Michael Roberts
In step with my initiation of reports on the last phase of Eelam War IV that had receded from memory or been buried unknown, and the Tammita-Delgoda series, I bring to your attention here the Al-Jazeera footage from behind the SL Army lines on three occasions:
- 7th October 2008, entitled “Sri Lanka army closes in on Tamil Tigers.”
- 26th January 2009 … “Sri Lanka army claims control of rebel territory.”
- 1st February 2009… “Sri Lankan army closes in on Tamil Tigers.”
In contrast with the still pictures utilised by Tammita-Delgoda and more extensively by me in Tamil Person and State. Pictorial (2014), video footage is not only more lively and evocative, but encompasses sweeps of space and people in motion. To be sure, video documentaries involve editing with its cutting and splicing together. The continuity is not as continuous as it seems.
Situation Map, 23 December 2009 –thus two month later than the Al Jazeera video
From Ministry of Defence web site ….. “The SL Army’s main successes in 2008 were on the western front and the advance occurred from circa April 2008, the point where Madhu was captured. The SLA threatened the crucial A9 arterial road from November 2008 and, in fact, once Paranthan fell in December, the LTTE had perforce to abandon its administrative capital at Kilinochchi. The 55th Division in the meanwhile began its advance southwards along the north-eastern coast. They faced a “bleached and burning landscape of sand and water” and had perforce to pursue what was at times an amphibious war demanding improvisation (Tammita-Delgoda 200: 1,-3, 8-10). From the south the 59th Division pressed forward from Oddusudan towards Mullaitivu, which remained the LTTE’s bunker fortress where the high command was located. The three lakhs or so of people who were citizens of Thamilīlam had been ready to adhere to the LTTE’s enforced movement eastwards because they had little faith in the government of Sri Lanka” (Roberts, in Fig. 77, TPS. Pictorial).
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