which shared their objectives, and in April 1984, the LTTE formally joined a common militant front, the Eelam National Liberation Front (ENLF), a union between LTTE, the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF).^[24]

TELO usually held the Indian view of problems and pushed for India's view during peace talks with Sri Lanka and other groups. LTTE denounced the TELO view and claimed that India was only acting on its own interest. As a result in 1986, the LTTE broke from the ENLF. Soon fighting broke out between the TELO and the LTTE and clashes occurred over the next few months.^[25]^[26] As a result almost the entire TELO leadership and many of the TELO militants were killed by the LTTE.^[27]^[28]^[29] The LTTE attacked training camps of the EPRLF a few months later, forcing it to withdraw entirely from the Jaffna peninsula.^[24]^[27]

The LTTE then demanded that all remaining Tamil insurgents join the LTTE. Notices were issued to that effect in Jaffna and in Madras, India where the Tamil groups were headquartered. With the major groups including the TELO and EPRLF eliminated, the remaining Tamil insurgent groups, numbering around 20, were then absorbed into the LTTE, making Jaffna an LTTE-dominated city.^[27]

LTTE's practice such as wearing a cyanide vial for consumption if captured appealed to the Tamil people as dedication and sacrifice. Another practice that increased support by Tamil people was LTTE's practice of taking an oath of loyalty which stated LTTE's goal of establishing a state for the Sri Lankan Tamils.^[25]^[30]

In 1987, LTTE established the Black Tigers, a unit of LTTE responsible for conducting suicide attacks against political, economic and military targets,^[31] and launched its first suicide attack against a Sri Lanka Army camp, killing 40 soldiers.

[edit] IPKF period

Main article: Indian Peace Keeping Force

In 1987, faced with growing anger among its own Tamils, and a flood of refugees,^[24] India intervened directly in the conflict for the first time by initially airdropping food parcels into Jaffna. After subsequent negotiations, India and Sri Lanka entered into the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. Though the conflict was between the Tamil and Sinhalese people, India and Sri Lanka signed the peace accord instead of India influencing both parties to sign a peace accord among themselves. The peace accord assigned a certain degree of regional autonomy in the Tamil areas with Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) controlling the regional council and called for the Tamil militant groups to lay down their arms. India was to send a peacekeeping force, named the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), part of the Indian Army, to Sri Lanka to enforce the disarmament and to watch over the regional council.^[32]^[33]

Although the accord was signed between the governments of Sri Lanka and India, and the Tamil militant groups did not have a role in the agreement,^[25] most Tamil militant groups accepted it.^[34] But the LTTE rejected the accord because they opposed the candidate, who belonged to the EPRLF, for chief administrative officer of the merged Northern and Eastern provinces.^[33] Instead, the LTTE named three other candidates for the position, which India rejected.^[34] The LTTE subsequently refused to hand over their weapons to the IPKF.^[25]

Thus LTTE found itself engaged in military conflict with the Indian Army, and launched its first attack on an Indian army rations truck on October 8, killing five Indian para-commandos who were on board by strapping burning tires around their necks.^[35] The government of India decided that the IPKF should disarm the LTTE by force,^[35] and the Indian Army launched number of assaults on the LTTE, including a month-long campaign dubbed Operation Pawan to win control of the Jaffna peninsula from the LTTE. The ruthlessness of this campaign, and the Indian army's subsequent anti-LTTE operations made it extremely unpopular among many Tamils in Sri Lanka.^[36]^[37]

[edit] After IPKF

The Indian intervention was also unpopular among the Sinhalese majority, and the IPKF became bogged down in the fighting with the Tamil Tigers for over 2 years, experiencing heavy losses. The last members of the IPKF, which was estimated to have had a strength of well over 50,000 at its peak, left the country in 1990 upon request of the Sri Lankan government. A shaky peace initially held between the government and the LTTE, and peace talks progressed towards providing devolution for Tamils in the north and east of the country.^{[citation needed]}

Fighting continued throughout the 1990s, and was marked by two key assassinations carried out by the LTTE, that of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993, using suicide bombers in both occasions. The fighting briefly halted in 1994 following the election of Chandrika Kumaratunga as President of Sri Lanka and the onset of peace talks, but fighting resumed after LTTE sunk two Sri Lanka Navy boats in April 1995.^[38] In a series of military operations that followed, the Sri Lanka Army re-captured the Jaffna peninsula, the heartland of Tamils in Sri Lanka.^[39] Further offensives followed over the next three years, and the military captured vast areas in the north of the country from the LTTE, including area in the Vanni region, the town of Kilinochchi and many smaller towns. However, from 1998 onward the LTTE hit back, regaining control of these areas. This culminated in the capture of the strategically important Elephant Pass base complex, located at the entrance of the Jaffna Peninsula, in April 2000, after prolonged fighting against the Sri Lanka Army.^[40]

Mahattaya, a one-time deputy leader of LTTE, was accused of treason by the LTTE and killed in 1994.^[41] He is said to have collaborated with the Indian Research and Analysis Wing to remove Prabhakaran from the LTTE leadership.^[42]

[edit] 2001 ceasefire

An LTTE bicycle infantry platoon north of Kilinochchi in 2004

In 2001, the LTTE dropped its demand for a separate state. Instead, it stated that a form of regional autonomy would meet its demands.^[43] Following the landslide election defeat of Kumaratunga and the coming to power of Ranil Wickramasinghe in December 2001, the LTTE declared a unilateral ceasefire.^[44] The Sri Lankan Government agreed to the ceasefire. In March 2002, both sides signed an official Ceasefire Agreement (CFA). As part of the agreement, Norway and the other Nordic countries agreed to jointly monitor the ceasefire through the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.^[45]

Six rounds of peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and LTTE were held, but they were temporarily suspended after the LTTE pulled out of the talks in 2003 claiming "certain critical issues relating to the ongoing peace process".^[46]^[47]

In 2003, the LTTE proposed an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA). This move was welcomed by the international community, but rejected by the Sri Lankan President.^[48]

In December 2005, the LTTE boycotted the 2005 presidential election. While LTTE claimed that the people under its control were free to vote, it is alleged that they used threats to prevent the population from voting. The United States condemned this act.^[49]^[50]

The new government of Sri Lanka came into power in 2006 and demanded to abrogate the ceasefire agreement, staying that the only possible solution to the ethnic conflict was military solution, and that the only way to achieve this is by eliminating the Liberation Tigers of Tamila.^[51] Further peace talks were scheduled in Oslo, Norway, on June 8 and 9, 2006, but canceled when the LTTE refused to meet directly with the government delegation, stating its fighters were not being allowed safe passage to travel to the talks. Norwegian mediator Erik Solheim told journalists that the LTTE should take direct responsibility for the collapse of the talks.^[52]

Rifts grew between the government and LTTE, and resulted in a number of ceasefire agreement violations by both sides during 2006. Suicide attacks,^[53] military skirmishes and air raids took place during the latter part of 2006.^[54]^[55] Military confrontation continued into 2007 and 2008. On January 2008, the government officially pulled out of the Cease Fire Agreement.^[56]

[edit] Dissension

[edit] Military Defeat

Main article: 2008–2009 SLA Northern offensive

On January 2, 2009, the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, announced that the Sri Lankan troops had captured Kilinochchi, the city which the LTTE had used for over a decade as its de facto administrative capital.^[59]^[60]^[61] It was stated that the loss of Kilinochchi had caused a substantial dent in the LTTE's image.^[60] It was also stated that after the fall of Kilinochchi the LTTE was likely to collapse soon under unbearable military pressure on multiple fronts.^[62] As of January 8, 2009, the LTTE was abandoning its positions on the Jaffna peninsula to make a last stand in the jungles of Mullaitivu, their last main base.^[63] The entire Jaffna peninsula was captured by the Sri Lanka Army by January 14.^[64] On January 25, 2009 SLA troops "completely captured" Mullaitivu town, the last major LTTE stronghold.^[65] As a result of the offensive, there is increasing belief that the final military defeat of the LTTE is near, although the LTTE may launch an underground guerrilla campaign if it is defeated as a conventional force.^[66]^[67]

Top LTTE leader Cheliyan, the second-in-command of the Sea Tigers, was killed in Kariyamullivaikkal on May 8, 2009 dealing another blow to the organization.^[68] The Sri Lanka Government accused the LTTE of causing a human disaster by trapping civilians in the shrinking area under their control.^[69] With LTTE on brink of defeat the fate of the leader of LTTE Velupillai Prabhakaran remained uncertain.^[70] On May 12, 2009 BBC reported that LTTE was now clinging on to only about 840 acres of land near town of Mullaitivu which is roughly the same area as Central Park of New York.^[71]

U.N secretary General Ban Ki Moon appealed on LTTE that children should not be held hostage, recruited as child soldiers or put in harm's way.^[72] Claude Heller of United Nations Security Council said 'We demand that the LTTE immediately lay down arms, renounce terrorism, allow a UN-assisted evacuation of the remaining civilians in the conflict area, and join the political process.' The council president, speaking on behalf of the 15 members, also said they 'strongly condemned the LTTE, a terrorist organisation, for the use of civilians as human shields and for not allowing them to leave the area'.^[73] On May 13, 2009 the UN security council condemned the rebel LTTE again and denounced its use of civilians as human shields and urged them to acknowledge the legitimate right of the government of Sri Lanka to combat terrorism by laying down their arms and allowing the tens of thousands of civilians to leave the conflict zone.^[74] On May 14, 2009 The United Nations acting representative for Sri Lanka, Amin Awad, said that 6,000 civilians had fled or were trying to flee, but that LTTE was firing on them to prevent them from escaping.^[75]

President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared military victory over the Tamil Tigers on May 16, 2009 after 26 years of conflict.^[76] On the same day for the first time in their long struggle against the Sri Lankan government, the rebels were offering to lay down their weapons in return for a guarantee of safety.^[77] Sri Lanka's disaster relief and human-rights minister Mahinda Samarasinghe stated 'The military phase is over. The LTTE has been militarily defeated. Now the biggest hostage rescue operation in the world has come to a conclusion, The figure I have here is since 20th of April, 179,000 hostages have been rescued.'^[78]

On May 17, 2009, rebel official Selvarasa Pathmanathan conceded defeat saying in an email statement "This battle has reached its bitter end". Several rebel fighters committed suicide when they became surrounded.^[79] On May 18 it was confirmed that the rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed along with several other high ranking Tamil officials. State run television interrupted its regular programming and a government information department sent a text message to cell phones across the country with the news. Mass celebrations erupted across Sri Lanka to the announcement as the death of Prabhakaran is key to preventing a new guerrilla offensive. From government reports it seems Prabhakaran was riding in an armor-plated van with several top deputies and rebel fighters headed directly towards the advancing Sri Lankan forces. After a two-hour firefight the van was hit by a rocket killing most if not all of the occupants and ending the battle. Troops removed and have identified the bodies of Prabhakaran as well as Colonel Soosai (head of the Sea Tigers), and Pottu Amman (the intelligence commander). ^[80]

[edit] Organisation and activities

This section may need to be updated. Please update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information, and remove this template when finished. Please see the talk page for more information.

[edit] Structure

The LTTE is organized into three main divisions: a military wing, a political wing and a fund raising wing. A central governing body oversees all of the divisions, which was headed by the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran until his death in May 2009. It is estimated that the LTTE has assets and investments in the range of $300 million to $1 billion.^[81]

[edit] Military

Tamil Tigers in a truck in Kilinochchi in April 2004

In the LTTE, recruits are instructed to be prepared to die for the cause, and are issued with a cyanide capsule to be swallowed in the case of capture.^[82] The LTTE also has a special squad of suicide bombers, called the Black Tigers, which it deploys for critical missions.^[83]

The military wing includes the following specific subdivisions, which are directly controlled and directed by the central governing body:

Sea Tigers – an amphibious warfare unit focusing on utilization of naval firepower and logistics, mainly consisting of lightweight boats.^[84]

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.^[85]

Black Tigers – a suicide commando unit, which has carried out between 100 and 200 missions.

[edit] Sea Tigers

Main article: Sea Tigers

Colonel Soosai of the Sea Tigers

The Sea Tigers is the naval force of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and is lead by Colonel Soosai.^[86] It is believed to have about 2,000 personnel and has become a potent threat to the Sri Lankan Navy at Sea.^[87] According to a 2006 publication of the Woodrow Wilson School of Politics and International Studies, the Sea Tigers have destroyed 35%-50% of the Sri Lankan Navy's coastal craft.^[88]^[89]

Following its northern offensive, the Sri Lankan military reported that it captured Sea Tiger main base in Mullaitivu and several boat yards. In early February 2009, the military reported once again that it captured the last major Sea Tiger base, killing three senior commanders in the process^[90] and thus limiting Sea Tiger operations. Several days later it was claimed that Sea Tigers leader Soosai and several top aids were killed in a Sri Lanka Air Force raid on a command center.^[91]

[edit] Air Tigers

Main article: Air Tigers

The Air Tigers was the air force of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Air Tigers were believed to have operated five light aircraft. The organization was revealed in 2007 when it conducted its first air raid on the Sri Lankan Air Force base. It later conducted another four air raids. With the Air Tigers, LTTE became the first non-state organization to establish an air force. Although the Sri Lankan Army captured Kilinochchi on January 2, 2009, it was not able to locate the LTTE aircraft.^[92] Later, two LTTE aircraft were shot down in Colombo during a suicide attack on the Sri Lanka Air Force headquarters and the Sri Lanka Air Force base hangars in Katunayake^[93].

[edit] Black Tigers

Main article: Black Tigers

A Suicide Commando Unit , which is known for carrying deadly attacks against the Sri Lankan Army and also, politicians who opposed their movement of a separate state for the minority Tamil. The Black Tigers are the first to assassinate major political figures and has been known to carry roughly around 100–200 missions, all concluding in a deadly aftermath. Ranging from men to women, attacks were carried out to eliminate enemies for the LTTE to advance and control territory.

[edit] Administrative

Tamil Eelam territorial claim (green) and approximate de facto territory controlled at the time of the launching of the 2008–2009 Sri Lankan Army Northern offensive (yellow).^[94]^[95] During the final army offensive, however, all of this area was recaptured by Sri Lankan forces.

Percentage of Sri Lankan Tamils per district based on the census from 2001 or 1981 (cursive), the last census year in Tamil regions.

