{"id":180818,"date":"2017-08-08T00:04:51","date_gmt":"2017-08-07T18:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=180818"},"modified":"2017-08-11T04:34:57","modified_gmt":"2017-08-10T23:04:57","slug":"appraisal-of-the-ltte-in-mid-1999-mark-corcoran-the-abc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appraisal-of-the-ltte-in-mid-1999-mark-corcoran-the-abc\/","title":{"rendered":"Appraisal Of The LTTE In Mid-1999: Mark Corcoran & The\u00a0ABC"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Roberts<\/a> –<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Michael Roberts<\/p><\/div>\n

In mid-year 1999 during the ongoing Eelam War III,\u00a0Mark Corcoran<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) visited Sri Lanka and composed three film documentaries of fascinating breadth. They were:<\/span><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0<\/b>A Close Encounter with Arthur C. Clarke \u2026. 6 June 1999
\n<\/b><\/span><\/a>Sri Lanka<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/b>Tigers at the Gate<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2026\u2026\u00a029 June 1999<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0Extreme Surfing\u00a0<\/span><\/a>\u2026\u2026\u2026 13 July 1999<\/span><\/p>\n

I have yet to see the first and third of these film documentaries, but find the topics chosen very much in my line of interest. It so happened that I watched TIGERS AT THE GATE in Adelaide then<\/span>.<\/b>[1]\u00a0<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span>I then had the temerity to send a Letter to the ABC and Corcoran with some criticisms of the coverage<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/b><\/span>deploying an University of Adelaide letterhead so as to secure attention. This exercise had completely slipped my mind till I came across my typescript and Mark Corcoran\u2019s reply (dated 5<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0July) among my manuscripts when indulging in some archival sorting. In reproducing my Memo and placing this exchange within the inter-net \u2018bar,\u2019 I stress that my memories of the documentary NOW are zilch and that i have not been able to study it again. However, I suspect that it would be very useful for analysts to revisit this documentary.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Pirapaharan in India in the 1980s<\/p><\/div>\n

My criticisms were qualified charges and mostly directed towards sins of omission relating to the recent past within the general charge<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>th<\/span>at news reports on Sri Lankan politics ware overly \u201cpresentist\u201d \u2014 that is, focusing on the here and now in ways that obscured the immediate historical processes moulding the here and now. My memorandum is reproduced below so that readers can assess it themselves,<\/span><\/p>\n

Standing now in 2017, let me stress that\u00a0<\/span>I was profoundly wrong on some issues<\/b><\/span>; for instance, in stating that the LTTE had little chance of recapturing the Jaffna Peninsula. In fact, the Tigers\u00a0came close to achieving that feat<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in April-May 2009 and the Army Generals Sarath Fonseka and Janaka Perera even advocated the evacuation of troops from that arena.[2]<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0This error of judgement was a measure of my office-desk background and my ignorance of military affairs THEN.[3]<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

THE GREATER ERROR ON MY PART, HOWEVER, WAS IN READING PIRAP\u0100HARAN AND THE LTTE. IN CONTRAST, CORCORAN HAD RESIDED IN THE PENINSULA FOR A FEW WEEKS, MET TAMIL PEOPLE AND DECIPHERED THE TIGER PHILOSOPHY AND OBJECTIVES. THIS IS MADE EXPLICIT IN THE BLURB WHICH INTRODUCES THE FILM SRI LANKA: TIGERS AT THE GATE: \u201c<\/b><\/span>THE TRUTH IS A POLITICAL SOLUTION IS AS IMPOSSIBLE AS A MILITARY BREAKTHROUGHBECAUSE FOR THE (TAMIL) TIGERS IT\u2019S ALL OR NOTHING \u2014 A HOMELAND OR GLORIOUS DEATH.\u201d MARK CORCORAN.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Corcoran was on the mark here (pun intended). Michael Roberts and the well-meaning peacenik\u201d moderate commentators in Colombo and elsewhere were in cloud-cuckoo land<\/b><\/span>.[4]<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0They had not grasped the steely-determination of the Tiger\u00a0<\/span>talaivar<\/i><\/span>\u00a0(supremo), his confidence in victory and the degree of ruthlessness with which he was proceeding to pursue his quest.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the advantage of hindsight, we know NOW that Pirap\u0101haran was continuing his programme of elimination Tamil moderate leaders with an eye on undermining the programme of constitutional reform initiated by President Chandrika Kumaratunga with Neelan Tiruchelvam as key advisor and mediator. Tiruchelvam\u00a0was assassinated on 30<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0July 1999,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0a month after the ABC film \u2013 adding yet another to the list of recent killings of moderate Tamil politicians.[5]<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

