“The Tigers would have been proud of this production. Clearly an effort to sensationalize and shock with carefully selected and edited footage, the documentary weakens its case and invites an investigation into its own credibility and accountability to journalistic norms,” says Shyam Tekwani, Associate Professor, Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu, writing to Tehelka, an independent weekly news magazine in India, referring to the infamous Channel 4 documentary.

Equating the end result of the documentary to that of a propaganda work produced by the LTTE, he also says, the documentary, “in its attempt to provide a stomach-turning narrative … is on shaky ground”.

In reference to the last phase of the Humanitarian Operation undertaken by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, he writes that the pleas of civilians were as much in vain this time, as they had been successful on several earlier occasions, since as a human shield they were central to the survival of the Tigers leadership.

“The unblemished record of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in reneging on negotiations and truces, only to fight even more fiercely, meant that calls for a ceasefire were yet another stratagem to regroup and rejuvenate. Colombo, sensing an impossible victory, was in no mood to risk being cheated of this opportunity as it was by New Delhi in 1987”, he adds.

“There was going to be no bail out this time. The retreating Tigers then resorted to a trick that had previously ensured their longevity – herding civilians as their insurance against certain annihilation. Left with no choice but to pursue the concept of total war with the same kind of ruthless determination that Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tiger chief, had demonstrated for 25 years, Colombo went for the kill. The Tigers had finally met their match”, he further states.

In reference to The Cage by Gordon Weiss, he says that Weiss tries to translate the most sensational event of the past two years in Sri Lanka – the military defeat of the LTTE – into humanitarian and war crimes terms. The book contains faults and contradictions, and as he says “Weiss’s effort at doing his homework well fails at the most elementary levels”.

“The Tigers have a history of killing the people they claim to represent and planting the ‘evidence’ on the enemy for propaganda benefits”, he further says.

For the full text of the article, follow

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws290811long.asp.