Although the LTTE was formed as a military group, it later transformed into a de facto government. The LTTE controlled sections in the north of the island, especially the regions lying around the cities of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.

Political Wing of LTTE- The Chief/Leader was Anton Balasingam, who also held as a key influence in major peace talks with Sri Lanka and the third-party of Norway. After his death on December 14, 2006, B. Nadesan took over as political head and lead the political wing of the LTTE
Tiger Intelligence – The intelligence wing, which has helped the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with exclusive missions such as radars and more to prepare the military for an attack. Pottu Amman, the leader of the Intelligence Wing was believed to be shot by the Sri Lankan Army on May 19, 2009
International Relations – They are believed to be the only LTTE Wing to be standing after the Sri Lankan's Army's final offensive; it is led by current leader Selvarasa Pathmanathan. From an unknown location, operating outside Sri Lanka/Tamil Eelam, the International Relations Wing is now going to lead the LTTE and Tamil Eelam into exile in regards to a provisional transnational government.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Tiger Courts

The LTTE implemented a judicial system that consisted of courts to adjudicate in criminal and civil matters. The Tamil Eelam judicial system consisted of district courts, high courts, a supreme court and a court of appeal. The district courts handled civil and criminal cases. The two high courts handled criminal cases such as rape, murder, treason and arson. The supreme court had jurisdiction over the whole of Tamil Eelam. The courts were said to be effective,^[96] and people who had a choice went to the Tamil Eelam courts rather than the Sri Lankan courts.^[96] LTTE also released law books that were updated.^[48]^[96]^[97]^[98]

[edit] Tiger Police

LTTE also established a police force. The Tamil Eelam police was the other key factor in maintaining law and order. The police was formed in 1991 and, prior to the 2009 offensive, had its headquarters at Kilinochchi.^[48] Police stations were established in all areas controlled by the LTTE. The LTTE claimed that its police force was the reason for the low crime rate, but critics of the LTTE claim that the police force was an integrated arm of the LTTE armed force and that the crime rate is low as a result of LTTE authoritarian rules. However, everyone agrees the police force and the judicial system was the reason for high degree of rule of law in the areas controlled by the LTTE.^[96]

[edit] Social Welfare

Another state function of the LTTE administration was social welfare. This humanitarian assistant arm was funded by tax collection internally.^[96]^[97]^[98] LTTE also established an education and health sector that offered services to the people under their control.^[48] It also created a human rights organization, called Northeast Secretariat on Human Rights, that functioned to advocate the rights of Tamils. Though not recognized by international government, it acted as a human rights commission. The commission communicated with the LTTE regarding complaints of child recruiting which resulted in the release of the recruit.^[96] The Planning and Development Secretariat (PDS) was established in 2004 which acted as a needs assessment body responsible for studying the needs for people and formulating a plan for effective action in areas that needed humanitarian assistance. There were also many civil servants who worked in the LTTE-controlled areas who were directed by the LTTE but paid by the Sri Lankan government.^[96]^[99]^[100]^[101] A customs service was operated at the "border" by the Tamil Tigers.^[98]^[102]

[edit] Voice of Tigers

In addition to the civil administration, LTTE also ran its own radio and television stations. These entities were named the Voice of Tigers and National Tamil Eelam Television respectively. Both the radio and television channel were aired from the areas under LTTE control.^[97]

[edit] Bank of Tamileelam

LTTE also ran a bank named the Bank of Tamileelam which used the Sri Lankan rupee as its currency but offered higher interest rates than any bank on the island.^[103]^[104]

Following the Sri Lankan Army's capture of the claimed LTTE administrative capital Kilinochchi^[105] on 2 January 2009, the LTTE's administration system has been dismantled.^[106]

[edit] Humanitarian assistance

After the Asian Tsunami in 2004, the Tigers set up a special task force called the "tsunami task force" for humanitarian assistance to the people affected by the tsunami. The Planning and Development Secretariat (PDS) was responsible for needs assessments for various humanitarian organization to maximize effectiveness of resettlement reconstruction and rehabilitation. After the tsunami, the PDS was responsible of coordinating and directing the NGOs involved in tsunami relief work.^[96] Furthermore, according to Tsunami Evaluation Coalition the key NGOs that responded also claimed that the LTTE forces provided extremely efficient and focused leadership and support to the relief effort in the areas controlled by the Tigers.^[107]

During the second round of negotiation between Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka, an agreement was reached for a joint Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS). This mechanism would allow the government and LTTE to share funds for tsunami relief. However, this agreement was bitterly opposed by hardliners in the government and some moderates. As a result, the P-TOMS was challenged in the Sri Lankan supreme court. The court put the P-TOMS on hold.^[96]^[107]

[edit] Political

The 2002 Cease Fire Agreement made the LTTE shift its struggle for self-determination from militant to more political means. The LTTE's own political wing was the result of this. This political wing also played a critical role in regard to both the peace process and local state building. However, LTTE's political wing did not participate in Sri Lankan parliamentary elections. The LTTE instead openly supported the Tamil National Alliance, which won overwhelmingly in 22 out of 25 electorates in the North-east and won over 90% of votes in the electoral district of Jaffna.^[48]^[96]^[108]

[edit] Religion

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is a secular organization, regarding the religious beliefs of its members as private matters^[109]

[edit] Women in LTTE

Sothiya Regiment of the LTTE – Female soldiers

In 1984, LTTE created an all-female unit called the Freedom Birds (Suthanthirap Paravaikal). This unit was the first group of women to be given military training in India. The LTTE advocates equality for women from both male oppression and social oppression.^[110]^[111] This support for equality attracted many women into the LTTE ranks. As a result LTTE became the first Tamil militant group to employ women as soldiers in the battlefield.^{[citation needed]} Tamil women believe that their participation in the armed struggle will bring them advantage in a future peaceful society and allow them to take part in "liberating" their society. The proportion of female combatants was small until June 1990, but increased rapidly afterward.^[111] Freedom Birds' first operation was in October 1987 and the first woman combatant to die was 2nd Lt. Maalathi,^[111]^[110] on October 10, 1987, in an encounter with the IPKF at Kopai on the Jaffna peninsula. An estimated 4000 women cadres have been killed since then, including over 100 in 'Black Tiger' suicide squads.^[110] Apart from military roles, the female soldiers have also produced numerous publications and many of them are described as rich in culture and writing.^[111]^[112]^[113]

[edit] List of commanders

Current and former senior LTTE commanders are listed below. Some of the names are aliases that don't reflect the person's religious background.

Shanmugalingam Sivashankar	Thillaiyampalam Sivanesan	Balasegaram Kandiah
Vaithilingam Sornalingam	S. P. Thamilselvan	Sathasivam Krishnakumar
Thileepan	Ramalingam Paramadeva	Colonel Jeyam^[114]
Colonel Theepan^[115]	Colonel Ramesh^[116]	Kandiah Ulaganathan^[117]
Colonel Bhanu^[118]	Colonel Sornam^[119]	Colonel Vithusha^[120]
Colonel Thurka^[121]	Shanmuganathan Ravishankar^[122]	Captain Miller^[123]
Maria Vasanthi Michael^[124]	Marcelin Fuselus^[125]	Sathasivam Selvanayakam
Charles Lucas Anthony	Captain Pandithar	Yogaratnam Kugan
Lt. Colonel Ratha	Lt. Colonel Santhosham	Lt. Colonel Pulendran
Ambalavanar Neminathan	Colonel Pathuman	Manickapodi Maheswaran
Lt. Colonel Kumarappa	Lt. Maalathi	Lt Colonel Appaiah
Lt. Colonel Akbar	Thambirasa Kuhasanthan	Gangai Amaran (LTTE)
Major Mano	Balasingham Nadesan	Irasaiah Ilanthirayan
V.Balakumaran (LTTE)	Cheliyan	Colonel Karuna

[edit] Other formations

Charles Anthony Brigade	Jeyanthan Brigade	Sothiya Regiment
Maalathi Regiment	Kuti Sri Mortar Unit	Victor Anti Tank and Armoured Unit
Imran Pandiyan Unit	LTTE Anti-Aircraft Unit	Kittu Artillery Unit
Ponnamman Mining Unit	Ratha Regiment	Puki

[edit] Links to other designated terrorist organizations

As early as the mid-1970s, LTTE rebels were widely known to have trained members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Southern Lebanon, where concepts of suicide bombings, taxation, and war memorials were imparted to PFLP fighters.^[126] After the 1990 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, Indian government officials claimed to have discovered a covert link between the PLO and the LTTE: the PLO had plead for Mr. Gandhi to accept a proposal from the LTTE. This advice raised eyebrows at the time, but was largely ignored until his assassination shortly thereafter.^[126]

As late as 1998, the Tigers clearly stated:

... the LTTE has resolved to work in solidarity with the world national liberation movements, socialist states, and international working class parties. We uphold an anti-imperialist policy and therefore we pledge our militant solidarity against western imperialism, neo-colonialists, Zionism, racism and other forces of reaction.^[126]

The Westminster Journal further states:

Intelligence agencies are well aware that the LTTE was involved in the 1990s in training the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) both of which are closely linked to al-Qaeda. In 1995 and 1998, an LTTE combat tactician and an LTTE explosives expert accompanying groups of al-Qaeda Arabs was recorded training members of MILF. In 1999, an LTTE combat tactician accompanying a group of al-Qaeda Arabs was recorded training members of the ASG. At the apparent behest of al-Qaeda, the LTTE is recorded training members of Al Ummah (An Islamic terrorist group formed in India in 1992, believed to be responsible for bombings in southern India in 1998) in Tamil Nadu, India.^[126]

The Times of India, in a 2001 article, highlights an alleged nexus between al-Qaeda and the LTTE, and claims that "[al-Qaeda links with the LTTE] are the first instance of an Islamist group collaborating with an essentially secular outfit".^[127] Additionally, the US-based research organisation "Maritime Intelligence Group" said the Indonesian group Jemaah Islamiya, which has known links to al-Qaeda, had been trained in sea-borne guerrilla tactics by LTTE Sea Tiger veterans.^[126]

"Norwegians Against Terrorism", a one-man band led by convicted murderer Falk Rune Rovik,^[128]^[129] further described how the Tamil community in Norway, at the behest of the LTTE, sold fake and stolen Norwegian passports to al-Qaeda members.^[126] The LTTE itself acquired a fake passport for Ramzi Yousef, convicted mastermind of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center in New York.^[126]

A Council on Foreign Affairs article by Preeti Bhattacharji stated, "the secular nationalist LTTE currently has no operational connection with al-Qaeda, its radical Islamist affiliates, or other terrorist groups,"^[130] but "In its early days, experts say the LTTE did train with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The group may still interact with other terrorist organizations through illegal arms markets in Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia."^[131]

[edit] LTTE tactics in other terrorist organizations

Some of LTTE's attacks in Sri Lanka have similarities to attacks by, other proscribed groups. Some examples are:

The similarities between previous LTTE attacks against Sri Lanka Navy ships and the al-Qaeda attack on the USS Cole which killed 17 US Navy sailors.^[132] The incident has raised suspicions of connections between the two groups. The "Maritime Intelligence Group" based in Washington DC claims to have unearthed substantial evidence that the LTTE trained Indonesian Islamists in the technique of maritime suicide bombings. The group, linked to al-Qaeda, is believed to have then passed the technique it learned from the LTTE to al-Qaeda itself.^[126]
The website "South Asian Terrorism Portal" claimed that the LTTE provided forged passports to Ramzi Yousef, who was one of the planners of the first attack against the World Trade Center in New York in 1993.^[133] The allegation has been backed by the Westminster Journal as well.^[126]
The website "South Asian Terrorism Portal" also states that there are increasing intelligence reports that the LTTE was smuggling arms to various terrorist organizations, including Islamic groups in Pakistan and their counterparts in the Philippines,^[133] using their covert smuggling networks. The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies found that LTTE was building commercial links with al-Qaeda and other militants in Afghanistan, and that several cadres were spotted in Afghan militant camps.^[126]^[134]^[135]
Falk Rovik, a convicted murderer,^[129] accused the LTTE of stealing Norwegian passports and selling them to al-Qaeda in Algeria to earn money to buy weapons. He further alleged that funds from Government of Norway had been inadvertently diverted to the LTTE.^[136]^[137]
India's National Security Adviser, M K Narayanan, alleges that LTTE raises money by smuggling narcotics. A recent arrest of LTTE operatives in Colombia corroborates this claim.^[126]
According to an "anti-LTTE" website, Glen Jenvey, a former employee of the government of Sri Lanka and a specialist on international terrorism, claimed that al-Qaeda has copied most of its terror tactics from the LTTE^[138] He highlighted the LTTE as the mastermind that sets the pattern for organizations like al-Qaeda to pursue. The Maritime Intelligence Group in Washington DC even states that al-Qaeda learned the tactic through LTTE contacts teaching Indonesians the methods.^[139]
According to Asian Tribune, attacks on civilians in buses and trains in Sri Lanka were copied in the attack on public civilian transport during July 2005 bombings in London.^[138]
The LTTE's ethnic cleansing campaigns against Muslims in northern Sri Lanka from 1985 to 1992 provided the inspiration for, and model by which, Kashmiri separatists would evict Hindus from Kashmir in late 1989–1990.^[126]

[edit] Assassinations

Main article: List of assassinations of the Sri Lankan Civil War

The LTTE has been condemned by various groups for assassination of political and military opponents. The victims include Tamil moderates who coordinated with Sri Lanka Government, Tamil paramilitary groups assisting Sri Lankan Army. The assassination of Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was the head of Sri Lanka, is attributed to LTTE.

