The camera pans across a host of hands thrust through a gate and focuses on a young girl. The deep sadness etched in her face shows the despair felt by thousands of Tamil civilians caught up in the tail end of the 30-year war fought between the government of Sri Lanka armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Filmed by United Nations staffer, Benjamin Dix, it showcases the anguish of civilians who congregated outside the UN compound in Northern Sri Lanka as UN officers left the area following a communiqué stating the Sri Lankan government could not guarantee their safety as its forces advanced into LTTE-held land.The image is part of a documentary entitled Sri Lanka's Killing Fields (which can be seen here), aired by the British Channel 4 station. The 40-plus-minute documentary includes images of previously shown photos of captured LTTE cadres being put to death by government soldiers in the final days of the battle fought at the end of 2008 and the first five months of 2009.
The pull out is described in the documentary by former spokesman for the UN in Sri Lanka Gordon Weiss as a move to "remove independent witnesses to what was to come." The unfolding scenes are horrific; displaying man's inhumanity to man where both GoSL forces and the LTTE used unarmed civilians as pawns.
The Sri Lankan government and its apologists reject the documentary as a fabrication, and continue to claim that the final foray was carried out as a humanitarian operation with "zero civilian casualties." However, images and messages that came out of the war zone even as the last battles were fought tell a different story. The inaction of the UN, world powers and main stream media at the time baffled those who followed the events closely. Those images and reports lend credibility to this documentary and supports the findings of the Darusman Report, a UN expert panel appointed by Secretary General Ban Ki Moon last year. While the report holds both sides accountable, and calls for a war crimes investigation, Ban Ki Moon now claims he has no authority to follow up on the report without the consent of the Sri Lankan government.
The documentary showcases images filmed by Tamils, government footage and those captured by soldiers on mobile phones. Eye witness accounts include that of Vany Kumar a Tamil woman domiciled in England who was visiting relatives in Sri Lanka and was caught up in the war, and a Tamil doctor who until the end attempted to alleviate the suffering of the people. A man who lost his son during the shelling, a woman raped after surrendering to the government and a Sinhala critic are also interviewed.
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Source: Rabble.ca
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