Asian Insider Podcast

Author M R Narayan Swamy on Sri Lanka’s now-vanquished militant group Tamil Tigers

Apr 11, 2025, 

Synopsis: The Straits Times’ senior columnist Ravi Velloor distils 40 years of experience covering the Asian continent, with expert guests.

As Sri Lanka approaches the 16th anniversary of the end of its civil war, Ravi speaks with M R Narayan Swamy in this episode.

Swamy is the author of several books on Sri Lanka’s now-vanquished militant group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and he talks about his most recent book – The Rout of Prabhakaran.

Swamy’s book details the last days of Tamil Tigers supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was killed, along with hundreds of fighters and Tamil civilians, by the Sri Lankan army in May, 2009.

In this podcast, he discusses why Prabhakaran, who once controlled a third of Sri Lanka’s landmass, and two-thirds of its coastline, met his bloody end; the mistakes he made along the way, and the magical hold he seemed to hold on his cadres.

_________________________

Reviews 

SEVOUtheSPOIDERMON

No one has covered the Tamil Eelam war or separatist movement quite like M R Narayan Swamy. A brilliant journalist and writer, Narayan Swamy has extensively chronicled the blood-soaked history of Sri Lanka for 35 years. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to describe him as the final word on this subject.

His book ‘The Rout of Prabhakaran’ is just out. It comes exactly 15 years after the complete annihilation of the LTTE. It reads like a postmortem of the LTTE, once dubbed the world's most dangerous 'terrorist organisation'.

Many others have written on Sri Lanka's civil war, but Narayan Swamy stands out with his deep understanding and insight. He is objective and sympathetic to the cause, but unsparing when it comes to exposing the hypocrisy and demagoguery of the LTTE’s supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.