Figures from war zones are always hard to pin down with any precision, but the UN estimates 40,000 people died in the last weeks of the Sri Lankan Civil War. 6,000 – 10,000 are believed to still be missing. This is the country where the latest Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting has opened today. Canada and India have boycotted the event, which will hand leadership of the Commonwealth to Sri Lanka for two years and the British Tamil Forum has protested the participation of the British Government. Images from their protest can be seen here. Amnesty UK have also protested in Parliament Square, images of which are here.
No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka was shown recently on Channel 4 and is still available on 4oD. It is a chilling documentary about the Sri Lankan Civil War, centring on the Sri Lankan government’s creation of No Fire Zones. Civilians were funnelled into these, which the government then appears to have attacked. All facts are disputed by the Sri Lankan Government, but the filmmakers have had all facts independently checked and verified. Much of the film is made up of footage from mobile phones and video cameras shot by amateurs caught up in the conflict. This has all been analysed and experts say that it is not faked, which puts grave doubts on the words of the Sri Lankan government, who have denied any of the events shown took place.
The history of the civil war in Sri Lanka is not something about which your typical British viewer knows much about. By that statement of course I mean The history of the civil war in Sri Lanka is not something about which I know much about, and this film by Callum Macrae does a good job in compressing years of history into an understandable narrative. The Tamils are a minority of 15% of the Sri Lankan population and have suffered discrimination ever since independence in 1948. The Tamil Tigers (LTTE) was founded in 1976, aiming to create a separate state for Tamils in the northeast of Sri Lanka. By 2000 it had grown powerful, and had de facto rule in the northeast of the country. Their tactics were violent and involved suicide missions in which civilians also died, and the film plays excerpts of songs with lyrics such as ‘We are uncontrollable spinning bombs’ and ‘They enjoy swimming in their own blood.’ The government/LTTE conflict is not the focus of the film. Rather it is the way that the government designated safe areas for civilians to move to, before appearing to directly target them.
The footage is hard to watch and often horrendous. Eye witnesses describe scenes that are also graphically shown, of dead and dying people, grieving parents and blood mixed with rain-water dripping along a corrugated metal sheet. There are more awful videos of executions and the military collecting dead bodies.
With all the horrors on show, the film didn’t need to become melodramatic. This happened once when showing a truck loaded with women guarded by a soldier. As the truck drove away the voiceover intoned the unnecessary detail, ‘We have no idea what happened to them.’
Wikileaks quotes are used to show the version of events that the government was reporting to other governments around the world. Military news conferences also spin the events their own way. The civilians were described as being held hostage by the Tigers – and there have been reports of the LTTE shooting people who tried to cross into government-held territory. But what appeared to the people on the ground to be deliberate targeting of civilians – including hospitals – was reported at successful ‘hostage rescue missions’, in which there were no civilian casualties. This film, with its witnesses and footage shows that this is not the case.
Watching a documentary on a commercial TV channel is a jarring experience. In a couple of seconds you go from the disgusting events in Sri Lanka to humorous adverts with Eric Cantona pretending to be a hop farmer in Alsace. A couple of minutes later and you are back amongst the tales and images of atrocities. The adverts are soon forgotten. This is a powerful film that will inform people and leaders and may help bring justice to the victims of the Sri Lankan civil war.
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