LTTE sympathizers justify some of the assassinations by arguing that the people attacked were combatants or persons closely associated with Sri Lankan military intelligence. Specifically in relation to the TELO, the LTTE has said that it had to perform preemptive self-defence because the TELO was in effect functioning as a proxy for India.^[140]

[edit] Human rights violations

The United States Department of State states that its reason for banning LTTE as a proscribed terrorist group is based on allegations that LTTE does not respect human rights and that it does not adhere to the standards of conduct expected of a resistance movement or what might be called "freedom fighters".^[141]^[142]^[143]^[144] The FBI has described the LTTE as "amongst the most dangerous and deadly extremist outfits in the world".^[145] Other countries have also proscribed LTTE under the same rationale. Numerous countries and international organizations have accused the LTTE of attacking civilians and recruits children.^[146]

[edit] Attacks on civilians

Main article: List of attacks attributed to the LTTE

The LTTE has launched attacks on civilian targets several times. Notable attacks include the Aranthalawa Massacre,^[147] Anuradhapura massacre,^[148] Kattankudy mosque massacre,^[149] the Kebithigollewa massacre^[150] and the Dehiwala train bombing.^[151] Civilians have also been killed in attacks on economic targets, such as the Central Bank bombing.^[151]^[152]

[edit] Child soldiers

Main article: Military use of children in Sri Lanka

The LTTE has been accused of recruiting and using child soldiers to fight against Sri Lankan government forces.^[153]^[154]^[155] The LTTE was accused of having up to 5,794 child soldiers in its ranks since 2001.^[156]^[157]

Amid international pressure, the LTTE announced in July 2003 that it would stop conscripting child soldiers, but both UNICEF^[158]^[159] and Human Rights Watch^[160] have accused it of reneging on its promises, and of conscripting Tamil children orphaned by the tsunami.^[161] However, since 2007, the LTTE has claimed that it will release all of the recruits under the age of 18 before the end of the year. On 18 June 2007, the LTTE released 135 children under 18. UNICEF, along with the United States, states that there has been a significant drop in LTTE recruitment of children, but claims that 506 child recruits remain under the LTTE.^[162] A report released by the LTTE's Child Protection Authority (CPA) in 2008 reported that less than 40 soldiers under age 18 remained in its forces.^[163] However in 2009 a Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations said the Tamil Tigers "continue to recruit children to fight on the frontlines", and "use force to keep many civilians, including children, in harms way".^[164]

The LTTE argues that instances of child recruitment occurred mostly in the east, under the purview of former LTTE regional commander Colonel Karuna. After leaving the LTTE and forming the TMVP, it is alleged that Karuna continued to forcibly kidnap and induct child soldiers.^[165]^[166] Its official position is that earlier, some of its cadres erroneously recruited volunteers in their late teens.^{[citation needed]} It says that its official policy is now that it will not accept child soldiers. It also says that some underage youths lie about their age and are therefore allowed to join, but are sent back home to their parents as soon as they are discovered to be underage.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Suicide bombings

Main article: Black Tigers

The LTTE pioneered the use of concealed suicide bomb vests.^[167] According to Jane's Information Group, between 1980 and 2000, the LTTE carried out 168 suicide attacks causing heavy damage on economic and military targets.^[146]

Many of these attacks have involved military objectives in the north and east of the country, although civilians have been targeted on numerous occasions, including during a high profile attack on Colombo's International Airport in 2001 that caused damage to several commercial airliners and military jets, and killed 16 people.^[168] The LTTE was also responsible for a 1998 attack on the Buddhist shrine, and UNESCO world heritage site, Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy that killed 8 worshipers. The attack was symbolic in that the shrine, which houses a sacred tooth of the Buddha, is the holiest Buddhist shrine in Sri Lanka.^[169] Other Buddhist shrines have been attacked, notably the Sambuddhaloka Temple in Colombo that killed 9 worshipers.^[170]

Relatively speaking, there have been fewer operations in the south where most of the Sinhalese live, including the capital Colombo, although such attacks have often engaged high-profile targets and attracted much international publicity as a result.^[171]

The LTTE's Black Tigers has been attributed with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, who was killed in 1991 using a prototype suicide vest, and Ranasinghe Premadasa, assassinated in 1993.^[146]

[edit] Ethnic cleansing

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this section if you can. (February 2009)

Main article: Expulsion of Muslims from the Northern province by LTTE

The LTTE is responsible for forcibly removing, or "ethnically cleansing",^[172]^[173] Sinhalese and Muslim inhabitants from areas under its control, and using violence against those who refuse to leave. The evictions happened in the north in 1990, and the east in 1992. Tamil sources openly state:

Islam, however, is not being practiced presently [In Tamil Eelam], as the Muslims have been asked to leave the Tamil Eelam territory until the independence of Tamil Eelam. The Muslims supported the aggressive Sri Lankan Sinhala and Muslim Military against the freedom of Tamil Eelam.^[174]

Ironically, however, Muslim and Tamil communities in the North of Sri Lanka had participated together in the early days of the Tamil movement, and Muslim ironmongers in Mannar fashioned weapons for the LTTE, and local Tamil leaders were disturbed at the LTTE's call for the eviction of Muslims.^[175] However, as Tamil intellectuals began viewing Muslims as outsiders, rather than a part of the Tamil nation as they had been referred to previously, the LTTE undertook its anti-Muslim campaigns.

In its 1976 Vaddukodai Resolution, LTTE condemns the Sri Lankan government for, as it claimed, "unleashing successive bouts of communal violence on both the Tamils and Muslims."^[176] In 2005, the "International Federation of Tamils" claimed that the Sri Lankan military purposefully stoked tensions between Tamils and Muslims, in an attempt to undermine Tamil security.^[177] As Tamils turned to the LTTE for support, the Muslims were left with the Sri Lankan state as their sole defender, and so in the eyes of the LTTE, the Muslims had legitimized the role of the state, and were thus viewed as Sri Lankans.^[177]

Beginning in 1985, the LTTE forcibly occupied 35,000 acres of Muslim-owned farmland in the north of Sri Lanka, before systematically evicting the Muslims from areas under LTTE control.^[178]

Although anti-Muslim pogroms had occurred in the north and east of Sri Lanka since 1985, the LTTE embarked on a campaign to expel Muslims from the North in 1989. The first eviction notice was sent to the Muslims of Chavakacheri on October 15, 1989, after the LTTE entered the local mosque and threatened Muslims a few weeks earlier.^[175] Afterward, the houses of evicted Muslims were ransacked and looted.^[175] On October 28, 1989, the Muslims of Mannar, in the North of Sri Lanka, were told,

"All Muslims living in Mannar island should leave by 28 October. Before leaving, they must seek permission and clearance at the LTTE Office. The LTTE will decide their exit route."^[175]

The deadline was extended by four days after pleas from local Tamil Catholics, who were left to look after many Muslims' property in anticipation of looting by the Sri Lankan army – although the Catholics themselves were later robbed by the LTTE of both their own, and the Muslims' property.^[175] On the 28th, while Muslims were preparing to leave, the LTTE barred Hindus from entering Muslim villages and dealing with them. The areas were reopened on the November 3, after Muslims had been packed onto the boats of Muslim fishermen and sent southwards along the coast.^[175]

After a lull in ethnic cleansing, the LTTE on August 3, 1990, sealed off a Shiite mosque in Kattankady, the Meera Jumma and Husseinia, and opened fire through the mosque's windows, leaving 147 Muslim worshipers dead, out of 300 gathered for Friday prayers.^[179] Fifteen days later, LTTE gunmen shot dead between 122 and 173 Muslim civilians in the town of Eravur^[179]^[180]

Ethnic cleansing culminated on October 30, 1990 when the LTTE forcibly expelled the entire Muslim population of Jaffna. LTTE commanders from the east announced at 7:30 A.M. that all Muslims in Jaffna were to report to Osmania stadium, where they were to be addressed by two LTTE leaders, Karikalana and Anjaneyar.^[175] After listening to the leaders denigrate Muslims for allegedly attacking Tamils in the east, the leaders explained to the community that they had two hours to evacuate the city.^[181] The community was released from the stadium at 10 A.M., and by noon, and were only allowed to carry 500 rupees, while the rest of their possessions were seized by the LTTE after they were forced to report to LTTE checkpoints upon exiting Jaffna.^[175]

In total, over 12,700 Muslim families, roughly 75,000 people, were forcibly evicted from LTTE-controlled areas on the Northern Province.^[182]

In 1992, the LTTE embarked on a campaign to create a contiguous Tamil Hindu-Christian homeland that stretched from the North of Sri Lanka, and downwards along the Eastern Coast. A large Tamil-speaking Muslim population inhabited a narrow strip of land between the two entities, and so a pattern of "ethnic cleansing" emerged in Eastern Sri Lanka, as was already done in the North. "The LTTE unleashed violence against the Muslims of Alinchipothanai and killed 69 Muslim villagers. This led to a retaliatory violence against the Tamils in Muthugala, where 49 Tamils were killed allegedly by the Muslim Home guards."^[183] Later in the year, the LTTE attacked four Muslim villages (Palliyagodalla, Akbarpuram, Ahmedpuram and Pangurana) and killed 187 Muslims.^[183] The Australian Muslim Times later commented on 30 October 1992: "The massacres, eviction and the atrocities by the Tamil Tigers are carried out in order to derive the Muslim Community from their traditional land in the Eastern province as they have done it in the northern province and then set up a separate state only for Tamils".^[183]

In 2002, the LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran had formally apologized for the expulsion of Muslims from the north and asked the Muslims to return. Some families have returned and re-opened the Osmaniya College and two mosques are functioning now.^{[citation needed]} Since the apology, TamilNet, which is widely seen as an LTTE mouthpiece, has featured numerous stories of Muslim civilians coming under attack from Sinhalese forces. However, the stories may simply reflect crime, and not the ethnic hatred that TamilNet suggest.^[184]

The LTTE is also accused of organizing massacres of Sinhala villagers who settled in the Northeast under the dry lands policy.^[185]^[186]^[187]

[edit] Anti-Muslim campaigns of 1990

During the summer of 1990, the LTTE killed over 370 Muslims in the North and East of Sri Lanka in 11 mass killings^[183] Numerous mosques were attacked, and dozens of pilgrims from the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia were killed. The number of Muslims killed in individual attacks, rather than massacres and high-profile murders, remains unknown.

[edit] Proscription as a terrorist group

32 countries have listed the LTTE as a terrorist organization.^[188]^[189] As of January 2009, these include:

India (since 1992)^[190]
United States (designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the Department of State since October 8, 1997. Named as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) since November 2, 2001)^[191]^[192]
United Kingdom (designated as Proscribed Terrorist Group under the Terrorism Act 2000 by the Home Secretary since 2000)^[193]
European Union (since 2006; 27 countries)^[194]
Canada (since 2006)^[195] Canada does not grant residency to LTTE members on the grounds that they have participated in crimes against humanity.^[196]
Sri Lanka (from January 1998 to September 4, 2002,^[197] and again from January 7, 2009)^[198]
Australia (since 2001)^[199] and other countries have listed the LTTE as a terrorist group in accordance with Resolution 1373.

The first country to ban the LTTE was its early ally, India. The Indian change of policy came gradually, starting with the IPKF-LTTE conflict, and culminating with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. India opposes the new state Tamil Eelam that LTTE wants to establish, saying that it would lead to Tamil Nadu's separation from India though the leaders of Tamil Nadu are opposing it. Sri Lanka itself lifted the ban on the LTTE before signing the ceasefire agreement in 2002. This was a prerequisite set by the LTTE for the signing of the agreement.^[200]^[201]

According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, "LTTE has perfected the use of suicide bombers, invented the suicide belt, pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks, murdered some 4,000 people in the past two years alone, and assassinated two world leaders—the only terrorist organization to do so.^[202]"

The European Union banned LTTE as a terrorist organization on May 17, 2006. In a statement, the European Parliament said that the LTTE did not represent all the Tamils and called on it to "allow for political pluralism and alternate democratic voices in the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka".^[203]

[edit] Criminal activities

One factor that has greatly benefited the LTTE has been its sophisticated international support network. While some of the funding obtained by the LTTE is from legitimate fund raising and extortion among Tamil diaspora,^[204]^[205] a significant portion is obtained through criminal activities, involving sea piracy, human smuggling, drug trafficking and gunrunning.^[206]^[207]^[208]^[209]

[edit] Sea piracy

The LTTE has been accused of hijacking several vessels in waters outside Sri Lanka, including the Irish Mona (in August 1995), Princess Wave (in August 1996), Athena (in May 1997), Misen (in July 1997), Morong Bong (in July 1997), MV Cordiality (in September 1997), Princess Kash (in August 1998) and MV Farah III (December 2006). The MV Sik Yang, a 2,818-ton Malaysian-flag cargo ship which sailed from Tuticorin, India on May 25, 1999 was reported missing in waters near Sri Lanka. The ship with a cargo of bagged salt was due at the Malaysian port of Malacca on May 31. The fate of the ship's crew of 15 is unknown. It is suspected that the vessel was hijacked by the LTTE and is now being used as a phantom vessel. Likewise the crew of a Jordanian ship, MV Farah III, that ran aground near LTTE-controlled territory off the island's coast, accused the Tamil Tigers of risking their lives and forcing them to abandon the vessel which was carrying 14,000 tonnes of Indian rice.^[210]

[edit] Arms smuggling

This section relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations of additional sources. (June 2009)

The anti-rebel Mackenzie Institute claimed that one of LTTE's secretive international operations is the smuggling of weapons, explosives, and "dual use" technologies. The part of the LTTE responsible for these activities is nicknamed "KP Branch", taking the initials of its high level operative, Kumaran Padmanathan. The workers for the KP Branch are from outside the fighting wing of the LTTE, since the identities of those fighters are recorded and available to law enforcement and counter-intelligence agencies by India's Research and Analysis Wing, who had helped train many Tiger cadres in the early 1980s. The KP Branch operates secretively by having the minimum connection possible with the LTTE's other sections for further security. It hands over the arms shipments to a team of Sea Tigers to deliver them to the LTTE-dominated areas.^[211]

The Mackenzie Institute further claimed that in order to carry out the activities of international arms trafficking, the LTTE operates its own fleet of ocean-going vessels. These vessels only operate a certain period of time for the LTTE and in the remaining time they transport legitimate goods and raise hard cash for the purchase of weapons. The LTTE initially operated a shipping base in Myanmar, but was forced to leave due to diplomatic pressure. To overcome this loss, a new base has been set up on Phuket Island, in Thailand.^[211]

Furthermore, The Mackenzie Institute claimed that the most expertly executed operation of the KP Branch was the theft of 32,400 rounds of 81 mm mortar ammunition purchased from Tanzania destined for the Sri Lanka Army. Being aware of the purchase of 35,000 mortar bombs, the LTTE made a bid to the manufacturer through a numbered company and arranged a vessel of their own to pick up the load. Once the bombs were loaded into the ship, the LTTE changed the name and registration of their ship. The vessel was taken to Tiger-held territory in Sri Lanka's north instead of transporting it to its intended destination.^[211]

