Dhanu, the single name of a young woman from Jaffna, is the most famous Tamil Tiger suicide bomber. On May 21, 1991, she hid a girdle of grenades beneath her gown, presented a garland to Rajiv Gandhi, India’s top political figure, and exploded, instantly killing them both. Dhanu has become a heroine to the women of Sri Lanka’s Hindu Tamil minority. The Tigers targeted Gandhi because they feared that, if the Congress under Gandhi were to win the upcoming election, the new government would order the recently withdrawn Indian Peacekeeping Force to return to Sri Lanka to suppress the Tigers’ insurgency. For the Tigers, the assassination was a strategic victory. For Dhanu, a remarkably beautiful woman in her late twenties, motivation probably came directly from revenge: reportedly her home in Jaffna was looted by Indian soldiers, she was gang-raped, and her four brothers were killed.
Dhanu was the first attacker to use a “suicide belt,” and this novelty determined the operational plan of attack. It is not known how the Tigers hit upon the idea. A suicide belt is an undergarment with specially made pockets to hold explosives and triggering devices so that they closely conform to the contours of the human bomb’s body. However, there is a close match between Dhanu’s suicide belt and one described in a dramatic scene in a Frederick Forsyth best-seller published in 1989, The Negotiator. In the novel, kidnappers use a belt bomb to kill the son of the U.S. president. The fictitious belt bomb is virtually identical to the belt worn by Dhanu, which investigators pieced together after the attack. Both belts are three inches wide, made from leather and denim, with a Velcro closure, and with explosives inserted to lie across the backbone. The main difference is the detonation mechanism. The belt in the novel is set off by a remote-control device hidden in the buckle, while the woman assassin had no such device and triggered the bomb herself with a manual switch.
The plan was simple. According to accomplices and messages captured after the attack, the LTTE sent a squad of four assassins to Madras, the largest city in the southern Tamil Nadu region of India, about three weeks before Rajiv Gandhi was scheduled to speak at a major political rally. Dhanu was the designated assassin. It was her job to wear the belt bomb, carry a garland for Gandhi, “accidentally” drop it at his feet, bend over to pick it up, and explode the bomb at the precise moment when Gandhi (and she) would receive its full force. Two members of the squad were to ensure that Dhanu would reach her target. The last served as a cameraman, taking live footage of the attack so that LTTE leaders, cadre, and future recruits could view the mission as it actually happened.
The assassination went off according to plan. However, the cameraman was too close. He died in the blast, and the tape fell into the hands of the Indian police, providing an unusually vivid account that helped elucidate the assassination plot.
On page 228 are two of the ten surviving still frames of the actual attack. The first shows Dhanu at the far left smiling, garland in hand, waiting for the approaching Gandhi. The second shows the last moments of Gandhi’s life. [pics not posted]
Dhanu belonged to the female suicide bomber unit of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that goes by the name Black Tigresses. Since the early 1980s, the Tamil population has fought a civil war for independence from the Sinhalese Buddhist majority of Sri Lanka. The Tamil leader Velupillai Prabhakaran formed the LTTE with support and arms from India, and began a terror campaign against the Sinhalese government in which more than 60,000 people have died. Although precise numbers are hard to come by, the LTTE is estimated to number well over 10,000 guerrillas and has had as many as 14,000 during the 1990s. Of these, as many as 4,000 are women.
LTTE guerrillas all manifest a high degree of personal commitment to the cause of independence for their Tamil homeland. The most evident sign is the small cyanide capsule that hangs around the neck of each guerrilla, and that puts him or her only seconds from death. Literally hundreds have died at their own hands, biting through their capsules and consuming the deadly contents rather than accepting capture by the Sinhalese authorities.
The Black Tigresses (and Black Tigers) are different. These units of the LTTE are trained especially for suicide terrorist operations. For them, it is not a matter of committing suicide rather than accepting the humiliation and possible torture that comes with capture. Rather, suicide is an inextricable part of their mission. They are trained to kill others while killing themselves in order to maximize the chances of a successful mission—typically, the assassination of a prominent political leader or the infliction of the most possible casualties on Sinhalese civilians or unsuspecting soldiers.
Members of the LTTE’s suicide squads perform only one mission. Their selection and training are dedicated to ensuring that this single mission achieves results—not simply their own death, but the deaths of others.
Dhanu, alias Anbu alias Kalaivani, was from Jaffna, the principal town in the Tamil region of Sri Lanka. She appears to have been a member of the LTTE since the mid-1980s and to have gone through the typical process of becoming a Black Tigress in the late 1980s, possibly after her personal trauma at the hands of Indian troops.
Joining the LTTE’s suicide squads involves a number of steps. First, the suicide attackers are carefully selected. Although every LTTE guerrilla is given the option to join these groups, many more are rejected than accepted. At any given point, of the 10,000 or so cadres, there are probably 150 to 200 who are Black Tigresses and Tigers. The main selection criterion is a high level of motivation to complete the mission, a criterion that puts a premium on mental stability over tactical military competence.
Second, the suicide attackers are trained in special camps. They are segregated from the regulars and trained only for suicide missions. The training involves daily physical exercises, arms training, and political classes that all emphasize results. According to reliable reports, the Black Tigresses and Tigers have a simple motto: “You die only once.”
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Although detailed information on her mental state is not available, Dhanu’s behavior during the weeks before the assassination does not display signs of depression or personal trauma. Indeed, what we know about her activities suggests a person enjoying the good things in life. For Dhanu, her trip to Madras was the first time she had traveled beyond the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka. Even though much of the three weeks prior to the attack was devoted to preparations and rehearsals for the mission, she took advantage of her new surroundings. With money and encouragement from the LTTE, she went to the market, the beach, and restaurants every day, enjoying many luxuries rarely found in the jungles of Jaffna. She bought dresses, jewelry, cosmetics, and even her first pair of glasses. In the last twenty days of her life, she took in six movies at a local cinema.
Dhanu clearly had nerves of steel. She clearly understood the consequences of her actions and worked hard to ensure that her mission would surely succeed. Some of the female suicide bombers in Sri Lanka are believed to be victims of rape at the hands of Sinhalese or Indian soldiers, a stigma that destroys their prospects for marriage and rules out procreation as a means of contributing to the community. “Acting as a human bomb,” a Tamil woman told Ana Cutter, the former editor of Columbia University’s Journal of International Affairs, “is an understood and accepted offering for a woman who will never be a mother.”16
~~Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism -by- Robert A. Pape
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