After seeing the ABC production in the FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT SERIES entitled “Tigers at the Gate” in mid-1999 I had the temerity to criticize the ABC and its producer Mark Corcoran. I should have attended to the blurb which presented this documentary on the ABC web site. This note ran: “The truth is a political solution is as impossible as a military breakthrough because for the (Tamil) Tigers its all or nothing– a homeland or glorious death.” (signed Mark Corcoran).
Category Archives: prabhakaran
Michael Roberts in Conversation in London, 8 March 2018
VISIT https://vimeo.com/259131094
Distinguished academic Dr Michael Roberts was in England recently and talked about his experiences and work including his online life as creator of the Thuppahi Blog (https://thuppahi.wordpress.com) …. This Q and A takes 60 minutes.
Pic by Eranga Jayawardena
Michael Roberts is a historian by training and has taught at the Department of History at Peradeniya University (1961-76) and the Department of Anthropology at Adelaide University (1977-2003). His major works are in agrarian history, social mobility, nationalism and ethnic conflict. Based on his interest in the Tamil liberation struggle and the sacrificial devotion mustered by the LTTE, he has written extensively on suicide missions. Michael Roberts has also edited several volumes on Sri Lanka entitled Collective Identities. In 2004, he retired as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Adelaide University, but continues to write articles.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, conspiracies, doctoring evidence, education, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, LTTE, modernity & modernization, nationalism, news fabrication, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes
Channa Wickremesekera’s Military History on Eelam War One
A Tough Apprentiecship: Sri Lanka’s Military against the Tamil Militants 1979 -1987… by Channa Wickremesekera
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, doctoring evidence, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, military strategy, modernity & modernization, nationalism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajiv Gandhi, riots and pogroms, security, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes
The Early Phase of Sinhala-Tamil Rivalry in Ceylon, 1931-70s
Michael Roberts[1]
The factors promoting political agitation among the Sri Lankan Tamils since the 1920s, particularly the developments after Sri Lanka secured independence in 1948, have inspired a large literature.[2] Three turning points in the temporal progression of this agitation have often been marked: one in 1956 when an electoral transformation helped enshrine Sinhala as the language of administration and placed the majority Sinhalese peoples in a dominant position in the political dispensation; secondly, in the early 1970s when militant Tamils placed secession at the forefront of their demands; and, thirdly, in July 1983 when an anti-Tamil pogrom in the Sinhalese-majority regions that involved state functionaries as well as people from many walks of life alienated the mass of Tamils and sparked an expansion in the militant separatist struggle.[3]
Bandaranaiake in rhetorical mode
Filed under British colonialism, education policy, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, language policies, Left politics, life stories, LTTE, modernity & modernization, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, welfare & philanthophy, zealotry
Revelations in Britain: Lord Naseby undermines the received ‘Wisdom’ on Civilian Deaths
Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, 12 November 2017 ... where the title is different and where verbal disparagement of the author and lively comments are likely to eventuate
Michael the Lord Naseby has set a cat among the British and international pigeons by extricating the reports of Lt. Col. Anton Gash (Defence Attache at the UK High Commission in Colombo in 2009) and presenting a summary review to the House of Lords. By immediately deploying Mandy Clark to interview Lord Naseby, Padma Rao Sundarji, the Foreign Editor of India’s first global channel, WION, drew upon his views and findings for the benefit of the world. This is something of a media coup.
Padma Rao Sundarji
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, doctoring evidence, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
Reviewing the Statistical Computations on Civilian Deaths in the Last Phase of Eelam War IV
Lt. Colonel (Retd) Athula Lankadeva, in Sunday Island, 12 November 2017, where the title is “A Critical Analysis of UN Panel of Expert Report which says SLAReviwe killed 40,000 Civilians During the Last Stage of War” … highlighted emphasis has been inserted by The Editor, Thuppahi
The Sunday Times of 29 Oct carried an article referring to Lord Naseby on demanding to remove the war crime tag from Sri Lanka. Lord Naseby researched classified documents to find that UN has fudged the casualty figure of 40000 civilians killed during the last phase of war in Sri Lanka whereas it was a guess by the UN Panel of Experts (POE) better known as Darusman Commission. According to the classified documents filed by then British Defence Attaché in Colombo Lt. Col Anton Gash, the civilian killed from Feb 1 – 26 April 2009 is 6432. The figure could be higher with the civilian deaths occurred within next 3 weeks. However, the total civilian deaths included civilians killed due to collateral damage during combat operations by the Armed Forces against LTTE, civilians killed intentionally by the LTTE by design and deaths of LTTE combatants dressed in civilian clothes.