Western countries are the main territory for fund raising activities of the LTTE. The money raised from donations and enterprises are transferred into bank accounts of the Tigers and from there to the accounts of a weapons broker, or the money is taken by KP operatives themselves. LTTE's need for resources is mostly fulfilled by the Tamils who reside outside Sri Lanka. In 1995, when the LTTE lost Jaffna, its international operatives were ordered to increase, by 50%, the amount raised from Tamils outside the island.^[211]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

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^ "Thalayasingam Sivakumar (Appellant) v Minister of Employment and Immigration (Respondent)". Canadian Government. 4 November 1993. http://reports.fja.gc.ca/eng/1993/1994fca0318.html/1994fca0318.html.html. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
^ "Peace talks team for Thailand finalised: Government lifts LTTE proscription". Daily News. 2002-09-05. http://www.dailynews.lk/2002/09/05/new001.html. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
^ Government Information Department (7 January 2009). "LTTE is banned by the SL Govt: with immediate effect". Ministry of Defence, Sri Lanka. http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090107_15. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
^ Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (10 December 2001). "Charter of the United Nations (Anti-terrorism — Persons and Entities) List 2001 (No. 2)". Australian Government. http://www.dfat.gov.au/icat/persons_entities/2_proscribed_entities_10dec2001.html. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
^ "Timeline: Sri Lanka". BBC News. 6 January 2009 (updated). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/country_profiles/1166237.stm. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
^ "LTTE ban lifted". SCOPP. 2002-09-05. http://www.peaceinsrilanka.org/insidepages/Archive/September/banlifted.asp. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
^ TAMING THE TAMIL TIGERS, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2008-01-10
^ Baruah, Amit (31 May 2006). "European Union bans LTTE". The Hindu. http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/31/stories/2006053117200100.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
^ Wadhwaney, Rohit William (11 May 2006). "Lankan expats 'forced to fund LTTE'". Gulf Times (Gulf Publishing & Printing). http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=85944&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id=56. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
^ Becker, Jo (14 March 2006) (PDF). Funding the "Final War" LTTE Intimidation and Extortion in the Tamil Diaspora. Human Rights Watch. pp. 1–5. http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/ltte0306webwcover.pdf. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
^ Rabasa, Angel; Chalk, Peter; Cragin, Kim; Daly, Sara A.; Gregg, Heather S.; Karasik, Theodore W.; O'Brien, Kevin A.; Rosenau, William (2006) (PDF), Beyond al-Qaeda: The Outer Rings of the Terrorist Universe, RAND Corporation, pp. 101–108, ISBN 978-0-8330-3932-3, http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2006/RAND_MG430.pdf, retrieved 2009-02-10 .
^ "US criticises Tamil Tiger smuggling". BBC News. BBC News. 12 February 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2752455.stm. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
^ "Sri Lankan pleads guilty in Tamil Tigers arms plot". Channel NewsAsia (MediaCorp). 11 May 2007. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/275514/1/.html. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
^ Ross, Barbara (16 October 2007). "Sri Lankan terror gang busted in ATM heist plot". The New York Daily News (Daily News). http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/10/16/2007-10-16_sri_lankan_terror_gang_busted_in_atm_hei-2.html. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
^ "Jordanian crew slam Tigers for piracy". The Hindu. 26 December 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-01-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20070103190254/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200612261552.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Other people's wars: A Review of Overseas Terrorism in Canada, John Thompson, The Mackenzie Institute.

[edit] Further reading

Balasingham, Adele. (2003). The Will to Freedom - An Inside View of Tamil Resistance. Fairmax Publishing Ltd. 2nd ed. ISBN 1-903679-03-6.
Balasingham, Anton. (2004). War and Peace - Armed Struggle and Peace Efforts of Liberation Tigers. Fairmax Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-903679-05-2.
de Votta, Neil. (2004) Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4924-8.
Gamage, Siri and I.B. Watson (Editors). (1999). Conflict and Community in Contemporary Sri Lanka - 'Pearl of the East' or 'Island of Tears'?. Sage Publications Ltd. ISBN 0-7619-9393-2.
Hansard Australia. (2006). Commonwealth of Australia Parliamentary Debates. Senate Transcript for 16 June 2006.
Hellmann-Rajanayagam, D. (1994). The Groups and the rise of Militant Secessions, in Manogaram, C. and Pfaffenberger, B. (editors). The Sri Lankan Tamils. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-8133-8845-7.
"Child Soldier Use 2003: A Briefing for the 4th UN Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict". Human Rights Watch. January 2003. Archived from the original on 2007-05-16. http://web.archive.org/web/20070516141422/http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/childsoldiers0104/16.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
La, J. 2004. Forced remittances in Canada's Tamil enclaves, Peace Review 16:3. September 2004. pp. 379–385.
Narayan Swamy, M. R. (2002). Tigers of Lanka: from Boys to Guerrillas. Konark Publishers; 3rd ed. ISBN 81-220-0631-0.
Pratap, Anita. (2001). Island of Blood: Frontline Reports From Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Other South Asian Flashpoints. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-302906-9.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

Tamil sites

Sri Lanka Government sites

International Organizations

International Press

Mexico Refuses to give Legitimacy to the LTTE by Dushy Ranetunge, Asia News Network, April 19 2009
Sri Lankan Civilians Trapped by Tamil Tigers 'Last Stand' By Simon Montlake, The Christian Science Monitor, May 3, 2009
Guerrilla Tactics - How the Tamil Tigers Were Beaten in an 'Unwinnable' War by Jeremy Page, The Times, May 19 2009

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_Tigers_of_Tamil_Eelam"

Philippines

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This article is about the country in Southeast Asia. For the town in the Netherlands, see Philippine (Netherlands).

Republic of the Philippines

Republika ng Pilipinas


Flag	Coat of arms

Motto: Maka-Diyos, Maka-Tao, Makakalikasan, at Makabansa^[1]
("For God, People, Nature, and Country")

Anthem: Lupang Hinirang
("Chosen Land")

Location of Philippines (green)

in ASEAN (dark grey) — [Legend]

Capital

Manila

14°35′N 121°0′E / 14.583°N 121°E / 14.583; 121

Largest city

Quezon City

Official languages

Filipino (Tagalog) , English

Recognised regional languages

Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilokano, Kapampangan, Kinaray-a, Maguindanao, Maranao, Pangasinan, Tausug, Waray-Waray ^[2]

Voluntary and optional languages

Spanish and Arabic

Filipino or Pinoy

Unitary presidential constitutional republic

President

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

Supreme Court Chief Justice

Reynato Puno

Independence

from Spain³
from United States

April 27, 1565

June 12, 1898

March 24, 1934

July 4, 1946

February 2, 1987

Total

300,000 km² ^[3](72nd)
115,831 sq mi

Water (%)

0.61%^[3]

Population

2009 estimate

91,983,000^[4] (12th)

2007 census

88,574,614 ^[5]

Density

306.6/km² (44th)
794.1/sq mi

GDP (PPP)

2008 estimate

Total

$317.964 billion^[6] (36th)

Per capita

$3,515^[6] (123rd)

GDP (nominal)

2008 estimate

Total

$166.909 billion^[6] (47th)

Per capita

$1,845^[6] (121st)

Gini (2006)

45.8^[3] (medium)

HDI (2007)

▲ 0.751^[7] (medium) (105th)

Currency

Peso (Filipino: piso

) (PHP)

Time zone

PST (UTC+8)

Summer (DST)

not observed (UTC+0)

right^[8]

Spanish and Arabic are recognized as auxiliary languages in the Philippine Constitution.

Rankings above were taken from associated Wikipedia pages as of December, 2007, and may be based on data or data sources other than those appearing here.

Philippine revolutionaries declared independence from Spain on June 12, 1898, but the Spanish claim of sovereignty was passed from Spain to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. This led to the Philippine-American War.

The Philippines (Filipino: Pilipinas [pɪlɪˈpinɐs]) officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. To its west across the South China Sea is Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest separates it from the island of Borneo and to the south the Celebes Sea from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines has the 5th longest coastline in the world.^[9]^[10] The islands are broadly categorized into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.^[3] The capital city is Manila.

The Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country, with an estimated population of about 92 million people.^[11]^[12] It is estimated that there are about 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide, equivalent to about 11% of the total population of the Philippines.^[13] Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In terms of religious affiliation a 2000 census shows Filipinos identifying themselves as follows: Roman Catholic 80.9%, Muslim 5%, Evangelical 2.8%, Iglesia ni Kristo 2.3%, Aglipayan 2%, other Christian 4.5%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.6%, none 0.1%.^[3]^[14]

Its national economy is the 47th largest in the world, with an estimated 2008 gross domestic product (GDP nominal) of over US$ 168.6 billion (nominal).^[15] Primary exports include semiconductors and electronic products, transport equipment, garments, copper products, petroleum products, coconut oil, and fruits.^[3] Major trading partners include China, Japan, the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia.^[3] Its unit of currency is the Philippine peso (PHP).

A former colony of Spain and the United States, the customs, methods, and ideas of both have influenced Filipino culture as have the practices of neighboring Asian countries. Ecologically, the Philippines is one of the most diverse countries in the world.^[16] Balancing the often conflicting demands of a burgeoning population in the light of poverty on the one hand and the sensible custodianship of natural resources and conservation of the environment on the other is one of the main challenges facing the nation.

Etymology

Main article: Name of the Philippines

The name Philippines was derived from King Philip II of Spain in the 16th century. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos used the name Las Islas Filipinas, in honor of the Prince of Asturias (Spain) during his expedition to the islands, originally referring to the islands of Leyte and Samar.^[17]^[18] Despite the presence of other names, the name Filipinas was chosen as the name of the archipelago.

The official name of the Philippines changed throughout the course of its history. During the Philippine Revolution, it was officially called República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the period of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War, until the Commonwealth period, American colonial authorities referred to the country as the Philippine Islands, a translation of the original Spanish name. It was during the American period that the name Philippines began to appear, a name that has become its common name. The official name of the country is now Republic of the Philippines.

History

Main article: History of the Philippines

Early history

Panoramic view of the Banaue Rice Terraces.

The earliest evidence of human inhabitants on the island include the 40,000 year old Tabon Man of Palawan and the Angono Petroglyphs in Rizal, both of whom appear to suggest the presence of human settlement prior to the arrival of the Negritos and Austronesians.^[19] The Negritos began to settle on the islands 30,000 years ago, before the end of the last ice age.

A Pre-Classical indigenous Ifugao village.

Speakers of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, a branch of Austronesian, began to arrive in successive waves beginning about 6,000 years ago, displacing the early settlers.^[20]

A Bontoc warrior(circa 1908) This Igorot group formerly practiced headhunting.^[21]

During 2205 to 2106 B.C.E. the Ifugao fled their ancestral homeland in mainland Asia and migrated to the Cordilleras. Thereafter, they established a plutocratic society ^[22] and built the Banaue Rice Terraces on the highland regions of central Luzon.^[23]

By 1000 B.C.E. The inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago had developed into 3 distinct kinds of peoples: the Tribal Groups such as the Aetas, Hanunoo, Ilongots & the Mangyan who depended on hunter-gathering and are concentrated in forests, the Warrior-Societies such as the Isneg & Kalingas who practiced social ranking and ritualized warfare and roamed the plains, the Petty Plutocracy of the Ifugao Cordillera Highlanders who occupy the mountain ranges of Luzon and the Harbor Principalities of the Estuarine Civilizations that grew along rivers and seashores while participating in trans-island maritime trade.^[24]

At around 300–700 C.E. the sea-faring peoples of the islands began to trade with the Indianized kingdoms in the Malay Archipelago and the nearby East Asian principalities, adopting influences from both Buddhism and Hinduism.^[25]^[26]

Classical epoch

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription: the oldest known legal document from the Dynasty of Tondo.

At the dawn of the 1st Millennium C.E., there were already several maritime civilizations existing in the islands but there was no unifying political state encompassing the entire Philippine archipelago. Instead, the region was dotted by numerous semi-autonomous barangays (villages/city-states) under the sovereignty of competing thalassocracies ruled by datus, rajahs or sultans^{[dubious – discuss]} or by upland agricultural societies ruled by "petty plutocrats". States such as the Kingdom of Maynila and Namayan, the Dynasty of Tondo, the Confederation of Madyaas, the rajahnates of Butuan and Cebu and the sultanates of Maguindanao and Sulu existed alongside the highland societies of the Ifugao and Mangyan.^[27]^[28]^[29]^[30] Some of these regions were part of the Malayan empires of Srivijaya, Majapahit and Brunei.^[31]^[32]^[33]

In the year 900 the Dynasty of Tondo centered in Manila Bay flourished via an active trade with Chinese sea-traders in the area. Later serving as a smuggling nexus after the Chinese imposed restrictions on their foreign trade.^[34] During this time, the lord-minister Jayadewa presented a document of debt forgiveness to Lady Angkatan and her brother Bukah, the children of Namwaran. This is described in the Philippine's oldest known document the Laguna Copperplate Inscription.^[35]

A golden statuette of the Hindu-Buddhist goddess "Kinari".

By year 1011 Rajah Sri Bata Shaja, the monarch of the Indianized Rajahnate of Butuan, a martime-state famous for it's goldwork^[36] sent a trade envoy under ambassador Likan-shieh to the Chinese Imperial Court demanding equal diplomatic status with other states.^[37] The request being approved, it opened up direct commercial links with the Rajahnate of Butuan and the Chinese Empire thereby diminishing the monopoly on Chinese trade previously enjoyed by their rivals the Dynasty of Tondo and the Champa civilization.^[38] Evidenc of the existence of this rajahnate is given by the Butuan Silver Paleograph.^[39]

A pure gold sword hilt found in an excavation of a royal tomb in Butuan, Surigao: using the "Garuda" (Tantric-Phoenix) artistic motif.

By the 11th century several exiled datus of the collapsing empire of the Srivijaya^[40] led by Datu Puti led a mass migration to the central islands of the Philippines, fleeing from Rajah Makatunao of the island of Borneo. Upon reaching the island of Panay and purchasing the island from Negrito chieftain Marikudo, they established a confederation of polities and named it the Confederation of Madyaas centered in Aklan and they settled the surrounding islands of the Visayas. This confederation reached it's peak under Datu Padojinog. During his reign the confederations' hegemony extended over most of the islands of Visayas. Its people consistently made piratical attacks against Chinese imperial shipping.^[41]

The flag of the Sulu sultanate.

