TELA (Tamil Eelam Liberation Army) was the military wing of TELO(Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization). In 1982 it separated from TELO under the leadership of Oberoi Devan. Devan was an ex-employee of Hotel Lanka Oberoi in Colombo so he got the title “Oberoi” Devan.
After the arrest of the most prominent TELO leaders, Thangathurai and Kuttimani, Sri Sabaratnam took over the leadership of TELO. They say Devan was not happy with Sabaratnam’s way of leading the group.
Around 1980–1982 LTTE was working with TELO and Devan being a TELO member then, had a good relationship with both TELO leader Sabaratnam and LTTE chief Prabhakaran.
PLOTE+TELA Vs LTTE (and TELO)
After the split, TELA aligned itself with PLOTE, a deadly rival group of both LTTE and TELO. TELA and PLOTE working against LTTE made Oberoi’s name finding a place on the LTTE’s hit list.
On 14th August 1983 Oberoi Devan was killed by LTTE. After the death of its charismatic leader, TELA was never the same yet it was still active but only as a small group.
PLOTE Vs TELA
After the murder of Devan, TELA was led by Castro then by Murali Master.
In the mid-1980s TELA saw a split. One faction led by Senthil remained loyal to PLOTE and the other core group was led by Rajan. The Rajan faction decided to operate independently.
This turned the wrath of PLOTE against Rajan’s TELA. As a result, a large number of murders and kidnappings were taken place between these two groups. Finally, PLOTE being a large force easily overpowered TELA force and whole TELA leadership was arrested. Later they were all executed as a result whole TELA was wiped out from the Eelam struggle.
The remaining TELA cadres either joined PLOTE or returned back to normal life.
TNA(Tamil National Army):
Later many of the former TELA, TELO, EPRLF, PLOTE cadres were seen joining the TNA(Tamil National Army). TNA was formed and trained by IPKF to counter LTTE’s influence once IPKF leaves the island.
But once IPKF announced its exit it took just a few days for LTTE to chase TNA from most parts of Jaffna district. In many areas, TNA cadres didn’t even put a fight and vacated their posts once they saw LTTE forces marching towards them.
Footnotes
[2] Refworld | Sri Lanka: Information on the TELA, its leaders for the past five years, and its links with TELO and PLOTE
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