In this photograph released by the pro-LTTE website TamilNet.com on May 2 are what they say show some of the 64 people killed and 87 wounded by shelling at a makeshift field hospital in Mullivaikal…In this photograph released by the pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) website TamilNet.com, obtained by Mercy Mission, on May 2, are what they say show some of the 64 people killed and 87 wounded by shelling on May 2, 2009 at a makeshift field hospital in Mullivaikal, in the south of the last scrap of land held by the guerrillas. The military denied the report saying the LTTE may have set off explosions near the hospital. Sri Lanka has disregarded heavy Western pressure to call a truce to protect tens of thousands of civilians trapped by the LTTE in the war zone, a 5-square km (2-sq mile) strip of coast. It is difficult to get a clear picture from the war zone, which is generally off-limits to outsiders. REUTERS/www.Tamilnet.com/Handout
Island 29 April 2009
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, doctoring evidence, Eelam, growth pole, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, tolerance, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes, zealotry
The LTTE Debacle at Aanandapuram, April 2009
Michael Roberts
When I interviewed General Shavendra Silva on 19th August 2017,[1] he identified three temporal turning points during the last year of the war (mid-2008 to May 2009). These were
- The SL Army’s capture of Pooneryn on 15th November 2008 which finalized the control of the western coastline (Hull 2015)
- The SLA’s capture of Paranthan on 31st December 2008.
- The SLA’s encirclement and decimation of a body of elite LTTE forces at Aanandapuram in the period 31st March- to 5th April 2009 as the Tigers were assembling for counter-attack.
Some footsoldiers at the heart of the battle and General Silva Continue reading
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, law of armed conflict, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power sharing, prabhakaran, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, war reportage, wikileaks, world events & processes
Catalan’s Pitch for Independence … with Reminders From Elsewhere
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, doctoring evidence, heritage, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, nationalism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
Reporting War. Outrageous Obfuscations during the Last Phase of Eelam War IV
Michael Roberts
The demand for news and the monies generated in mass media mean that journalists attempt to cover modern wars at close quarters. Access to war fronts is dictated by many factors, including location and access as well as the nature of the war terrain. Access to locations where the battle-lines are fluid and changing may be easier than those with definitive war-fronts, though such conditions can turn out to be more fatal – as Western reporters in Libya and Marie Colvin discovered in Syria in 2011/12.
Adie 
Colvin 
Nesmann 
Birtley
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, australian media, authoritarian regimes, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes
Reporters struggling with Eelam War IV: Some Recollections and Reports
Michael Roberts
In addressing the serious issues raised by some of the Western media reportage of the events unfolding during the last phase of Eelam War IV and several seemingly deliberate obfuscations, I recently sent a short set of questions to some Indian journalists who were in Sri Lanka then and also to a few Sri Lankan reporters/cameramen who had been taken to the war front – guided here by an official list available. I have only received responses from a few, but it is enough to set the reflections rolling.
Journalists in plane en route to war front, circa 27 January —Pic by Kanchan Prasad 
These responses throw light on the difficulties faced by journalists in reporting the war and I see them as important appendages to an analytical review that I have already penned in draft form (in progress). Those studying Eelam War IV should pay heed to these recollections, while also visiting the Al Jazeera You-Tube presentations provided by Tony Birtley & David Chater and marveling at the capacities revealed by Sergei de Silva Ranasinghe in deciphering the ups-and-downs of the SL Army progress from distant shores far better than Birtley or those in Colombo who visited the front on conducted tours on some occasions. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, doctoring evidence, Eelam, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, mass conscription, military strategy, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, war reportage, world events & processes