In 1380, Karim ul' Makdum and Shari'ful Hashem Syed Abu Bakr, an Arab trader born in Johore, arrived in Sulu from Malacca and established the Sultanate of Sulu and this Sultanate eventually gained great wealth due to its manufacture of fine pearls.^[42] Also, at the end of the 15th Century Shariff Mohammed Kabungsuwan of Johor introduced Islam in the island of Mindanao and he subsequently married princess Parmisuli from Mindanao and established the Sultanate of Maguindanao.^[43] By the 16th century, Islam had spread to other parts of the Visayas and Luzon.

However, during the reign of Sultan Bolkiah in 1485 to 1521, the Sultanate of Brunei decided to break the Dynasty of Tondo's monopoly in the China trade by attacking Tondo and establishing the state of Selurong (now Manila) as a Bruneian satellite-state.^[44]^[45] A new dynasty under the Islamized Rajah Salila^[46] was also established to challenge the House of Lakandula in Tondo.^[47] Islam was further strengthened by the arrival to the Philippines of traders and proselytizers from Malaysia and Indonesia.^[48]

Colonial era

In 1521, Portuguese-born Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in Samar and Leyte and claimed the islands for Spain^[49] but was killed by a militia from Mactan island ruled by the datu Lapu-Lapu. The survivors of the expedition, however, returned to Spain and served as the impetus for the further discovery and conquest of the Philippine Islands. ^[49]

A statue of Lapu-Lapu, the Mactan datu who led the group of warriors that killed Ferdinand Magellan on April 27, 1521. He is now regarded as the first Filipino hero.^[50]

Colonization began when Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi, arrived from Mexico in 1565 and formed the first European settlements in Cebu. In 1571, the Spanish occupied the kingdoms of Maynila and Tondo and established Manila as the capital of the Spanish East Indies.^[51]^[52] Spanish power was further consolidated after Miguel López de Legazpi's conquest of the Confederation of Madya-as, his subjugation of Rajah Tupas the King of Cebu and Juan de Salcedo's ransacking of the Chinese warlord Limahong's pirate kingdom in Pangasinan. This grab for power eventually culminated with the mass murder and exile of the royal families of the Dynasty of Tondo & the Kingdom of Maynila when the Tondo Conspiracy of 1587-1588 failed^[53] in which a planned grand alliance with the Japanese Empire's admiral Gayo, Butuan's last rajah and Brunei's Sultan Bolkieh, would have restored the old aristocracy. It's failure resulted in the hanging of Agustín de Legazpi (great grandson of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and the initiator of the plot) and the execution of Magat Salamat (the crown-prince of Tondo).^[54]

In the following years, the colony was governed as a territory of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, centered in Mexico, from 1565 to 1821 and administered directly from Spain from 1821 to 1898. Subsequently, the Aztec and Mayan mercenaries Legaspi brought with him eventually settled in Mexico, Pampanga where traces of Aztec and Mayan influence can still be proven by the many chico plantations in the area (chico is a fruit indigenous only to Mexico) and also by the name of the province itself.^[55]

The Paoay Church in Ilocos Norte is a church employing the "Earthquake Baroque" architectural style imported from Latin-America. This particular church is patterned after the structure of 'Aztec temples'.

The fragmented nature of the islands made it easy for Spanish colonization. The Spanish then attempted to bring political unification to the Philippine archipelago via the conquest of the various states but they were unable to subjugate the sultanates of Mindanao and the tribes and highland plutocracy of the Ifugao of Northern Luzon. The Spanish introduced elements of western civilization such as the code of law, western printing and the Gregorian calendar alongside new food resources such as maize, pineapple and chocolate from Latin America.^[56] From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed from Mexico City via the Royal Audiencia of Manila, before it was administered directly from Madrid after the Mexican revolution.^[57] The Manila Galleons which linked Manila to Acapulco traveled once or twice a year between the 16th and 19th centuries. The Spanish military fought off various indigenous revolts and several external colonial challenges, specially from the British, Chinese pirates, Dutch, and Portuguese. Roman Catholic missionaries converted most of the lowland inhabitants to Christianity and founded schools, universities, and hospitals. In 1863 a Spanish decree introduced education, establishing public schooling in Spanish.^[58]

During the British occupation of 1762–1764, General William Draper lead an army of British soldiers and Indian sepoy mercenaries against the forces of then, Governor-General and Archbishop Manuel Rojo del Rio y Vieyra. The British liberated Sultan Azim ud-Din I of Sulu from imprisonment in Manila and supported the Vigan revolt of Gabriela Silang while simultaneously burning the city of Manila to the ground. Nevertheless, Spanish sovereignty in the islands was restored by the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763).^[59]

The Spanish eventually opened Philippine ports to world trade. Wealth increased and many criollos and mestizos became rich. The numbers of Spanish and Mexican settlers swelled, this secularized churches and government positions traditionally held by the peninsulares. The ideals of revolution also began to spread through the islands. Criollo insurgency resulted in the Novales mutiny, and the revolt in Cavite El Viejo in 1872 that would lead to the Philippine Revolution.^[60]

A map found on board the Na SA de Covadonga, after it was taken by Commodore Anson in 1743, showing the route of the Manila-Acapulco galleon sailing through the Philippine Islands.

An ideology of a revolution grew after colonial authorities executed three progressive secular priests, Mariano Gómez, José Burgos and Jacinto Zamora (known as Gomburza), who were accused of rebellion, in 1872.^[61] This would inspire a propaganda movement in Spain, organized by José Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar and Mariano Ponce, lobbying for political reforms in the Philippines. The movement produced a newspaper, La Solidaridad. Rizal, who wrote the novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, returned to the Philippines and established the organization La Liga Filipina which also called for reforms. He was exiled to Dapitan, where he met Josephine Bracken.^[62] He was executed on December 30, 1896, on charges of rebellion.^[62]

Andrés Bonifacio, meanwhile, established the secret society called the Katipunan in 1892, which sought independence from Spain through armed revolt.^[63] Bonifacio and the Katipunan started the Philippine Revolution in 1896. A faction of the Katipunan, the Magdalo of Cavite province, eventually came to challenge Bonifacio's position as the leader of the revolution. Emilio Aguinaldo took over from Bonifacio (who was executed afterwards in one of the most infamous, tragic, and contentious incidents in Philippine history) and formed the Republic of Biak-na-Bato in 1897.^[64] A ceasefire was agreed at the Treaty of Biak-na-Bato, which led to the revolutionary leaders to depart for Hong Kong, in exile, officially ending the revolution on May 17, 1897, though rebel activities continued regardless of the treaty.^[65]

The Spanish-American War began in Cuba in 1898 and reached the Philippines after the United States invaded the islands and fought Spain in the Battle of Manila Bay. Aguinaldo collaborated with the United States, returned from exile and declared Philippine independence from Spain in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898, and established the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic in Malolos, Bulacan the following year after Spain's defeat. Meanwhile, Spain ceded the islands together with Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam, to the United States for $20 million during the Treaty of Paris. This led to the Philippine-American War, during which, Aguinaldo was captured on March 23, 1901. The war (along with the Moro Rebellion), continued until 1913. At least 34,000 Filipinos lost their lives as a direct result of the war and at least 200,000 may have died as a result of the cholera epidemic at the war's end.^[66]^[67]^[68] After two interim governing commissions, the Philippine Insular Government was established in the July, 1902 by the Philippine Organic Act, restoring civilian government after the Philippine-American War.^[69]

Former politician, Manuel L. Quezon in his inauguration as President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during the American period.

As a result of the 1916 Jones Law and the subsequent 1934 Tydings-McDuffie Act, the Philippines became a Commonwealth.^[70]^[71]^[72]^[73] The Commonwealth was officially inaugurated in November 15, 1935. Manuel L. Quezon was elected as president in 1935, with the task of preparing the country for sovereignty. During his term numerous tasks regarding agrarian reform were initiated, including the colonization of Mindanao, an area considered as part of the hinterlands at the time. He also faced several challenges from leftist groups, such as the Sakdalista. Apart from this, his projects also included the establishments of a new capital and the formation of a unifying National Language.

Efforts to prepare the country for independence were hampered by the Japanese invasion during World War II. Despite an effort to defend the country in Bataan and Corregidor, the country was occupied and was turned into a controlled government by various foreign and local political dictators run by José P. Laurel. Numerous war crimes were committed during the years of the occupation, such as the plight of comfort women and the Bataan Death March. In exile, Quezon continued representing the Commonwealth in forums such as the Pacific War Council and the United Nations until his death in 1943. The islands were liberated in 1944–1945, beginning in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where General Douglas MacArthur led the Allied Forces and the United States Military (U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps) and escorted Sergio Osmeña, Quezon's successor, back to the country. The liberation ended after the Battle of Manila, killing almost 100,000 people, bringing the death toll for the country to at least a million dead.^[74] On July 4, 1946, the United States granted the Philippines its independence from colonial rule.^[3]

Contemporary period

After the World War II, the Philippines faced the plague of political instability. Since 1946, remnants of the Hukbalahap communist rebel army continued to roam the rural regions, disgruntled after the government had rejected their contribution during World War II. Attempts at reconciliation were established by former President Ramón Magsaysay.

A statue of the Virgin Mary was built on the EDSA Shrine, after the People Power Revolution.

The 1960s was a period of economic growth for the Philippines, which developed into one of the wealthiest in Asia. Ferdinand Marcos became president and barred from seeking a third term, he declared martial law on September 23, 1972. Using the crises of political conflicts, the tension of the Cold War, a rising Communist rebellion and an Islamic insurgency as justifications; he governed by decree, along with his wife Imelda Marcos. After being exiled to the United States, opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. (Marcos' chief rival) was assassinated at the Manila International Airport (also called the Ninoy Aquino International Airport) on August 21, 1983. In 1986, the People Power Revolution occurred. The people gathered and protested in EDSA, instigated by the Archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin, who was opposed to the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. After losing the subsequent election to Corazón Aquino (the widow of Benigno Aquino) who became the first female president of the Philippines and the first female president in Asia. The CIA-sponsored dictator, Ferdinand Marcos ^[75] and his allies departed to Hawaii in exile aboard American military helicopters.^[76]

The return of democracy and government reforms after the events of 1986 were hampered by national debt, government corruption, coup attempts, a Communist insurgency and an Islamic separatist organization. The economy improved during the administration of Fidel V. Ramos, who was elected in 1992.^[77] However, the economic improvements were negated at the onset of the East Asian financial crisis in 1997. The 2001 EDSA Revolution led to the downfall of the Philippine president, Joseph Ejercito Estrada. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took leadership in 2001 following the impeachment of the Estrada government.

The presidency of Arroyo was marred by a handful of political difficulties. Terrorism in the south began to fester and move up north while an unruly military began plotting coup attempts in the capital, Manila. Several natural disasters also posed a challenge along with political controversies popping-up here and there. Yet, despite the bleak situation, positive instances did occur. The economy continued to grow and stabilize, the strongest in over twenty years, despite a financial crisis,^[78] ^[78]^[79] while relations with neighboring countries continued to prosper. Two democratic elections were also held at this time.

Politics and government

Main articles: Politics of the Philippines, President of the Philippines, and Constitution of the Philippines

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the current President of the Philippines.

The Malacañang Palace is the official residence of the President of the Philippines

The Philippines has a presidential, unitary form of government (with some modification, there is one autonomous region largely free from the national government), where the President functions as both head of state and head of government and is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The president is elected by popular vote to a single six-year term, during which time she or he appoints and presides over the cabinet.^[2]

The bicameral Congress is composed of a Senate, serving as the upper house, with members elected to a six-year term, and a House of Representatives, serving as the lower house, with members elected to a three-year term. They are elected from both legislative districts and through sectoral representation.^[2]

The judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court, composed of a Chief Justice as its presiding officer and fourteen associate justices, all appointed by the Philippine President from nominations submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council.^[2]

There have been attempts to change the government to a federal, unicameral or parliamentary government beginning in the term of Ramos up to the present administration.^[80]^[81]

Security and defense

Main articles: Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police

The BRP Rajah Humabon (PF-11) is the current flagship, and largest warship of the Armed Forces of the Philippines

Philippine defense is handled by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which is modeled after the United States armed forces and is composed of three branches: the Air Force, the Army, and the Navy (including the Marine Corps). Civilian security is handled by Philippine National Police under the DILG. In metropolitan areas, groups like the MMDA are in charge local issues, such as traffic.

In the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the largest separatist organizations, the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, are actively engaging the government, seeking more rights and better autonomy for their people. Militant organizations, such as the New People's Army and the Abu Sayyaf Group, have been roaming the provinces, however their presence has decreased in recent years due to successful security provided by the Philippine government.^[82]^[83]

The Philippines has been an ally of the United States since World War II.^[84] It has supported American policies during the Cold War, and has participated in the Korean and Vietnam wars as a result of the country's involvement with SEATO, a group that includes Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.^[85] After the start of the War on Terror, there has been additional support from the United States military.^[86] The country is currently working with the United States, through a visiting forces agreement, with the intention of ending the insurgency in the country.^[87]^[88] The Philippines also has a military agreement with Australia.^[89] Other important military allies include Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.

International relations

Main article: Foreign relations of the Philippines

The Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C., United States.

