Tamils - a Trans State Nation..

"To us all towns are one, all men our kin.
Life's good comes not from others' gift, nor ill
Man's pains and pains' relief are from within.
Thus have we seen in visions of the wise !."
-
Tamil Poem in Purananuru, circa 500 B.C 

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Home > Tamils - a Nation without a State > Struggle for Tamil Eelam   > Digital Media &  Tamil Togetherness 
 

CONTENTS
OF THIS SECTION

Sun Showers - Mathangi Maya Arulpragasam M.I.A. (Missing in Acton)
Gajaani:The Fighter Journalist -"My dream is Tamil Eelam"

International Frame of Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom


Power Point Slide Presentation

Song of the Week


"தமிழ்  ஈழம் மலரும் - அது காலத்தின் கட்டாயம்"   - Vaiko at Periyar Thidal, 29 December 2005 - Final Part of Nine Part Video - Links Here

Tamil Homeland at AOL
Tamilnet and the International press: Global coverage of a radical press. Kasun Ubayasiri
Central Queensland University
Cyber Cafes in Sri Lanka - Vidanage, 2004

Sirappu Paarvai - 5th Anniversary of Ceasefire


Battle Field Camera
Men And Woman
Part 1 -
Part 2


ஆணிவேர் - Aanivaer


Sinthum Kuruthi

Sandra Jordan  A Video Presentation Unreported World - Sri Lanka: part 1 - 9 minutes  part 2 - 10 minutes


உலகத்தமிழரை உயரவைத்தவன்
...

Sri Lanka's War in the Shadow of a Ceasefire


Execution of Tamil Students
 - January 2006


Engal Kural Een
Ketkavillai


Story of Vaharai


Sri Lanka's Shadow War -
 Australian SBS Dateline - 
 George Negus


Sri Lanka Bombing
of Vadahathurai,
January 2007

Sri Lanka Attack
on Nedunkerni Hospital


Senthamil Thuliyilae

Maveerakal

Maveerar Naal 2007


M
aveerare Uyir...


Kavinjan Oruvan Eluthukiraan


Mannil Puthayum
Vithaiye


Vanni Kaatu Varisa Puli


Poramma


Megam Vanthu


Kannirele Kobam...


Kaddumaram

Akaayaththay Kaala alakka mudiyum...
Oli Veechu


Thamil Veeram

Eelam Video

தமிழீழ எழுச்சிப்பாடல்கள்

THE STRUGGLE FOR TAMIL EELAM

Media & Tamil Struggle

"..YouTube and its ilk mean that today anyone can tell human rights stories. And...if the stories are told with enough brio and skill, the public will pay attention, and the government may be more likely to respond.... YouTube goes where the mainstream media can't or won't go. It's visceral. It's story first, message second. And it gives advocates instant access to an audience in a way that press releases and op-eds never can...." Andrew K. Woods, Slate.com on You Tube & the Media, 28 March, 2007"

 Video Images: the Strategic Dimension
D.Sivaram, March 2005


Alage Alage Thamil Alage

Short History of Sri Lanka and Tamils

It is now generally accepted that the conduct of modern warfare is not only about troops, weapons, generals and battlefields - it is also about perceptions. The manner in which a war is perceived by states and their populations today can have a strategic impact on its conduct. Real time images of a battlefield, flashed round the world can shape strategic decisions about the war and the mindset of one's strategic allies.

For many years, the role of media as an indispensable component of modern war making has been conceptualized and discussed in military journals and symposia as the "CNN effect". Analyses in LTTE journals and the tenor and content of discussions that Pirapaharan has had with some foreign media consultants in recent years clearly indicate that the Tigers have been making an extensive study of the "CNN effect".

The result is the National Television of Thamil Eelam (NTT). It is not my intention here to relate in spine tingling detail the succulent secrets of how the Tigers set up the satellite channel in the Vanni. All I want to do here is to describe briefly the kind of thinking that appears to have gone into the making of the NTT.