When the Presidential Elections occurred later that year, Pirap\u0101haran was, again, true to form. A suicide killer targeted Chandrika Kumaratunga in late December 1999 (ironically a leader whose accession to power in 1994 had been facilitated by the assassination of Gamini Dissanayake on\u00a024<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0October 1994<\/span><\/a>)[6]<\/b><\/span><\/a>and injured her severely in the process of decimating others around her at a rally.[7]<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

These measures turned the moderate Tamil politicians into the lap-dogs of the LTTE.<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>The TULF became the Tamil National Alliance and the Pongu Thamil pageants of the early 2000s \u2013with their Hitleresque salute \u2013revealed their adoption of the LTTE\u2019s fascist theology.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Pirap\u0101haran and the LTTE accepted a ceasefire in 2001\/02, it was a political move towards building up their international standing and a respite intended to recuperate their military resources. Assisted by the well-meaning but politically na\u00efve Norwegians, they secured recognition as de facto state between 2002 and 2005, while yet being described as \u201cterrorists\u201d in some quarters.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I visited Kilinochchi with some Tamil friends in late November 2004 and attended the annual\u00a0<\/span>Maaveerar Nal<\/i><\/span>\u00a0homage-cum-celebration of 27<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0November, I found three of the local officials, including Thiru Master,[8]<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0complaining about the GSL violations\u201d and\u00a0<\/span>spoiling for war.<\/b><\/span>\u00a0The crunch point came when I received reliable information[9]<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0in December 2004 that Ramesh, the Tiger propaganda chief to whom I had been introduced,[10]<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0was in the process of gearing the LTTE for the resumption of war.[11]\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/a>The impact of the tsunami on 26th December merely dented that goal \u2014 delaying the LTTE\u2019s return to war by an year or so.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was from then that I abandoned my na\u00efve peacenik view of the political circumstances facing us Sri Lankans. It dawned on me then that we faced a situation that was a Hobson\u2019s Choice. Devolution was not feasible. At some point in the early 2000s, moreover, Dayan Jayatilleka had made the simple, but acute, point that one cannot have a federal system where one of the devolved units has an army, navy and air force. Now, in late 2004 and thereafter, that appraisal took firm root in my mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it took much longer for me to comprehend the battle theatre situation and to overcome, albeit partially, my bourgeois drawing room background in deciphering the \u201clineaments\u201d of the ongoing warfare. That is another story. Here,\u00a0<\/span>I eat humble pie and bow to Corcoran\u2019s deep insight on a major issue<\/b><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>As the ABC prospectus asserted: \u201cfor the (Tamil) Tigers it\u2019s all or nothing \u2014 a homeland or glorious death.\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

So, I present here the following items (with highlighting emphasis<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201cSri Lanka. Tigers at the Gate\u201d \u2013the ABC Prospectus<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Michael Roberts to ABC, 1 July 1999<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Mark Corcoran to Roberts, 5 July 1999 [foreign@your.abc.net.au]<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Please read. Enjoy. Reflect. Deploy retrospective advantage to comment.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

    A = SRI LANKA. TIGERS AT THE GATE \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

    LEAD STORY
    \nEPISODE 39
    \nSERIES 8 \u2013 29.6.99<\/span><\/p>\n

    Synopsis:\u00a0<\/b>\u201cThe truth is a political solution is as impossible as a military breakthrough\u00a0because for the (Tamil) Tigers it\u2019s all or nothing \u2013 a homeland or glorious death.\u201d \u2026.. <\/b>Mark Corcoran<\/span><\/p>\n