The Philippines' international relations is focused on its ideals of democracy, peace and trade with other nations, as well as the well-being of the 11 million Overseas Filipinos living outside the country. It has aligned itself with several nations around the world including its Southeast Asian and Asia-Pacific neighbors, the United States, the Middle East, the Vatican and other countries.^[90]

As a founding and active member of the United Nations, it has been elected several times into the Security Council and is an active participant in the Human Rights Council as well as in peacekeeping missions, particularly in East Timor.^[91]^[92]^[93]^[94]^[95] Aside from the United Nations, the country is also a founding and active member of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) with the intention of strengthening relations with its Southeast Asian neighbors and promoting economic and cultural growth between member states.^[96] It has hosted several summits and is an active contributor on the direction, and policies of the bloc.^[97] The current relations it enjoys with other Southeast Asian states is in contrast with its relations with them before the 1970s when it was at war with Vietnam and was heavily disputing Sabah with Malaysia, although misunderstandings between these states continue to exist due to the Spratly Islands.^[98]

The Philippines values its relations with the United States, and has actively supported most of the other's policies with regards to foreign affairs^[90] As a Major non-NATO ally, the country supported the United States during the Cold War and the War on Terror. It has also committed itself to promote the American ideals of democracy. Despite this history of goodwill, controversy continues to exist between the relations of the two nations, with varying issues such as the Philipine-American War, the Bell Trade Act, the presence of U.S. military bases in Subic Bay and Clark, and the Visiting Forces Agreement.^[90] Japan is also treated as an ally due to the Official Development Assistance given to the people, although historical tensions exist due to the plight of comfort women.^[99]

Relations with Spain, Europe and Latin America remained positive due to shared interestes. Despite the threat of violence (such as domestic abuse and war) on Overseas Filipino Workers, particularly on domestic workers, relations with Middle Eastern countries (including Egypt, Iran, Iraq,^[100] Libya, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) continue to be friendly as proven by the continuous employment of more than two million Overseas Filipinos living there. Recent foreign policy has been mostly about economic relations with its Southeast Asian and Asia-Pacific neighbors.^[90]

The Philippines is a member of the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Latin Union, the Group of 24 and the Non-Aligned Movement.^[2] It is also seeking to strengthen relations with Islamic countries by campaigning for observer status in the Organization of Islamic Conference.^[101]^[102]

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of the Philippines

Provinces and regions of the Philippines.

The Philippines is divided into three island groups: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. These are divided into 17 regions, 80 provinces, 120 cities, 1,511 municipalities and 42,008 barangays.^[103] In addition, the Section 2 of Republic Act No. 5446 asserts that the country has acquired islands from Sabah formerly (North Borneo).^[104]

Region	Designation	Regional center
Ilocos Region	Region I	San Fernando, La Union
Cagayan Valley	Region II	Tuguegarao, Cagayan
Central Luzon	Region III	San Fernando, Pampanga
CALABARZON	Region IV-A	Calamba City, Laguna
MIMAROPA	Region IV-B	Calapan, Oriental Mindoro
Bicol Region	Region V	Legazpi, Albay
Western Visayas	Region VI	Iloilo City
Central Visayas	Region VII	Cebu City
Eastern Visayas	Region VIII	Tacloban
Zamboanga Peninsula	Region IX	Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur
Northern Mindanao	Region X	Cagayan de Oro City
Davao Region	Region XI	Davao City
SOCCSKSARGEN	Region XII	Koronadal, South Cotabato
Caraga	Region XIII	Butuan
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao	ARMM	Cotabato City
Cordillera Administrative Region	CAR	Baguio
National Capital Region	NCR	Manila

Geography

Main article: Geography of the Philippines

Mount Apo in Mindanao.

Chocolate Hills in Bohol.

The Philippines constitutes an archipelago of 7,107 islands^[9] with a total land area of approximately 300,000 square kilometres (116,000 square miles). It is located between 116° 40', and 126° 34' E. longitude and 4° 40' and 21° 10' N. latitude and borders the Philippine Sea on the east, the South China Sea on the west, and the Celebes Sea on the south. The island of Borneo is located a few hundred kilometres southwest and Taiwan is located directly to the north. The Moluccas and Sulawesi are located to the south-southwest and Palau is located to the east of the islands.^[2]

The Philippines is divided into three island groups: Luzon (Regions I to V, NCR and CAR), Visayas (VI to VIII), and Mindanao (IX to XIII and ARMM). The port of Manila, on Luzon, is the capital city and the second largest city after Quezon City.^[2]

Mayon Volcano in Luzon.

Most of the mountainous islands were covered in tropical rainforest and are volcanic in origin. The highest mountain is Mount Apo, located in Mindanao measuring at 2,954 metres (9,692 ft) above sea level. There are many active volcanos such as the Mayon Volcano, Mount Pinatubo and Taal Volcano. The islands are also located within the typhoon belt of the Western Pacific, and approximately 19 typhoons strike per year.^[105]

Located on the northwestern fringes of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines have experienced frequent seismic and volcanic activities. Around 20 earthquakes are registered daily, though most are too weak to be felt. The last major earthquake was the 1990 Luzon earthquake.^[106]

The longest river is the Cagayan River in northern Luzon. Manila Bay is connected to Laguna de Bay by means of the Pasig River. Subic Bay, the Davao Gulf and the Moro Gulf are some of the important bays. Transversing the San Juanico Strait is the San Juanico Bridge that connects the islands of Samar, and Leyte.^[107]

Natural resources

Main article: Ecoregions in the Philippines

The Philippine Eagle is a bird of prey found in the rainforests of the islands.

The Philippines has abundant natural resources in areas such as agriculture, natural beauty and minerals. It has fertile lands, diverse flora and fauna, extensive coastlines and rich mineral deposits.^[108]

Endemic species include the tamaraw of Mindoro and the tarsier of Bohol. The Philippines lacks predators, with the exception of snakes, such as pythons and cobras, and birds of prey, such as the national bird, known as the Philippine eagle.^[109] Other native animals include the palm civet cat,^[110] the Mouse deer, the Visayan warty pig,^[111] and several species of bats.

Rainforests boast an array of flora, including several types of orchids and rafflesia.^[112] The narra is considered as the most important type of hardwood while banyan trees or the balete.^[113] The islands' major crops include rice, corn, sugarcane, coconut, abaca, and tobacco. Rice is the most important source of food along with corn. The coconut, mango, watermelon and other native fruits are important contributors to the nation's income.

Due to the volcanic nature of the islands, mineral deposits are abundant. This also allows the Philippines to become a powerhouse with regards to geothermal energy.^[114]^[115] A notable example of the volcanic features of the islands include the Benham Plateau to the east, a region active in tectonic subduction.^[116]

The Philippine territorial waters encompass as much as 1.67 million square kilometres, producing a unique and diverse marine life, an important part of the Coral Triangle. There are 2,400 fish species. Other marine products include corals, pearls, crabs and seaweeds.^[108]^[117] The rain forests offer prime habitat for more than 530 species of birds, some 800 species of orchids, and some 8,500 species of flowering plants.^[118]

Deforestation is acute in Southeast Asia,^[119] the second of the world's great biodiversity hot spots.^[120] The forest cover of the Philippines declined from 70% of the country's total land area in 1900 to about 18.3% in 1999.^[121]^[122]

Climate

Main article: Climate of the Philippines

The Philippines has a tropical climate and is usually hot and humid. The average yearly temperature is around 26.5°C (79.7°F). There are three recognized seasons: "Tag-init" or "Tag-araw" (the hot season or summer from March to May), "Tag-ulan" (the rainy season from June to November), and "Tag-lamig" (the cold season from December to February). The southwest monsoon (from May to October) is known as the "Habagat" and the dry winds of the northeast monsoon (from November to April) as the "Amihan".^[123] The coolest month is January, and the warmest is May. Both temperature and humidity levels reach the maximum in April and May.^[2] Manila and most of the lowland areas are hot and dusty from March to May.^[124] Even at this period, the temperatures rarely rise above 37°C. and sea-level temperatures rarely fall below 27°C. Annual rainfall measures as much as 5,000 millimeters in the mountainous east coast section but less than 1,000 millimetres in some of the sheltered valleys. Sitting astride the typhoon belt, most of the islands experience annual torrential rains and thunderstorms from July to October.^[125]

Economy

Main article: Economy of the Philippines

The skyline of Ortigas Center in the foreground with Makati City in the background on the left.

The Philippines is a newly industrialized country, with an economy anchored on agriculture but with substantial contributions from manufacturing, mining, remittances from overseas Filipinos and service industries such as tourism, and business process outsourcing.^[126]^[127] It is also listed in the roster of the "Next Eleven" economies.

The Makati City skyline

The economy was largely anchored on the Manila-Acapulco galleon during the Spanish period and bilateral trade with the United States during the American period. Pro-Filipino economic policies were first implemented during the tenure of Carlos P. Garcia with the "Filipino First" policy. By the 1960s, the economy was regarded as the second largest in Asia, next to Japan. However, the leadership of Ferdinand Marcos would prove disastrous, by transforming the market economy into a centrally planned economy. The country suffered severe economic recession, only to recover in the 1990s with a program of economic liberalization. Today, there is a mixed economy.^[77]

The Philippine Stock Exchange with the statue of martyred Filipino opposition leader during the Marcos dictatorship, Benigno S. Aquino, Jr..

The Asian Financial Crisis affected the economy to an extent, resulting in a lingering decline of the value of the peso and falls in the stock market, although the extent to which it was affected was not as severe as that of its Asian neighbors. This is largely due to the fiscal conservatism of the government partly as a result of decades of monitoring and fiscal supervision from the International Monetary Fund, in comparison to the massive spending of its neighbors on the rapid acceleration of economic growth.^[77] By 2004, the economy experienced six percent growth in gross domestic product and 7.3% in 2007. The government aims to accelerate economy, and GDP growth by 2009.^[128]

In a bid to further strengthen the economy, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pledged to turn the country into a developed country by 2020. As part of this goal, she instituted five economic "super regions" to concentrate on the economic strengths of various regions, as well as the implementation of tax reforms, continued privatization of state assets and the building-up of infrastructure in various areas of the nation.

The Philippine economy is heavily reliant on remittances as a source of foreign currency, surpassing foreign direct investment. China and India have emerged as a major economic competitors, siphoning away investors who would otherwise have invested their businesses, particularly telecommunication companies. Regional development is also somewhat uneven, with Luzon, and Metro Manila in particular gaining most of the new economic growth at the expense of the other regions,^[129] although the government has taken steps to distribute economic growth by promoting investment in other areas of the country.

The Philippines is a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is also a member of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Colombo Plan and the G-77 and other International organization.^[130] The daily income for 45% of the population of the Philippines is less than US$ 2.^[131]

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of the Philippines, Filipino people, and Overseas Filipino

Population growth of the Philippines.

Map of the dominant ethnicities of the Philippines by province.

The first official census in the Philippines was carried out in 1878. As of December 31, 1877, the country's population was recorded at 5,567,685 persons.^[132] By 2009, the Philippines has become the world's 12th most populous nation, with a population of over 92 million.^[11]^[12] In 2009, 11% of Filipinos are living abroad as migrant laborers. An estimated figure of half of the population resides on the island of Luzon. Manila, the capital city, is the eleventh most populous metropolitan area in the world. The population of Greater Manila Area is around 20 million.^[133] Life expectancy is 71.09 years, with 74.15 years for females and 68.17 years for males.^[134] Population growth rate between 1995 to 2000 was 3.21% but has decreased to an estimated 1.95% for the 2005 to 2010 period.^[135]

Ethnicity

Main article: Ethnic groups of the Philippines

Filipinos belong to several Asian ethnic groups, grouped within the Malay or Malayo-Polynesian speaking people, who speak Austronesian languages. They originated from a population of Taiwanese aborigines,^[136] that migrated to the Philippines thousands of years ago from Taiwan, and brought with them knowledge of agriculture and ocean-sailing technology. Various people of different races and nationalities have intermarried with various indigenous ethnic groups.^[137] Their descendants are known as mestizos.^[138] The official population of all types of mixed blood individuals living in the country remain unknown. The islands is composed of a multitude of different ethnic groups and cultures. These include non-tribal peoples such as the Visayan, the Tagalog, comprising about one-fifth of the country's total population, the Ilocano, the Moro, the Kapampangan, the Bicolano, the Pangasinense, the Ibanag and the Ivatan.^[139] Indigenous peoples are also present including the Igorot, the Lumad, the Mangyan, the Badjao, and the tribes of Palawan.^[136] Negritos, such as the Aeta and the Ati, are considered the aboriginal inhabitants of the islands and are estimated to number around 300,000 people (0.3%).^[136] Migrant ethnic groups who have settled in the country from elsewhere include Chinese, Spanish, Americans, Arabs, British, Europeans, Indonesians, Japanese, Koreans, and South Asians. Chinese Filipinos number about 2 million.^[140]

There are about 11 million Filipinos outside the Philippines.^[13] Since the liberalization of United States immigration laws in 1965,^[141] the number of people in the United States having Filipino ancestry had grown substantially to 3.1 million according to the 2007 United States census.^[142] According to the US Census Bureau, immigrants from the Philippines made up the second largest group after Mexico.^[143] Some 2 million Filipinos work in the Middle East, with nearly a million in Saudi Arabia alone.^[144]

Cities

The figure below shows the top twenty largest cities in the Philippines.

Largest cities in the Philippines
Rank	City	Region	Population	Rank	City	Region	Population	view • talk • edit Manila Makati Pasig
1	Quezon City	National Capital	2,679,450	11	Cagayan de Oro	Region X	553,966
2	Manila	National Capital	1,660,714	12	Parañaque	National Capital	552,660
3	Caloocan	National Capital	1,378,856	13	Las Piñas	National Capital	532,330
4	Davao City	Region XI	1,363,337	14	General Santos	Region XII	529,542
5	Cebu City	Region VII	798,809	15	Makati	National Capital	510,383
6	Zamboanga City	Region IX	774,407	16	Bacolod	Region VI	499,497
7	Antipolo	Region IV-A	633,971	17	Muntinlupa	National Capital	452,493
8	Pasig	National Capital	617,301	18	San Jose del Monte	Region III	439,090
9	Taguig	National Capital	613,343	19	Marikina	National Capital	424,610
10	Valenzuela	National Capital	568,928	20	Iloilo City	Region VI	418,710
Philippines 2007 Census

Language

Native Languages (2000)^[145]
Tagalog	22 million
Cebuano	20 million
Ilokano	7.7 million
Hiligaynon	7 million
Waray-Waray	3.1 million
Kapampangan	2.9 million
Bicol Central	2.5 million
Chavacano creoles	2.5 million
Pangasinan	2.4 million
Bicol Albay	1.2 million
Maranao	1.2 million
Maguindanao	1.1 million
Kinaray-A	1.1 million
Tausug	1 million
Surigaonon	0.6 million
Masbateño	0.5 million
Aklanon	0.5 million
Ibanag	0.3 million

Main article: Languages of the Philippines

Over 180 native languages and dialects are spoken in the Philippines. They are part of the Borneo-Philippines group of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is itself a branch of the Austronesian language family.^[136]

According to the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Filipino and English are the official languages. Filipino is a de facto version of Tagalog, spoken mainly in Metro Manila and other urban regions. Both Tagalog and English are used in government, education, print, broadcast media and business. Major languages recognized in the constitution include Bicolano, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Tagalog and Waray-Waray. Spanish and Arabic are both recognized as auxiliary languages.^[136]

Other languages such as Aklanon, Boholano, Chavacano, Zamboangueño, Cuyonon, Ifugao, Itbayat, Ivatan, Kalinga, Kamayo, Kankana-ey, Kinaray-a, Maguindanao, Maranao, Masbatenyo, Romblomanon, Surigaonon, Tausug, Yakan and several Visayan languages are dominant in their respective provinces.^[136]

Religion

Main article: Religion in the Philippines

The Basilica Minore de San Sebastián is a Catholic church that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Philippines is one of two predominant Roman Catholic countries in Asia, the other being East Timor. It is composed of several diocese and archdiocese. More than 90% of the population are Christians. About 80% belong to the Roman Catholic Church while the remaining 10% belong to other Christian denominations, such as the Philippine Independent Church, Iglesia ni Cristo, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Seventh Day Adventist, United Church of Christ and the Orthodox Church.^[14]

Several Baroque churches are included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the San Agustín Church in Manila, the Paoay Church in Ilocos Norte, the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Santa María) Church in Ilocos Sur, the Santo Tomás de Villanueva Church in Iloilo and the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño in Cebu.