The LTTE's satellite TV has introduced a new strategic dimension to Sri Lanka's ethnic divide. The Tigers never had the ability in the past to give their side of the story in real time. Press releases from London and news broadcasts painstakingly monitored and translated from the Voice of Tigers in Vavuniya were always late or missed the issue at hand.

Now the LTTE has the ability to transmit moving images, which are the most effective way to get their message across. The NTT would be the new strategic dimension in another Eelam War.

Therefore an overview of " CNN effect" as a "strategic enabler in modern military discourse" would set the stage for understanding what the LTTE has got in store for our generals who got used to thinking of war only in terms of more weapons, more troops and more foreign assistance.

The following excerpt from an article in the US War College Journal Parameters about the CNN Effect gives an idea of the issues it has raised among military thinkers.

"The process by which war-fighters assemble information, analyze it, make decisions, and direct their units has challenged commanders since the beginning of warfare. Starting with the Vietnam War,they faced a new challenge-commanding their units before a television camera. Today, commanders at all levels can count on operating "24/7" (twenty four hours a day and seven days a week) on a global stage before a live camera that never blinks. This changed environment has a profound effect on how strategic leaders make their decisions and how war-fighters direct their commands".

"The impact of this kind of media coverage has been dubbed �the CNN effect,� referring to the widely available round-the-clock broadcasts of the Cable News Network. The term was born in controversy. In 1992 President Bush's decision to place troops in Somalia after viewing media coverage of starving refugees was sharply questioned. Were American interests really at stake? Was CNN deciding where the military goes next?

"Less than a year later, President Clinton's decision to withdraw US troops after scenes were televised of a dead American serviceman being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu seemed to confirm the power of CNN. Today, with the proliferation of 24/7 news networks, the impact of CNN alone may have diminished,but the collective presence of round-the-clock news coverage has continued to grow. In this article, the term �the CNN effect� represents the collective impact of all real-time news coverage-indeed, that is what the term has come to mean generally. The advent of real-time news coverage has led to immediate public awareness and scrutiny of strategic decisions and military operations as they unfold. Is this a net gain or loss for strategic leaders and war-fighters?" (The CNN Effect: Strategic Enabler or Operational Risk? -by Margret H. Belknap, Parameters, Autumn 2002)

Former US Defence Secretary James Schlesinger has argued that in the post-Cold War era the United States has come to make foreign policy in response to "impulse and image." "In this age image means television, and policies seem increasingly subject, especially in democracies, to the images flickering across the television screen", he said.

A commonly-cited example is the Clinton administration's response to the mortar attack on a Sarajevo market in February 1994 that killed sixty-eight people.

However, there are people who say that the CNN effect is no longer an issue. James Hoge, Jr., editor of Foreign Affairs, for example, argues that while a CNN effect of some sort may have once existed immediately following the end of the Cold War, it no longer does,or at least not to the same extent.

One of the potential effects of global, real-time media is the shortening of response time for decision making. Decisions are made in haste, sometimes dangerously so. Policymakers "decry the absence of quiet time to deliberate choices, reach private agreements, and mold the public's understanding."

"Instantaneous reporting of events," remarks State Department Spokesperson Nicholas Burns, "often demands instant analysis by governments . . . In our day, as events unfold half a world away, it is not unusual for CNN State Department correspondent Steve Hurst to ask me for a reaction before we've had a chance to receive a more detailed report from our embassy and consider carefully our options."

It has been argued quite plausibly that the CNN effect has been used selectively by the US to create favourable diplomatic conditions for intervening in countries in which it has strategic interests.

For example in 1993, when approximately 50,000 people were killed in political fighting between Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi, American broadcast television networks ignored the story. When regional leaders met in Dar es Salam in April 1994 in an attempt to reach a regional peace accord, only CNN mentioned the meeting. Afghanistan and the Sudan have more people at risk than Bosnia, but together they received only 12 percent of the total media coverage devoted to Bosnia alone.

