According to Revolutionary and Dissident Movements (Degenhardt 1988, 350), the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) was formed in 1979 by a former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Uma Maheswaran. Like the LTTE, PLOTE sought a separate Tamil state; however, PLOTE was critical of the LTTE's guerrilla tactics (Ibid.). Shortly after the split, according to The Broken Palmyra: The Tamil Crisis in Sri Lanka An Inside Account (Hoole et al. 1990, 76), the first inter-group killings began between the rival organizations; by 1986, these killings reportedly were to reach "epidemic proportions" (Ibid.), although the two organizations also at times cooperated in the fight for a separate Tamil state (AFP 22 July 1991).

PLOTE, however, accepted the 1987 pact between India and Sri Lanka, which the LTTE rejected, and PLOTE now fights alongside government troops against the LTTE (Ibid.). In 1990 the Deputy Defence Minister Ranjan Wijeratne was quoted as stating that PLOTE members were being recruited as "home guards" to fight the LTTE, a reference to similar Muslim and Sinhalese groups formed to protect villages (Reuters 6 Dec. 1990).

Two 1989 reports make mention of PLOTE-run camps. A Xinhua report from July 1989, marking the assassination of PLOTE founder Uma Maheswaran by unknown gunmen in Colombo, states that the PLOTE set up training camps in India during the 1980s (18 July 1989). As well, a November 1989 Reuters article reports on a gun battle between government troops and, it was believed, PLOTE members, who ran "a secret camp" in Wilpattu National Park, in the north west (8 Nov. 1989).

With the government and PLOTE now reportedly cooperating, clashes with the LTTE continue. In July 1992, for instance, ten Tamil men were reportedly "tried" and executed by the LTTE in the northern village of Omanthai for being suspected PLOTE spies (AFP 7 July 1992), while several accounts of fighting between the two groups were reported in Agence France Presse in the spring of 1992 (15 Apr. 1992; Ibid. 21 Mar. 1992; Ibid. 7 Mar. 1992).

No information is currently available to the DIRB in Ottawa on PLOTE recruiting methods.

Agence France Presse (AFP). 7 July 1992. "Tigers Execute 10 Tamils for Spying." (NEXIS)

. 15 April 1992. "Seven Civilians Killed in Shoot-out Between Rival Tamil Groups." (NEXIS)

. 21 March 1992. "Rebels Kill Seven More Troops, Sri Lanka Toll Hits 34." (NEXIS)

. 7 March 1992. "Rival Tamil Group Kills Three Tiger Rebels." (NEXIS)

. 22 July 1991. "Sri Lanka Fighting Kills 123." (NEXIS)

Degenhardt, Henry W., ed. 1988. Revolutionary and Dissident Movements: An International Guide. Burnt Mill, Essex: Longman Group UK Ltd.

Hoole, Rajan, et al. 1990. The Broken Palmyra: The Tamil Crisis in Sri Lanka An Inside Account. Jaffna, Sri Lanka: The University of Jaffna.

Reuters. 6 December 1990. Dalton De Silva. "Former Rebels Fight Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka." (NEXIS)

. 8 November 1989. "Twelve Killed in Gunbattle in Sri Lankan Wildlife Park." (NEXIS)

The Xinhua General Overseas News Service. 18 July 1989. "Tamil Group Leader Killed in Sri Lankan Capital." (NEXIS)