    It\u2019s the focal point of Sri Lanka\u2019s epic civil war \u2013 the city of Jaffna on the island nation\u2019s northern tip. For the Sri Lankan government it\u2019s a glittering prize \u2013 the capital of the Tamil heartland captured from the rebel Tigers. Government forces proffer Jaffna as a model of their ascendancy in the north. In reality, it\u2019s a hellhole starved of vital medicines and services and offering little at all for locals \u201cexcept destitution and danger\u201d. The army claims it\u2019s cleansed Jaffna of insurgents but 600 Tigers operate underground and an awesome guerilla force has the city surrounded and cut off from the rest of the country. Foreign Correspondent\u2019s Mark Corcoran makes the perilous journey into Jaffna aboard a Red Cross hospital ship \u201clit up like a Christmas tree\u201d to avoid mistaken identity and attack.\u00a0Mark finds an army demoralised by heavy losses in a recent routing in Tiger territory and top brass desperately applying spin to their hopeless cause<\/b>. He meets battle weary Tamils making their way back to Jaffna from Tiger strongholds and uncovers startling evidence of atrocities \u2013 breaking army lines to film at two mass graves outside town.<\/span><\/p>\n

    B = ROBERTS to Director, ABC \u2026 \u00a01 July 1999\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

    Director, Foreign Correspondent, ABC Television<\/span><\/p>\n

    Dear Madam\/Sir,<\/span><\/p>\n

    I am taking the liberty of commenting on your coverage of \u201cJaffna\u201d in the programme on Tuesday 29<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0June under Jennifer Byrne\u2019s (?) and Mark Corcoran\u2019s direction. I note here that I am Sri Lankan, albeit not Tamil or Sinhalese. And also send a text, a kind of personal statement and protest I drafted in the 1980s as one indication of my position on the ethnic conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I found the programme instructive and was especially pleased that you had a map at the outset though I think it would have been wise to dwell on the map for longer. The principal defects in the presentation were (1) inadequate attention to the time-dimensions; and (2) sins of omission rather than commission, shortcomings that had a bearing on what was shown and said in ways that meant\u00a0<\/span>the presentation became lopsided IN SOME MEASURE.<\/b><\/span>\u00a0In other words despite the appearance of even-handedness, there was, no doubt unintentionally, a leaning towards the LTTE side.<\/b><\/span>\u00a0This effect would have been compounded in the reception of the story by less perceptive viewers who did not trouble to read between your lines-plus-pictures and re-evaluate your weightages.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Let me elaborate by noting some of the shortcomings.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The impression was created that some Tamil \u201ccollaborators\u201d had been killed by land mines. In fact, one of them, the lady mayor of Jaffna, was gunned down as an assassination job. That the LTTE see her as a \u201ccollaborator\u201d is undoubted, but she was a member of the TULF. And most TULF are Eelamists and Tamil nationalists. Like your presenters I never use government labels for the LTTE and avoid the term \u201cterrorists\u201d, so I must also not use the LTTE propaganda labels. You did. Double standards.<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. No attempt was made to indicate the division in the Tamil political (and fighting ranks).\u00a0<\/span>No reference to the `TELO, PLOTE and ENDP forces.<\/b><\/span>\u00a0Nor that they were \u201ccollaborators\u201d\u00a0now\u00a0<\/b>because they were decimated by the Tigers between 1986 and 1991 \u2014 the time dimension.<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. No indication of LTTE killings and \u201catrocities,\u201d from killings of Sinhalese and Muslim villagers in the border areas to that of about 700 to 900 policemen who surrendered on orders when fighting was renewed in 1991 (and the State\u2019s army did commit wholesale atrocities \u2014 in retaliation one presumes \u2014 after that in the Eastern Province).<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. It is true that about 20,000 state soldiers \u2014 give or take 5000 either way \u2014 have deserted. But that figure is over a period of 10 to 12 years. Time dimension missing once again. Still a very significant figure of course. AND both sides are facing severe manpower problems now according to a Tamil speaking Indian journalist I met in Colombo last month. The latest news (how reliable?) is that the LTTE are instituting 100 percent conscription in the Vanni. And if I was in their position I too would have to do so.<\/span><\/li>\n
    5. Pictures of young boys, said to be 12 year olds, fetching and carrying people across the lagoon \u2014in ways that implied terrible pressures on the Tamil people of the peninsula. Latter yes, but the illustration is a poor one. Have you been to fishing\u00a0<\/span>\u2013<\/sup><\/span>villages down south? And villages in general? Youthful labour is not uncommon. And seated comfortably in our lounges can we deny parents\/single parents (Tamil or Sinhalese) with several kids the right to send their eldest into the work force to add to the pot?<\/span><\/li>\n
    6. And if the pressures on the people in the Jaffna Peninsula are terrible-terrible, why are the forced migrants (and it is to your credit that you indicated the forced shift in 1996) coming back in a steady trickle? Worse situation in the LTTE controlled Vanni areas presumably. But that is the price of liberation struggle. Ask the Kurds: they will tell you what it takes. And they know one cannot have it both ways.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Enough, I trust, to argue my case against ABC. One of the strengths of reportage of the type your programme presented is its \u201cbeing there,\u201d talking to the guys-on-the-spot, and the details thus elicited. There were, nevertheless, clear contradictions in the claims presented by Dixon, the UN chap; together with some excess, because] the danger of the LTTE sweeping back into Jaffna town (as distinct from disrupting \u201cnormalcy\u201d) is remote at present.<\/span><\/p>\n