Tajikistan, with one million people at risk, has a little over one percent of the media coverage devoted to Bosnia alone. Put another way, of all news stories between January 1995 and May 1996 concerning the thirteen worst humanitarian crises in the world-affecting nearly 30 million people, nearly half were devoted to the plight of the 3.7 million people of Bosnia.

Basically the CNN effect created the politically favourable international climate for the US to set up its largest military base in Eastern Europe. But ofcourse very few have seen images of vast Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo that sits a stride several vital pipeline routes.

The CNN effect is also useful in achieving strategic and tactical deterrence. "Global media are often important and valuable assets to the US military, particularly when time is short and conditions are critical. Admiral Kendell Pease, Chief of Information for the United States Navy, has called global media in such circumstances a "force multiplier." After showing a CNN video clip of carrier-based U.S. fighter-bombers taking off on a practice bombing run against an implied Iraqi target during Desert Shield, Pease explained that the Navy had arranged for a CNN crew to be aboard the carrier to film the "hardware in use" and to "send a message to Saddam Hussein."

The US expected that the images would deter the Iraqis, dent their morale. The US Navy realized and counted on the fact that the Iraqis monitored CNN.

"The same thing is going on now," said Admiral Pease in Taiwan. Prior to Taiwan's March 1996 elections, which China opposed and threatened to stop with military force if necessary, the Clinton administration sent two aircraft carrier groups to the seas off Taiwan. Television crews accompanying the US Navy ships sent pictures of the American defenders to the Chinese and the rest of the world.

By using media as a "force multiplier" in conjunction with deterrent force, U.S. policy makers are, in effect, attempting to create a "CNN effect" in the policymaking of a potential or actual adversary. "Global, real-time media should not be regarded solely as an impediment or obstacle to policy makers. It may just as well be an asset", says a perceptive study of the subject (Clarifying the CNN Effect: An Examination of Media Effects According to Type of Military Intervention by Steven Livingston - Harvard University Public Policy Papers 1997)

I hope this provides a brief theoretical background for understanding the future of the 'NTT Effect' in Sri Lanka's evolving strategic equation.


Gajaani: The Tiger's Fighter Journalist - "My dream is Tamil Eelam" Courtesy Tehelka, 14 October 2006

[see also Comments by K.Puvana Chandran from United Kingdom together with response by  tamilnation.org]

A mesmerising story of innocence and brutality. Gajaani became an LTTE member at 19, and has spent the last 13 years as one of its official war photographers. Scorching in its simplicity, her highly unusual account tracks the making of a soldier

I grew up in the 1970s in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka, where I was born. Kilinochchi was a remote area then, a place with a small population and very poor infrastructure. My parents talk of it as a peaceful time, but the problems in my country were already beginning.

During the riots in 1983, we had relatives in Colombo who were taken in by Sinhalese friends. But a mob stormed the house where they were hiding � six of my family members were killed that day.

We in Kilinochchi were sheltered from such atrocities then. Kilinochchi was one hundred percent Tamil; there were some military camps around, but there were no riots. We would all listen to the radio and the elders would talk about the stories coming through. I remember my family crying and being very upset through these times. The stories were horrific, but I couldn�t understand or relate to what was going on. I was just a child.

At that time, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were still very young. I remember their fighters coming to my house. Like many families in Kilinochchi, we would help them as best we could, my Amma would dress their wounds, we would look after them like they were our own family. They seemed like such big people, they would tell me and my siblings about the fighting, what it was about, what the problems were with the country and why the Sinhalese were treating us Tamils like this. I remember hearing stories from the riots when babies were put in boiling tar and women had their breasts cut off and the symbol of �Sri� branded in the wound where their breasts had been. Those awful days made us mad with fear and confusion. We were sheltered in Kilinochchi, but we were very aware of events in Sri Lanka and the grief they were creating.

In 1984, the military started an operation to wipe out the LTTE. The military had many weapons and the LTTE had small arms, nothing sophisticated, but they were quick and clever and knew the jungle well. Within a few days there were dead military bodies all over Kilinochchi � they tried to kill the LTTE, but the LTTE finished them. From this moment, we knew that we could take them on, that they were weak and we were strong, clever and strong.

