Between Coercion and Representation: Exploring the Micro-Dynamics of Support Relations between Tamil Civilians and the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam during the Sri Lankan Civil War

Recent works on popular support during violent conflicts have made important steps in disaggregating the overly broad category of support in order to better capture the multi-faceted and dynamic nature of support relations that connect armed groups to their social environment as well as to analyze how specific types of support relationships are embedded in and emerge from specific (local) socio-political contexts. Building on these developments, the present article explores the micro-dynamics of support relations between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Tamil community in the context of the Sri Lankan Civil War. It empirically demonstrates that popular support as a unitary concept is of limited use to capture the variation of supportive ties that connect civilians to armed groups. Rather, a detailed analysis of micro-level data shows that ties between Tamil civilians and the LTTE are rarely based on coercion or utilitarian considerations alone; rather violence, coercion and fear combine with beliefs about normative commitments and social obligations in varying and often ambiguous ways. Moreover, there is considerable variation in the types of support relations between different groups of civilians. In an attempt to capture some of this variation the article employs the notion of territorial control which has been particularly influential as an explanation for variation in levels of popular support across space. It explores empirically if and how variation in territorial control shapes the make-up of supportive ties between Tamil civilians and the LTTE. More precisely, it compares the accounts of Tamil civilians who lived in zones of varying degrees of rebel and government control during the Sri Lankan civil war and analyzes in how far this variation result in differences of supportive ties across space. In doing so, the article not only aims to explore the relevance of territorial control but also intends to single out variation in support relations that cannot be explained with reference to notions of control, thereby highlighting additional dimensions relevant for explaining variation. In particular, it points to variation in supportive ties for different social strata and suggest that the economic and educational resources individuals have at their disposal has relevant consequences for how they experience the conflict and relate to the LTTE. Second, the article provides some preliminary data demonstrating the relevance specific social roles, such as being a mother or being a student, have for the emergence of specific combinations of supportive ties. Empirically, the article is based on interview data the author collected during three months of field research in Sri Lanka. In total, 20 life history interviews have been conducted with Tamil civilians who lived in different areas affected by the Sri Lankan civil war. As the interviews have been conducted with civilians who lived in areas with varying forms of territorial control (zones, fully controlled by the LTTE, zones where control was contested and zones where the Sri Lankan government was in full control) they allow me to explore if and how territorial control shapes support relationships.