      One of the shortcomings in such programmes is that the makers flit from subject to subject as part of their career. There is some background research to make up for this, but is it enough? I suspect the inadequacy of the latter is what enforces a \u201cpresentist\u201d emphasis on such programmes. The here-and-now is what counts.\u00a0<\/span>The time dimension, as well as the shifts in the cut-and-thrust of hostile action by contending parties, are not sorted out.<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Have your researchers read the monthly\u00a0<\/b><\/span>Tamil\u00a0Times\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/span>over the past years? and the UTHR reviews of events, inclusive of atrocities, on all sides? And asked why Hoole, Sritharan and Company are targets for the LTTE?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

      Yours Sincerely, Michael Roberts<\/span><\/p>\n

      \u00a0C = MARK CORCORAN to ROBERTS, 5 July 1999<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

      Subject: Comments re; Foreign Correspondent.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Date: Mon., 05 Jul 1999 15:55:25 +1000<\/span><\/p>\n

      From: <foreign@your.abc.net.au><\/span><\/p>\n

      To: mroberts@camtech.net.au<\/span><\/p>\n

      Dear Mr. Roberts,<\/span><\/p>\n

      Thank you for your interesting comments regarding our report \u201cTigers at the Gate\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

      We are in the business of making current affairs television. I\u2019m sure if we were producing a five part documentary series or were writing a thesis we may have been able to include some of the detail mentioned in your letter.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Omission does not equate to ignorance.\u00a0<\/span>We were well aware of the points you have raised and by virtue of the medium had to par down the detail<\/b><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>However I do not accept your assertion that this led to distortions or inaccuracies.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

      Perhaps you missed the point.\u00a0<\/span>The program was not intended as a geopolitical analysis of the entire Sri Lanka conflict, but as an observation of life in Jaffna during the time of our visit in late April 1999.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

      We received dozens of phone calls, faxes and e-mails following the broadcast of this report \u2013 from all ethnic groups involved, aid groups and former diplomats \u2013 many of them with a specialised knowledge of this conflict. All were complimentary of the report.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Mark Corcoran<\/span><\/p>\n

      Reporter\/Producer, Foreign Correspondent, ABC-TV.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n

      SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

      BBC\u00a01991 \u201cSuicide Killers,\u201d Documentary series.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

      Citizen Silva\u00a0<\/b><\/span>see<\/span>\u00a0IDAG<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

      De Silva-Ranasinghe, Sergei<\/b><\/span>\u00a02009 \u201cThe Battle for the Vanni Pocket,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter<\/i><\/span>, March 2009, Vol. 35\/2, pp. 17-19 \u2014\u00a0http:\/\/www.dtic.mil\/dtic\/aulimp\/citations\/gsa\/2009_157395\/<\/span><\/a>\u00a0156554.html<\/span><\/p>\n

      De Silva-Ranasinghe, Sergei<\/b><\/span>\u00a02009 \u201cTiger Trail. Strategic Defeat of the LTTE and its Implications,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Force<\/i><\/span>, April 2009, pp. 50-54.<\/span><\/p>\n

      FISH, TIM\u00a02009\u00a0\u201cSRI LANKA LEARNS TO COUNTER SEA TIGERS\u2019 SWARM TACTICS,\u201d JANE\u2019S NAVY INTERNATIONAL MARCH 2009, PP. 20-25.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