Through 1984 to �85, Tamil people were being displaced from Jaffna, Mannar, Trincomalee and other places, and were coming to Kilinochchi. We made space for them in our schools, and I used to talk with them a lot and help distribute food and blankets. I met many children my own age in these camps and they would be really scared and upset; they had seen many horrific things and they told me their stories. In the camps there were many LTTE fighters too. They would talk about Prabhakaran.

I didn�t really understand why he was such a hero but, like many of my friends, I was completely enamoured of him. I used to ask the fighters if they had ever seen him and most would reply that they had not but they fully believed in what he was doing and the way he led them. He was 16 when he started fighting, just 16. I was nearly that age, and I wondered what made him so special and so brave. So I too tried to join the LTTE at age 16 � why not, I thought. But the fighters kept telling me I was too young.

After a while, the LTTE came into Kilinochchi. They had only been in the jungle before this, but now they began to set up bases in the town. My friends and I were very excited; we made plans for joining a base, and finally managed to enter one. It was a hard day; from morning to evening, LTTE cadres talked to us, mocking us, telling us we were too small, too weak, testing our resolve. I remember telling them that if they could do it, I could too and that I wasn�t scared by them or their discipline.

By evening, our families were very worried and came in search of us. We all hid and begged the cadres not to tell our families we were there. We could see our parents talking to the cadres; their eyes were full of tears, and we too were crying; our hearts felt we had lost something. But, at the same time, we felt we were about to achieve something better. At one point, our parents came near the room we were hiding in; if they had looked through the window, they would have seen us. We crouched low and stayed very still, we were completely silent. In that moment, I realised that my life had completely changed. We have a saying in Tamil: பெத்தமனம் பித்து ; பிள்ளை மனம் கல்லு - peththamanam piththu, pillaimanam kallu. It means: the parents� hearts are soft, but the children�s hearts are like stone. I thought of this saying as our families finally went away.

The next night, we heard the sounds of shelling and shooting very close to us. My friends and I were rounded up by the cadres; they were frantic, running about, preparing everything very quickly. Someone told us the second Eelam war had started. Two vehicles arrived at the base; my friends and I got in one and the cadres got in the other. One cadre told us that they were off to attack the Kilinochchi military camp and that we were being taken to a base for our training. I can still recall her face, she was ready for battle, she was hard and focused. It was the first time I had seen that face, but I have seen it and worn it many times since.

We arrived that night at a base in the jungle. I had never stayed in the jungle before; I kept waking up through the night with the strange sounds around me. As dawn broke, I looked about. I saw the cadres sleeping nearby. I also saw many tomb stones and realised we were in an LTTE martyrs� graveyard. I froze. I had gone to sleep a civilian and had woken up in the LTTE graveyard a cadre. It was like a rebirth. I was 19.

The base became a second school to me. There were many new friends to meet, people from all over the country, so many different faces and stories, people with the different accents of my Tamil language. Our leaders became like our parents. They treated us very well, and helped and encouraged us to succeed. The training itself was very hard. I was not used to so much exercise, and we had to learn to become strong and prepare ourselves for battle. It was hard and heavy work. I remember crying with pain and exhaustion, but our leaders would say that the boys could do it, so we girls had to as well � and then our determination would make us succeed.

We would also do drama and painting workshops and, as we were the juniors, we had to cook too. I had never cooked in my life, but here we sometimes had to cook for 700 people. I remember one night the leaders came to the kitchen with a goat and asked us to prepare a mutton curry. We had never handled dead animals before; we did not even know how to skin it. So we hung the goat from the ceiling and one at a time jumped and hung onto its cut parts to rip the skin off. It was difficult but we had great fun.

After our training, we were divided into groups. I was the leader for one of them. My first posting was the Palaly Front Defence Line in Jaffna. We were to block the military from moving forward.

