Channel 4’s Killing Fields

How the government remembers the war, bullet with lotus coming out top. Also biased.

Started watching ‘The Killing Fields Of Sri Lanka’. So far I find it biased and framed completely wrong. I mean, who cares how you frame blood, of course, but the issue is that it makes the information completely undigestible in Sri Lanka. The upshot seems to be not that how the war was conducted was wrong (agreed) but that the war itself was wrong (disagreed). I say this not in the sense that I like war, but in the sense that the last push ended a war which had been blazing for 30 years. Which the status quo would have continued. Channel 4 frames that horrible status quo as something to be preserved and mourned, and the war ending as a horrible thing, but I think that’s just wrong. It was done horribly, but it wasn’t horrible. I haven’t finished the doc yet, but these are my initial thoughts.

The film begins with the LTTE establishing banks and TV stations, and saying that they ‘retained the support of much of the population’. They set it up like Eelam was a good thing (‘a functioning military state’), however, flawed, until the GoSL waged war and messed it up. ‘In 2008, it all began to change.’ Dum dum dum. Seriously, they cued ominous music.

For most Sri Lankans, however, north and south, that change had been much needed for 30 years. Channel 4 frames the UN having to leave Kili as the beginning of tragedy and then cuts to a shot of a girl at the gates. For reference the UN left Libya since the NATO airstrikes. They have also evacuated most staff from Iraq at various times, in the face of US airstrikes.

The issue is really framing. Psychologically, people seem able to accept civilian death as long as the fight is against terrorists. Hence western populations accept hundreds of thousands of deaths as long as they’re in the ‘service’ of overthrowing dictators. While most people put Prabhakaran up there with Hussein or Gaddafi in terms of terrorism and brutality, it isn’t presented that way. While Channel 4 mentions the ills of the LTTE, they don’t really frame it this way. Instead the fall of Kili and the LTTE is shown as a primarily civilian disaster with terrorist footnotes. But it wasn’t. It was a brutal and ruthless attack on the LTTE. They say ‘this was an unequal war’ as if that was a bad thing. But what was Channel 4 hoping? For an equal force of suicide bombers and terrorists to occupy half the island? Honestly, the answer seems to be yes.

This is sad, because there really were killing fields. People were herded and corralled into a narrow region and they did die. It was a horribly, bloody end to the war. I wish that Channel 4 had documented that without taking sides and saying that the war shouldn’t have ended at all. The idyll they show being disturbed (LTTE occupation and power) was actually a living hell. Thank God that ended. May God have mercy that it ended this way.

I have to go to work so will watch the rest of it later. Let me know if you’ve watched and what you think.

109 Comments

  1. Dil…you wont live forever…just check out about how many NEW countries have been created since 1945….that is called evolvment…new countries are formed…old countries break up…ever heard of divorce? Amongst men and women?

  2. Dear Dil…try figuring out what Heshan said…”BAR EXAM prodigy Namal sits on the throne.” Most probably it will happen in our lifetime…and our idiots will clap with both hands…Scream Jaya…way…waaa…Maaa..throoo…boo..meeya…drink some arrack and kola kenda….break out the kiribath…and live in their fantasy world where they think Silly Lunket is the Greatest nation on earth…

  3. It’s worth noting that US and UK are the top two market to our exports, representing 21% and 12%. These two countries can fuck up our island of development funds even without a UNSC resolution by simply unilaterally putting up trade sanctions against us. We can certainly try doing some ‘Bodi Pooja’ to make the Russians and Chinese want to buy our stuff (do Chinese women wear lingerie?).

  5. I am sure 90% of the people in SL would help a genuine investigation on civilian casualties. There are people who suffer due to the civil war in all parts of the country. They need help. Bringing the culprits to the book is good, but poor people of this country need something more than that to rebuild their lives. The unfortunate fact is that people who talk about dead ones forget the needs of suffering fellow people.

    War is ugly. War is nothing but killing each other. The party which is good at killing wins the war. Specially when civilians are trapped or targeted by warring parties, it becomes uglier. There were millions of civilian casualties in WWs; Several hundred thousand casualties in Iraq war; Several hundred thousand casualties in India/Pakistan/Bangladesh wars. There is nothing called humane war. It’s just a myth.Portuguese and Britishers killed 1000s of Sri Lankans to win wars and make SL a colony.

    It is good to do an investigation on civilian casualties. That’s the civilized way. None of the so called civilized countries have done it. There have been some isolated “eyewash” type investigations, nothing more than that.

  6. Dear podda,

    could you please tell us how you came up with the 90% figure? If it was just guess work…here are also my guess work figures. Of the 69% Sinhala Buddhists maybe 5% or 10% will support a genuine investigation on civilian casualties. Of the 31% minorities…most would welcome an investigation. You said, “There is nothing called humane war.” But the Rajapaksas’ say that the war was a “Humanitarian Operation” with “Zero Casualties?” Isn’t this “eyewash?”And there are plenty of Sinhala Buddhists who actually believe this “eyewash!” The whole of Sri Lanka today has become one big military camp. Where ever you walk you will find every 20 metres armed forces and police with their guns trying to look important. When will the armed forces be confined to barracks and only the police be kept on duty? It will not happen as long as the Rajapaksas’ are in power. It is not civilized to be a military state. Sri Lanka today is one. Sad situation indeed and the people just don’t care.

    http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/06/19/uniformed-muscle-to-maintain-cricket-stadiums/

    http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/06/19/killing-fields-and-sri-lanka/

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