      DUGGER, CELIA W. 1999 \u00c4 LEADING SRI LANKAN MODERATE IS KILLED,\u201d 30 JULY 1999.<\/b>HTTP:\/\/WWW.NYTIMES.COM\/1999\/07\/30\/WORLD\/A-LEADING-SRI-LANKAN-MODERATE-IS-KILLED.HTML<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

      Jenkins, Simon\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2011 \u201cSimon Jenkins pulverized Miliband\u2019s assinine foreign interventions in 2009,\u201d\u00a0http:\/\/www.aspensrental.com\/simon-jenkins-pulverized-milibands-assinine-foreign-interventions-in-2009\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

      Jeyaraj,<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>D. B. S.\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2006 \u201cNo Public Speech Ceremony for LTTE Chief This Year?\u201d 26 November 2006,\u00a0http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbs\/archives\/650<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Jeyaraj,<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>D. B. S.\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2007 \u201cSuccession Stakes in LTTE: After Prabha Who?\u201d www. transcurrents.com, 22 December 2007.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Jeyaraj, D. B. S.\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2008 \u201cLiberation Tigers at Thirty-Two: Whither the LTTE,\u201d\u00a0http:\/\/www.transcurrents.com<\/span><\/a>, 6 May 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Jeyaraj, DBS<\/b><\/span>\u00a02015 \u201cHow the LTTE Captured Elephant Pass Army Camp 15 Years ago Through an \u2018Encircle and Enfeeble\u2019 war Strategy,\u201d 27 April 2015,http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/archives\/40786<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

      IDAG [i.e. Citizen Silva]\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2013 \u201cThe Numbers Game: Politics of Retributive Justice,\u201d\u00a0http:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/132499266\/The-Numbers-Game-Politics-of-Retributive-Justice<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/span>OR<\/i><\/b>http:\/\/www.satp.org\/satporgtp\/countries\/shrilanka\/document\/TheNG.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

      Iqbal Athas<\/b><\/span>\u00a02000 \u201cRise of LTTE and Fall of Elephant Pass,\u201d 3 April 2000,\u00a0http:\/\/www.sundaytimes.lk\/000430\/sitrep.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

      Narayan Swamy, M. R.<\/b><\/span>2003\u00a0<\/span>Inside an Elusive Mind<\/i><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>Prabhakaran<\/i><\/span>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications<\/span><\/p>\n

      Narendran, Rajasingham, 2009\u00a0<\/b><\/span>\u201cRise and Fall of the LTTE \u2014 An Overview,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Sri Lanka Guardian<\/i><\/span>, 7 Feb. 2009.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Natali, Christiana\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2008 \u201cBuilding Cemeteries, Constructing Identities: Funerary Practices and Nationalist Discourse among the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Contemporary South Asia<\/i><\/span>, 16: 287- 301.\u00a0https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/07\/14\/numbers-game-reviewed-by-kath-noble-the-full-monty\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

      Prasad, Kanchan\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2011a \u201cIndian Reporter Pics at NFZ-14-to-18 May 2009,\u201d\u00a0http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thuppahi\/sets\/72157626797805167\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

      Prasad, Kanchan\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2011b \u201cMullivaikkal Hospital in NFZ Last Redoubt,\u201d in\u00a0http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thuppahi\/sets\/72157626797848747\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

      Prasad, Kanchan\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2011c \u201c\u00a0Two Indian Reporters\u2019 Post-War Pictures at the LTTE\u2019s Last Redoubt, May 14-19, 2009<\/span><\/a>,\u201d ed. by Roberts, June 2011,\u00a0http:\/\/asiapacific.anu.edu.au\/blogs\/southasiamasala\/<\/span><\/a>2011\/06\/10\/two-indian-reporters%E2%80%99-post-war-pictures-at-the-ltte%E2%80%99s-last-redoubt-may-14-19-2009<\/span><\/p>\n

      Ragavan\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2009 \u201cInterview with Ragavan on Tamil Militancy (Early\u00a0Years),\u201d\u00a0http:\/\/kafila.org<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\/2009\/02\/16\/interview-with-ragavan-on-tamil-militancy-part-i\/<\/span><\/p>\n