The first battle was very difficult. I was used to the sound of guns and bombs and I had no fear for myself, but when a fellow cadre is killed, it is a terrible moment. These were girls that I had known and been through so much with, and then suddenly they were gone and I was left alone on the battlefield. I cannot really describe the feeling very well � we have a Tamil word, urayinthu. It means to freeze with emotion. At these moments, I had to recover very quickly as I still had a job to do and needed to get focused. Afterwards, I would always fight much harder, I just wanted to fight and fight and fight.

I participated in many battles in my first couple of years with the LTTE. All through this time, I still had such a desire to meet Prabhakaran. In the middle of a battle, I would sometimes think, �How can I die before meeting our national leader,� for this is why I was fighting, for him and our people.

I remember in earlier times, before I joined the LTTE, I would ask the fighters I met how they could be in the LTTE without meeting Prabhakaran. I had now been in battles for one-and-a-half years, and I still hadn�t met him. Then came 1991; I was being trained for Aniyiravu (the Battle of Elephant Pass), and Prabhakaran came to the base. As soon as I met him, I felt ready to go to battle and die for my people. I was so happy that no matter what happened from then on, I had met Prabhakaran. My aspiration in life had been fulfilled.

He was there on the morning of the battle, sending us off into war. We fought so hard that day because of this. It was the most unforgettable day of my life. I was 20 years old and the battle was called Akaya Kadal Veli Samar (the Sky-Sea-Ground Battle). Elephant Pass is a very difficult place to fight, and the Sri Lankan Army had planes, boats and ground troops; we just had ground troops and had to defend and attack against all types of weaponry.

I was injured in the Elephant Pass Battle and was taken to the LTTE medical wing for treatment. I was there for three months. During this time, the LTTE began to develop its Media Wing and Prabhakaran asked leaders to find cadres to join it. The leaders of my team put my name on the list, but I was not interested in photography then � I was just focused on being a fighter. However, I finally agreed. I arrived for my first lesson just as the class was taking their first practice with a camera. I was handed the one camera we had at that time, and was told about the focus. I took the camera and twisted the focus from left to right, unaware that it is a very delicate and sensitive manoeuvre. It was the first time I had handled a camera, I didn�t know what I was doing but I enjoyed it.

I was asked to take a picture. I felt shy as I didn�t know what to do. Behind me, there were many other cadres waiting their turn. Then I gently applied the shutter button, and the camera took the picture. When the photos were printed, mine were not so good � the exposures were all right but everything was out of focus! But, after a few weeks, when we had an examination, I got the highest mark in the group. I even got a prize � a camera of my own.

After this, I could not stop taking pictures. The year was 1993. I remember the most important picture I took. I went to visit an Internally Displaced Persons� (IDP) camp; outside a hut, a small child was eating raw fish and there were flies and blood all over his face and body. I think this was the first time I had been exposed to extreme poverty. Kilinochchi is not an affluent place but these IDPs were so poor, they didn�t have anything. The sight really upset me. I began to think about poverty, what it was about, how this situation happened to people and, most importantly, what I could do to change it.
I took a photograph of this child and sent the image to Prabhakaran. I asked for his opinion of what I was seeing and photographing. He was very pleased and said that Tamil people and the world needed to see such things.

The two greatest influences in my life have been Prabhakaran and Col Kittu, a photographer and artist based in London. He would send us photographic assignments and give me so much encouragement that it was a joy taking pictures of things he asked for. Due to the security situation, it was very difficult for me to send the pictures to him, so I would send them to Prabhakaran. He would choose the good ones and would send back advice and comments.

My first photography field experience was on Thavalai Pachchal (Operation Frog Jumping) in 1993 in Poonakary. I already had much battle experience and knew my place on the battleground, so I was comfortable being there. However, being a photographer on the battleground is very different. I only had my camera, I had no rifle. It felt very strange at first to be there with no gun. I was excited and ready to take good photographs, but it rained all day and I couldn�t get any pictures.

