Michael Roberts
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19298496# with its title “Beached Sri Lanka ship an extraordinary sight”
With the aid of BBC footage (and Tamilnet agitprop from the year 2009) Charles Haviland has placed his sensationalist spin on the last stages of the Eelam War IV and the battle for the Vanni pocket in this video – which readers should certainly view. His verbal presentation is prefaced by the written introduction to the site which runs thus: “Charles Haviland has been travelling in some of the places devastated in the final stages of the war in northern Sri Lanka three years ago. On a visit to the still-deserted village of Mullivaikkal, he came face to face with a huge ocean-going vessel captured by the defeated Tamil Tigers and later seized by the Sri Lankan military as they overran the last stretch of previously rebel-held coast in May 2009.” 
the FARAH – Pic by Kanchan Prasad …cf those on the BBC video
However, I recommend that readers, especially younger generations, should…
A: re-visit the scenes of Western Europe and Germany in 1944 and 1945 during World War II and, more vitally,
B: study the image of SS Farah in the Times series of late May 2009… 
C: and the whole series of photographs taken by Kanchan Prasad on the same strip of the Nandikadal foreshore between 14th and 18th May 2009 – especially those of Mullivaikkal hospital.
a Times aerial image –but one must not rely on just one–see the series
These pictures will restore some balance to the Haviland-BBC slants. With my familiarity in WW Two scenarios, what struck me was the degree to which so many buildings – several of them newly-built red-roof buildings constructed after the tsunami of 2004 had wiped the area desolate clean — remained standing. Young Charles needs to improve his reading skills.
Pics by Kanchan Prasad, with one showing Muralidhar Reddy in front of an LTTE building