Between 5% to 10% of the population are Muslim, most of whom live in parts of Mindanao, Palawan and the Sulu Archipelago, an area known as Bangsamoro or the Moro region.^[146]^[147] Some have migrated into urban and rural areas in different parts of the country. Most Muslim Filipinos practice Shafi'i, a form of Sunni Islam, while other tribal groups such as the Bajau, practice a form mixed with Animism.^[14]

Philippine traditional religions are still practiced by many aboriginal and tribal groups, often syncretized with Christianity and Islam. Animism, Folk religion and Shamanism remain present as undercurrents of mainstream religion, through the albularyo, the babaylan and the manghihilot.^[14] Meanwhile, Buddhism, Taoism and Chinese folk religion, are dominant in Chinese communities.^[147]

Religions such as Bahá'í Faith, Hinduism, Judaism, other spiritual beliefs and those with no religion form the remaining minority.^[148]

Education

Main article: Education in the Philippines

The University of Santo Tomas, one of the Philippines' oldest universities.

Education in the Philippines is mostly Westernized, based on the American education system. Philippine DepEd reports a functional literacy rate of 84.1% for 2003.^[149] Other agencies are much more optimistic.^[150]^[151] Literacy is about equal for males and females.^[3]^[152] Spending for education composes 2.5% of the GDP.^[3] There were 42,152 elementary schools and 8,455 high schools registered with DepEd for school year 2006–2007.^[153] Classes start in June and end in March. The majority of colleges and universities follow a semester calendar from June to October and November to March. There are a number of foreign schools with study programs.^[2] The general pattern of formal education follows six stages:

Preschool
Elementary school
High school
Post-secondary education
Graduate education
Adult education

The Department of Education (DepEd), formerly (DECS), covers elementary, secondary, and non-formal education, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) administers the post-secondary, middle-level education training and development, while the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) supervises the college as well as graduate academic programs and degrees as well as regulate standards in higher education.^[154]

Infrastructure

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in the Philippines

Jeepneys were originally made from U.S. military jeeps left over from World War II.

In spite of the mountainous terrain, approximately 14 percent of the 158,810 kilometres (98,110 miles) of roads in the Philippines are paved.^[155] Buses, jeepneys, taxis, tricycles and motorcycles are available when getting around the major cities and towns. In 2007, there are about 5.53 million registered motor vehicles and an average annual registration rate of 4.55%.^[156]

Train service is provided by the Strong Republic Transit System, which unified the three main railway networks that provide service of different areas of Metro Manila, and parts of Luzon, that includes the Manila Light Rail Transit System (LRT), the Manila Metro Rail Transit System (MRT) and the Philippine National Railways (PNR).

The Philippine Airlines is the first commercial airline in Asia.

Seaports can be found throughout the islands. The busiest seaports are Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga, which are parts of the 3,219 kilometre of waterways and seaports.^[3]^[155] Passenger ships and other sea vessels such as Superferry, Negros Navigation and Sulpicio Lines serves Manila, with links to various cities and towns. In 2003, the 919-kilometres Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SRNH) was established and this is an integrated set of highway segments and ferry routes covering 17 cities.^[157]

Rivers, such as the Pasig River and Marikina River, have air-conditioned commuter ferries run by the Pasig River Ferry Service, connecting their numerous tributaries in Manila, Makati City, Mandaluyong City, Pasig City and Marikina City.^[158]

There are 262 airports in the country, 75 of which have runways.^[155] The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is the main airport. Other important airports include the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, Mactan-Cebu International Airport and Francisco Bangoy International Airport. Philippine Airlines, Asia's oldest commercial airline still operating under its original name and Cebu Pacific, the leading domestic airline, are the major airlines serving most domestic and international destinations.

Communications

Main article: Communications in the Philippines

The Philippines has one of the most sophisticated cellular phone industries in the world and one of the highest concentrations of users.^[159] Telecommunications are dominated by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, which is also the largest company in the country.^[159]^[160] Globe Telecom, Smart Communications and Sun Cellular on the other hand, are three of its largest cellular service providers.

There are an estimated 41 million cellular phone users, the reason that the Philippines has been named as the "Texting Capital of the World",^[161] and the ownership rate is increasing.^[159] Text messaging has fostered a culture of quick greetings, and forwarded jokes among the Filipinos. Out of this growing number of avid texters, 5.5 million of them use their cellular phones as virtual wallets, making it a leader among developing nations in providing financial transactions over cellular networks.^[161] In 2007, The nation sent an average of 1 billion SMS messages per day.^[162]

Radio, television and internet are used frequently. There are approximately 381 AM and 628 FM stations and 250 national and 1,501 cable TV stations, as well as 14 million Internet users or 16% of the total population, being served by almost 100 Internet providers.^[3]^[163]

Culture and society

Main articles: Culture of the Philippines, Literature of the Philippines, Music of the Philippines, and Original Pilipino Music

An Ifugao (Malayo-Polynesian) sculpture.

Philippine culture is a combination of Eastern and Western cultures. The Philippines shares many aspects with other Asian nations (such as Malaysia and China) in its heritage, yet it also displays significant American influence, and Hispanic influences derived from the cultures ofSpain and Mexico. These influences are evident in literature, folk music, folk dance, language, food, art and religion.^[126]

Traditional festivities known as barrio fiestas (district festivals) to commemorate the feast days of patron saints are common. One of the most visible Hispanic legacies is the prevalence of Spanish surnames and names among Filipinos. This peculiarity, unique among the people of Asia, came as a result of a colonial decree, the Clavería edict, for the systematic distribution of family names and implementation of the Spanish naming system on the population. A Spanish name and surname among the majority of Filipinos does not always denote Spanish ancestry.

Islamic instruments of gongs and a drum that make up the Philippine kulintang ensemble, an example of pre-Hispanic musical tradition.

The majority of street names, towns and provinces are in Spanish. Spanish architecture made somewhat of an imprint in the Philippines, but many buildings bearing that influence were demolished during World War II. The remaining influences can be seen in the country's churches, government buildings, and universities. Many Hispanic-styled houses and buildings are preserved, like the towns in Vigan among others.

The use of the English language in the Philippines is the United States' most visible legacy. It has contributed to the influence of American pop cultural trends. This is seen in Filipinos' love of fast-food, film and music. Fast food outlets are found on many street corners. American global fast food chain stalwarts have entered the market like McDonald's, those of Yum! Brands, Starbucks, and Burger King among others. However, local fast-food chains have emerged, and successfully compete against their foreign rivals including Goldilocks and most notably Jollibee the leading fast food chain in the country.^[164] Modern day Filipinos also listen and watch contemporary European and American music and film. However, Original Pilipino Music (also known as OPM) and local films are also appreciated.

Cuisine

Main article: Filipino cuisine

The Halo-halo is a dessert made of ice, milk, various fruits and ice cream.

Filipino cuisine has evolved over several centuries from its Malayo-Polynesian origins to become a mixed cuisine with many Hispanic, Chinese, American, and other Asian influences. These influences have been adapted to local ingredients and the Filipino palate to create distinctively Filipino dishes.

Dishes range from the very simple, like a meal of fried salted fish and rice, to the highly elaborate, such as the paellas and cocidos created for fiestas. Popular dishes include lechón, adobo, sinigang, kare-kare, tapa, crispy pata, pancit, lumpia, and halo-halo.

Mythology and literature

Main articles: Philippine literature and Philippine mythology

Philippine mythology has been handed down through Philippine folk literature, which is the traditional oral literature of the Filipino people. This refers to a wide range of material due to the ethnic mix of the Philippines. Each unique ethnic group has its own stories and myths to tell. Nonetheless, Hindu and Spanish influence can be detected in many cases. Many of the myths are creation stories or stories about supernatural creatures, such as the Aswang (Vampire), the Diwata (Fairy), and Nature. The most recognized Philippine mythologies include the Ibong Adarna, Bernardo Carpio, Lam-Ang and Urduja.

In Philippine literature Francisco Balagtas the writer of Florante at Laura is recognized as one of the Philippines' preeminent writers. José Rizal who wrote Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), and El Filibusterismo (The Reign of Greed) depicted the abuses of Spanish rule in his work and is considered a national hero for inspiring other Philippine revolutionaries to seek independence. Fernando María Guerrero is known for his book of Hispanic literatures. Modern literature, such as Dekada '70 and Bayan Ko (My Country), have also received national recognition for illustrating the martial law period of the 1970s, and the pre-colonial period. Contemporary literature has mostly been focused on humor and everyday life, such as the works of Bob Ong.

Media

Main articles: Cinema of the Philippines, Television in the Philippines, Internet in the Philippines, Social networking in the Philippines, and Philippine drama

Philippine media is based on Filipino (a de facto version of Tagalog) and English. Other Philippine languages, including various Visayan languages are also used in the media. Radio is currently the most accessible type of media due to the remoteness of certain rural locations and most local languages are broadcasted in this format.

The entertainment industry is vibrant with scandals and issues among celebrities, which are written in most broadsheets and tabloids.^[165] Drama and fantasy shows are anticipated in major television networks such as ABS-CBN, GMA Network and TV5, so are Latin telenovelas, Asianovelas and anime. Daytime television is dominated by game shows, variety shows, and talk shows such as Eat Bulaga, Game KNB? and Wowowee. Philippine cinema is also appreciated, but have faced competition from American and European films. Despite this, critically praised directors and actors remain active, including Mike de Leon, Lino Brocka, Judy Ann Santos, Vilma Santos and Nora Aunor (known for her role in Himala, the most critically acclaimed film in the nation).^[166]^[167]^[168]^[169]

The Internet has gained popularity in recent years including Social networking and MMORPGs, which are the most frequent internet activities and has lead a Philippine-based company known as "Level Up! Games" to emerge in the Philippine industry.^[170]^[171]

Sports and recreation

Main article: Sports in the Philippines

A sepak takraw ball made out of rattan. Also used for the national sport sipa.

A professional basketball game being played between the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants and Barako Bull Energy Boosters.

Various sports are played in the Philippines including basketball, boxing, volleyball, badminton, billiards, football (soccer), ten-pin bowling and sipa.

Traditional Filipino sports are popular,^[172]^[173] among the youth, primarily as children's games, such as luksung baka, patintero, piko, and tumbang preso. Sungka, while not as popular as it once was, is still viewed as a significant part of the traditional native Filipino games. Card games are popular during festivities, with some, including Pusoy and Tong-its, being used as a form of illegal gambling. Majhong is played in some Filipino communities. The yo-yo a popular toy with roots in the Philippines was introduced internationally by Pedro Flores with its name from the Ilokano language.

Basketball is played at both amateur and professional level and is considered to be the most popular sport in the Philippines.^[174]^[175] In almost every corner of the cities, there is a basketball court as it is the favorite recreational activity by Filipinos.^[176]

Basketball, boxing, billiards, soccer, horse racing, chess and ten-pin bowling are the most watched sports.^[177] Philippine sports have produced several sports heroes, such as Francisco Guilledo, Flash Elorde, and Manny Pacquiao in boxing,^[176] Paulino Alcántara in football (soccer), Carlos Loyzaga, Robert Jaworski and Ramon Fernandez in basketball, Efren Reyes in billiards,^[178] Eugene Torre in chess,^[179] and Rafael Nepomuceno in bowling.^[180] Motocross, figure skating, cycling and mountaineering have become popular.