      Reddy, B. Muralidhar<\/b><\/span>\u00a02009a \u201cAn Escape from Hellhole,\u201d\u00a0http:\/\/www.hindu.com\/2009\/04\/25\/<\/span><\/a>stories\/ 2009042558390100.html.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Reddy, B. Muralidhar\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2009b \u201cMultiple Displacements, Total Loss of Identity,\u201d\u00a0http:\/\/www.hindu.com\/ 2009\/05\/27\/stories\/2009052755811500.htm<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

      Reddy, Muralidhar<\/b><\/span>\u00a02009c \u201cA first-hand account of the war and the civilians\u2019 plight as Eelam War almost comes to a close,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Frontline<\/i><\/span>, 26\/11, May 23-June 5, 2009<\/span><\/p>\n

      Ross, Amanda<\/b><\/span>\u00a02010 \u201cSleeping with the Enemy, Tekwani lived with the Tigers,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>UPI Next<\/i><\/span>, 16 Nov. 2010,\u00a0http:\/\/next.upi.com\/archive\/2010\/11\/16\/Sleeping-with-the-enemy-Tekwani-lived-with-the-Tigers\/1431289942817\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Sarvananthan, Muttukrishna\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2007 \u201cIn Pursuit of a Mythical state of Tamil Eelam: A Rejoinder to Kristian Stokke,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Third World Quarterly\u00a0<\/i><\/span>28\/6: 1185-1195<\/span><\/p>\n

      Schalk,<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Peter\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2003 \u201cBeyond Hindu Festivals: The Celebration of Great Heroes\u2019 Day by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Europe.\u201d in Martin Baumann et al. (eds.)\u00a0<\/span>Tempel und Tamilien in Zweiter Heimat<\/i><\/span>. Wurzburg: Ergon Verlag, pp. 391-411.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Senaratne, Kalana\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2011 \u201cKilling Fields: Problems and Prospects, \u201c<\/span>The Island<\/i><\/span>, 24 June 2011, rep. in\u00a0https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2011\/06\/24\/killing-fields%E2%80%99-problems-and-<\/span><\/a>\u00a0prospects\/].<\/span><\/p>\n

      Subramanian, T. S.\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2002 \u201cPrabhakaran in First Person.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Frontline<\/i><\/span>, 19\/9.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Sunday Times<\/b><\/span>\u00a02002 \u201cMilitarism, Personality Cult at Trinco Rally,\u201d\u00a0http:\/\/www.sundaytimes.lk<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\/020324\/frontm.html.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Swami, Praveen<\/b><\/span>\u00a02013 \u201cFrom Sri Lanka \u2013 questions about wars,\u201d November 2013,\u00a0http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/from-sri-lanka-questions-about-wars\/article5369777.ece<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

      Tekwani, Shyam<\/b><\/span>\u00a02009 \u2018The Man who destroyed Eelam,\u201d\u00a0http:\/\/www.tehelka.com\/home\u00a0 \/20090523\/default.asp<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Udagampola, P.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2010 \u201cWherever in This World I Live, Achieving Tamil Eelam is My Conviction\u201d. Long Distance Nationalism among Second Generation Sri Lankan Tamils in Toronto,\u201d History Dissertation, Columbia University.<\/span><\/p>\n

      UTHR<\/b><\/span>\u00a02009\u00a0<\/span>Let Them Speak: Truth about Sri Lanka\u2019s Victims of War<\/i><\/span>. Special Report No. 34,\u00a0http:\/\/www.uthr.org\/SpecialReports\/Special%20rep34\/Uthr-sp.rp34.htm<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Wije Dias<\/b><\/span>, \u201cSri Lankan President Kumaratunga narrowly escapes assassination by suicide bomber\u201d, 21 December 1999,\u00a0https:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/1999\/12\/blst-d21.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

      Yatawara, Dhaneshi\u00a0<\/b><\/span>2009 \u201cEntrapped Civilians seek salvation in Force,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Sunday Observer<\/i><\/span>, 17 May 2009,\u00a0http:\/\/www.sundayobserver.lk\/2009\/05\/17\/fea05.asp<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

      SOME ROBERTS ITEMS<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

      Barbara Crossette,<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u201cLatest Killing of a Sri Lanka Politician Fits a Familiar Pattern,\u201d 25 October 1994,\u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1994\/10\/25\/world\/latest-killing-of-a-sri-lanka-politician-fits-a-familiar-pattern.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n