Since then, I have taken photographs of many battles and it is a very dangerous job. The real danger is where I have to stand to take pictures. When you are a fighter, you get to stay in camouflage, undercover and in the bunkers. When you are a photographer, you have to be outside getting the pictures of the fighters. I don�t think about death when I�m on the battlefield, I just try and get the best pictures of my cadres � that is my mission and I don�t feel any fear.

I remember one time the LTTE started attacking Jaffna, they were moving forward and the Sri Lankan Army was in retreat. I reached a beach I thought had already been captured by the LTTE. I was walking without any fear; it was difficult to walk because I was tired from the battle, but it helped me gather my thoughts after the past days and hours of war. I saw some coconut trees, they were very beautiful, they were bending as they grew. I wanted to take a picture of them, after so many photographs of the fighting. I began to move closer to them. Suddenly, I noticed a bunker under the trees and, at almost that moment, bullets came towards me. I froze, realising it was a military bunker. I dived behind a nearby tree and took cover, my heart pounding. There were only 10 metres between the military and me. I had no choice but to run, and I did so as fast as I could. A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) passed over me and exploded in front of me. As I ran, I laughed to myself � they had used an RPG shell for one girl!

About 50 metres from the military bunker, I reached the cadre bunker. I was breathing heavily and then I heard the sound of a different gun, a sniper. I looked at a female cadre who was beside me. She smiled at me. I understood at that moment that someone in the bunker had taken the bullet. I checked myself to see if I was injured. I was not bleeding, I was okay. The girl beside me was slumped against the side of the bunker, still smiling at me. The other fighters were frozen still. I shook her. There was no reaction from her; I couldn�t bear it. Those rounds had been aimed at me but they had hit her. I cannot describe what I felt at that moment.

I can never get over the feeling when a cadre is killed. We share meals, laughter and adventure together, and then they are gone. I never get over that loss. I too can die in the next second when I think of the people who died, and when I see them die, I grow strong and fierce � like a Tiger. I touched her gently, she rolled onto her back. There was no bleeding. I released the holster around her chest and suddenly the blood shot out. Everyone understood what had happened. Immediately they began first aid. We stopped the bleeding, and sent her with the other cadres towards the medic. The military kept shooting at them as they ran. I took up the girl�s rifle and started to fire to give them cover. Other cadres also began to shoot and then the military stopped firing. My camera was hanging around my neck, I didn�t even think to take it up. In this situation I failed to take good pictures. It is very difficult to be in battle as a fighting photographer and a journalist.

I�ve met many difficulties when I try to take pictures of fighters when they are under cover, under trees and in the bunkers. I have to use my brain well. I have to observe the enemy, where they are, what they are doing, what weapons they are using, what formation they have formed. When the time comes, within a split second, I have to take good pictures and get back to safety. My eyes and ears are completely focused on the objective.

There is a high respect for photography in the LTTE and among the Tamil people. I show my pictures to my whole team and to Prabhakaran and the other commanders. They all encourage me, and say that I should do more. Some of my photographs have appeared in newspapers in Sri Lanka, but they don�t always take the full picture, they edit and cut the image. I remember how I once sent pictures of the Point Pedro killings, there was so much bombing and shelling at that time. They put the photographs in the newspaper, but censored them; they only showed the faces of people, not the wounds or the amputations � it upset me because it did not represent the truth.

 My dream is Tamil Eelam. I have heard my people, men and women, crying and screaming, I have seen them dying, I have experienced the tragedy of my people and my society. I have experienced far too much violence and so many people suffering � from all this, my dream is to see these people smile, living in a free homeland, living a happy and good life.

Within the LTTE, I have gained many experiences, I have studied about the world, about other struggles and wars, I have got to know many things. One thing that we learn in the LTTE is that when you are given a job, you should do it one hundred percent perfectly. There is little room for mistakes in the LTTE.

I am very proud that people are taking my photographs seriously now and that they are going to other countries. I am very pleased that people are taking an interest in my war-torn homeland. I am very thankful and happy that this is happening, and I hope that people will understand them without discrimination.

 

 

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