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Washington Post's: How the Philippines Sees America
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Origins of the Filipinos and Their Languages by Wilhelm G. Solheim II (PDF)
History of the Philippine Islands in many volumes, from Project Gutenberg (and indexed under Emma Helen Blair, the general editor)
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USAID country health statistical report : Philippines (May 2008)
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History	Prehistory · Spanish colonial period · American colonial period · Third Republic · Marcos era · Fifth Republic

Geography	Luzon · Visayas · Mindanao · Administrative divisions · Regions · Provinces · Cities · Municipalities · Barangays · Bays · Islands · Lakes · Mountains · Peninsulas · Rivers · Volcanoes · Environmental issues · Water supply and sanitation · Tourism · Landmarks

Government and politics	Constitution · President · Congress (Senate · House) · Supreme Court · Military · Police · Law enforcement · Political parties (Lakas-Kampi-CMD · LDP · NPC · NP · LP · PDP-LABAN · UNO · BAYAN) · Elections · Liberalism · Foreign relations · Human rights · Women's rights

Economy	Companies · Central Bank · Philippine peso · Stock Exchange · Transportation · Communications

Demographics	Filipino people · Filipino language · Education · Christianity · Islam · Traditional beliefs · Ethnic groups · Languages · Religion · Immigration

Culture	Arts · Cinema · Cuisine · Education · Flag · Literature · Music · Public holidays · Sports · Martial arts · Olympics

Symbols	Coat of Arms · Flag · National anthem

Portal

[show] v • d • e Political Divisions of the Philippines

Capital	Manila • National Capital Region

Autonomous region	Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

Provinces	Abra • Agusan del Norte • Agusan del Sur • Aklan • Albay • Antique • Apayao • Aurora • Basilan • Bataan • Batanes • Batangas • Benguet • Biliran • Bohol • Bukidnon • Bulacan • Cagayan • Camarines Norte • Camarines Sur • Camiguin • Capiz • Catanduanes • Cavite • Cebu • Compostela Valley • Cotabato • Davao del Norte • Davao del Sur • Davao Oriental • Dinagat Islands • Eastern Samar • Guimaras • Ifugao • Ilocos Norte • Ilocos Sur • Iloilo • Isabela • Kalinga • La Union • Laguna • Lanao del Norte • Lanao del Sur • Leyte • Maguindanao • Marinduque • Masbate • Misamis Occidental • Misamis Oriental • Mountain Province • Negros Occidental • Negros Oriental • Northern Samar • Nueva Ecija • Nueva Vizcaya • Occidental Mindoro • Oriental Mindoro • Palawan • Pampanga • Pangasinan • Quezon • Quirino • Rizal • Romblon • Samar • Sarangani • Siquijor • Sorsogon • South Cotabato • Southern Leyte • Sultan Kudarat • Sulu • Surigao del Norte • Surigao del Sur • Tarlac • Tawi-Tawi • Zambales • Zamboanga del Norte • Zamboanga del Sur • Zamboanga Sibugay

Other subdivisions	Island groups • Regions • Cities • Municipalities • Barangays • Legislative districts

Territorial disputes	Benham Plateau • North Borneo (Sabah) • Scarborough Shoal • Spratly Islands

[show]

Geographic locale

Lat. and Long. 13°00′N 122°00′E / 13°N 122°E / 13; 122

[show]

Countries of Asia

Afghanistan · Armenia · Azerbaijan¹ · Bahrain · Bangladesh · Bhutan · Brunei · Burma · Cambodia · People's Republic of China · Republic of China (Taiwan)² · Cyprus · Egypt³ · Georgia¹ · India · Indonesia⁴ · Iran · Iraq · Israel · Japan · Jordan · Kazakhstan¹ · North Korea · South Korea · Kuwait · Kyrgyzstan · Laos · Lebanon · Malaysia · Maldives · Mongolia · Nepal · Oman · Pakistan · Philippines · Qatar · Russia¹ · Saudi Arabia · Singapore · Sri Lanka · Syria · Tajikistan · Thailand · East Timor (Timor-Leste)⁴ · Turkey¹ · Turkmenistan · United Arab Emirates · Uzbekistan · Vietnam · Yemen³

For dependent and other territories, see Dependent territory.

¹ Partly or significantly in Europe. ² The Republic of China (Taiwan) is not officially recognized by the United Nations; see Political status of Taiwan.
³ Partly or significantly in Africa. ⁴ Partly or wholly reckoned in Oceania.

[show]

Countries and other territories in Southeast Asia

Sovereign states
Brunei
Burma
Cambodia
East Timor
Indonesia
Laos

Malaysia
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
Vietnam

Dependencies
Christmas Island
Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Divisions of sovereign states
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Hainan

Disputed territories
Islands in the Naf River (Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar)) · Macclesfield Bank (Philippines, PRC, ROC) · Paracel Islands (PRC, ROC, Vietnam) · Pratas Islands (PRC, ROC) · Scarborough Shoal (Philippines, PRC, ROC) · Spratly Islands (Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, PRC, ROC, Vietnam)
Active separatist or autonomist movements
West Papua · Chinland · Nagaland · Wa State · Zogam · Bangsamoro · Patani

[show] v • d • e Countries of the Malay Archipelago

Brunei · East Timor · Indonesia · Malaysia · Philippines · Singapore · Papua New Guinea

[show]

International membership

[show] v • d • e Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Members	Brunei · Burma (Myanmar) · Cambodia · Indonesia · Laos · Malaysia · Philippines · Singapore · Thailand · Vietnam

Observers	Papua New Guinea · Timor-Leste

Summits/Forums	ASEAN Summits · ASEAN Free Trade Area · ASEAN +6 · ASEAN Regional Forum · ASEM · East Asia Summit

Related articles	Anthem · Charter · Common Time · Date of Establishment · Flag · Hymn · Organizations · SEA Games · Secretariat · Treaty of Amity and Cooperation

[show] v • d • e Major non-NATO allies of the United States

Argentina · Australia · Bahrain · Egypt · Japan · Jordan · Kuwait · Morocco · New Zealand · Philippines · South Korea · Thailand		Map showing the Major non-NATO allies

[show]

East Asia Summit (EAS)

First · Second · Third · Fourth · Fifth

Australia
Brunei
PR China
Cambodia

India
Indonesia
Japan
Laos

Malaysia
Myanmar
New Zealand
Philippines

Singapore
South Korea
Thailand
Vietnam

Potential future members

Timor-Leste

Papua New Guinea

Russia

[show]

Members and observers of the Non-Aligned Movement

Members

Afghanistan · Algeria · Angola · Bahamas · Bahrain · Bangladesh · Barbados · Belarus · Belize · Benin · Bhutan · Bolivia · Botswana · Brunei · Burkina Faso · Burma · Burundi · Cambodia · Cameroon · Cape Verde · Central African Republic · Chad · Chile · Colombia · Comoros · Congo · Côte d'Ivoire · Cuba · Democratic Republic of the Congo · Djibouti · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · Egypt · Equatorial Guinea · Eritrea · Ethiopia · Gabon · Gambia · Ghana · Grenada · Guatemala · Guinea · Guinea-Bissau · Guyana · Honduras · India · Indonesia · Iran · Jamaica · Jordan · Kenya · Kuwait · Laos · Lebanon · Lesotho · Liberia · Libya · Madagascar · Malawi · Malaysia · Maldives · Mali · Mauritania · Mauritius · Mongolia · Morocco · Mozambique · Namibia · Nepal · Nicaragua · Niger · Nigeria · North Korea · Oman · Pakistan · Palestine · Panama · Papua New Guinea · Peru · Philippines · Qatar · Rwanda · St. Lucia · St. Vincent and the Grenadines · São Tomé and Príncipe · Saudi Arabia · Senegal · Seychelles · Sierra Leone · Singapore · Somalia · South Africa · Sri Lanka · Sudan · Suriname · Swaziland · Syria · Tanzania · Thailand · East Timor · Togo · Trinidad and Tobago · Tunisia · Turkmenistan · Uganda · United Arab Emirates · Uzbekistan · Vanuatu · Venezuela · Vietnam · Yemen · Zambia · Zimbabwe

Observers

Countries	Antigua and Barbuda · Armenia · Azerbaijan · Bosnia-Herzegovina · Brazil · China (PRC) · Costa Rica · Croatia · Cyprus · Dominica · El Salvador · Kazakhstan · Kyrgyzstan · Mexico · Montenegro · Serbia · Ukraine · Uruguay
Organizations	African Union · Arab League · United Nations

[show] v • d • e States belonging to the Like Minded Group of states at the United Nations

Members	Algeria · Bangladesh · Belarus · Bhutan · People's Republic of China · Cuba · Egypt · India · Indonesia · Iran Malaysia · Myanmar · Nepal · Pakistan · Philippines · Sri Lanka · Sudan · Syria · Vietnam · Zimbabwe

[show] v • d • e Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

Australia · Brunei Darussalam · Canada · Chile · People's Republic of China · Hong Kong, China · Indonesia · Japan · Republic of Korea · Malaysia · Mexico · New Zealand · Papua New Guinea · Peru · Philippines · Russian Federation · Singapore · Chinese Taipei * · Thailand · United States · Vietnam *Designation of the Republic of China

Meetings	1989 · 1990 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011 · 2012 · 2013

[show]

Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO)

Albania · Angola · Antigua and Barbuda · Argentina · Armenia · Australia · Bahrain · Bangladesh · Barbados · Belize · Benin · Bolivia · Botswana · Brazil · Brunei · Burkina Faso · Burma · Burundi · Cambodia · Cameroon · Canada · Cape Verde · Central African Republic · Chad · Chile · PR China · Colombia · Democratic Republic of the Congo · Republic of the Congo · Costa Rica · Côte d'Ivoire · Croatia · Cuba · Djibouti · Dominica · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · Egypt · El Salvador · European Union¹ · Fiji · Gabon · The Gambia · Georgia · Ghana · Grenada · Guatemala · Guinea · Guinea-Bissau · Guyana · Haiti · Honduras · Hong Kong² · Iceland · India · Indonesia · Israel · Jamaica · Japan · Jordan · Kenya · South Korea · Kuwait · Kyrgyzstan · Lesotho · Liechtenstein · Macau² · Macedonia · Madagascar · Malawi · Malaysia · Maldives · Mali · Mauritania · Mauritius · Mexico · Moldova · Mongolia · Morocco · Mozambique · Namibia · Nepal · New Zealand · Nicaragua · Niger · Nigeria · Norway · Oman · Pakistan · Panama · Papua New Guinea · Paraguay · Peru · Philippines · Qatar · Rwanda · St. Kitts and Nevis · St. Lucia · St. Vincent and the Grenadines · Saudi Arabia · Senegal · Sierra Leone · Singapore · Solomon Islands · South Africa · Sri Lanka · Suriname · Swaziland · Switzerland · Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu³ · Tanzania · Thailand · Togo · Tonga · Trinidad and Tobago · Tunisia · Turkey · Uganda · Ukraine · United Arab Emirates · United States · Uruguay · Venezuela · Vietnam · Zambia · Zimbabwe

All twenty-seven member states of the European Union are also members of the WTO in their own right: Austria • Belgium • Bulgaria • Cyprus • Czech Republic • Denmark • Estonia • Finland • France • Germany • Greece • Hungary • Ireland • Italy • Latvia • Lithuania • Luxembourg • Malta • Netherlands and Netherlands Antilles • Poland • Portugal • Romania • Slovakia • Slovenia • Spain • Sweden • United Kingdom.
Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
Designated name for the Republic of China (Commonly Known as Taiwan)

[show]

Languages

[show] v • d • e Austronesian-speaking countries and territories

Formosan	Taiwan

Malayo-Polynesian	American Samoa · Brunei · Burma (Myanmar) · Cambodia · Christmas Island · Cocos (Keeling) Islands · Cook Islands · Easter Island · East Timor · Fiji · French Polynesia · Guam · Hainan · Hawaii · Indonesia · Kiribati · Madagascar · Malaysia · Marshall Islands · FS Micronesia · Nauru · New Caledonia · New Zealand · Niue · Northern Mariana Islands · Orchid Island · Palau · Papua New Guinea · Philippines · Samoa · Singapore · Solomon Islands · Sri Lanka · Suriname · Tokelau · Tonga · Tuvalu · United States · Vanuatu · Vietnam · Wallis and Futuna

[show] v • d • e Latin Union

Member Nations	Andorra · Angola · Bolivia · Brazil · Cape Verde · Chile · Colombia · Costa Rica · Côte d'Ivoire · Cuba · Dominican Republic · East Timor · Ecuador · El Salvador · France · Guatemala · Guinea-Bissau · Haiti · Honduras · Italy · Mexico · Moldova · Monaco · Mozambique · Nicaragua · Panama · Paraguay · Peru · Philippines · Portugal · Romania · San Marino · São Tomé and Príncipe · Senegal · Spain · Uruguay · Venezuela

Permanent Observers	Argentina · Holy See · Sovereign Military Order of Malta

Official languages	Catalan · French · Italian · Portuguese · Romanian · Spanish

[show]

The English-speaking world

The "Anglosphere" English as an official language – clickable map

Dark blue: Countries and territories where English is spoken natively by a significant population. Light blue: Countries where English is an official language but not native. English is also one of the official languages of the European Union. Click on the coloured regions to view the related article.

Anglophone states – countries and territories where English is spoken by a significant population:

Africa	Mauritius · Saint Helena · South Africa

Americas	Anguilla · Antigua and Barbuda · The Bahamas · Barbados · Belize · Bermuda · British Virgin Islands · Canada · Cayman Islands · Dominica · Falkland Islands · Grenada · Guyana · Jamaica · Montserrat · Netherlands Antilles(Saba, Saint Eustatius, Saint Maarten) · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Trinidad and Tobago · Turks and Caicos Islands · United States · United States Virgin Islands

Asia	Hong Kong · Philippines · Singapore

Europe	Guernsey · Isle of Man · Jersey · Malta · Republic of Ireland · United Kingdom

Oceania	Australia · Marshall Islands · Federated States of Micronesia · Nauru · New Zealand · Palau

Anglophone states – countries where English is an official language but not widely spoken:

Africa	Botswana · Cameroon · Ghana · Kenya · Lesotho · Liberia · Madagascar · Malawi · Namibia · Nigeria · Rwanda · Sierra Leone · Sudan · Swaziland · Tanzania · Uganda · Zambia · Zimbabwe

Americas	Puerto Rico

Asia	India · Malaysia · Pakistan

Oceania	Fiji · Papua New Guinea · Solomon Islands

English Wiktionary

[show] National personifications

Armenia	Mother Armenia
Australia	Boxing kangaroo
Brazil	Efígie da República
Cambodia	Preah Thaong and Neang Neak
Canada	Johnny Canuck
Finland	Finnish Maiden (Suomi neito)
France	Jacobin · Marianne
Georgia	Kartlis Deda
Germany	Deutscher Michel · Germania
Greece	Athena, "Greece" of Delacroix
Iceland	Lady of the mountain (Fjallkonan)
India	Bharat Mata
Indonesia	Ibu Pertiwi
Ireland	Erin · Ériu · Hibernia · Kathleen Ni Houlihan
Israel	Srulik

Italy	Italia Turrita
Japan	Amaterasu Omikami
Malaysia	Ibu Pertiwi
Netherlands	de Nederlandse Maagd` (Netherlands Maiden)
Norway	Ola Nordmann
Philippines	Juan de la Cruz
Poland	Polonia
Portugal	Efígie da República · Zé Povinho
Russia	Mother Russia
Sweden	Mother Svea
Switzerland	Helvetia
United Kingdom	Britannia · Lion and Unicorn John Bull (England) · Dame Wales (Wales)
United States	Brother Jonathan · Columbia · Uncle Sam Billy Yank (northern states) · Johnny Reb (southern states)

Mother Earth

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines"

Palash Biswas

Pl Read my blogs:

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--
Palash Biswas
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