This Land Belongs to the Army

Last updated

This Land Belongs to the Army
Directed by Maga.Tamizh Prabhagaran
Produced byMaga.Tamizh Prabhagaran, under the banner of Beyond Slavery Frames
CinematographyMaga.Tamizh Prabhagaran
Vetri Velan
Music by isaivaanar Sampath Selvam
Melvin R.Young
Release date
31 January 2014 (United Kingdom)
Running time
49 min.
LanguageEnglish

This Land Belongs to the Army is a 2014 documentary film by Indian journalist and filmmaker Maga.Tamizh Prabhagaran. This film shows Sri Lankan civil war and shows the current post-war status of Sri Lanka. It also shows several controversial acts by the Sri Lankan government and the armed forces including Sinhalization and Land grabbing by the military. The film also features new testimonies from Tamil victims and an exclusive interview with a who is said to be a Sri Lankan Army officer, who speaks about the use of chemical and heavy weapons during the civil war.

Contents

The film maker was detained by the Sri Lankan State Forces under terrorism charges but the film was completed by January 2014.[ citation needed ]

Release in British Parliament and screening in the University College London

This film was released in Houses of Commons,British Parliament on January 31, 2014. The full film was screened in University College London on second day of 'International Conference on State Grabs of Tamil Land in the Island of Sri Lanka' organized by British Tamils Forum. [1]

Screening in United Nations

A special sub conference during 25th regular session of United Nations Human Rights Council to discuss on human rights problems in Sri Lanka was held on 25 March 2014. Sri Lankan human rights activists Nimalka Fernando, Sunandha Deshapriya, Fr. Bondcarlant, representatives of the amnesty international, several Indian human rights activists also in discussion. At the end of the conference " This Land Belongs to the Army" documentary film by Maga.Tamizh Prabhagaran was screened to the delegates. [2]

Filmmaker arrested

During the filmmaker Sri Lankan trip, he was arrested by Sri Lankan Army and detained for four days by Terrorist Investigation Department. After the pressure of International communities, Journalist Movements,Tamil Parties and Indian Government he was released on 28 December 2013.[ citation needed ]

New York based movement Committee to Protect Journalists called for the immediate release of an Indian journalist and filmmaker who was arrested in Sri Lanka on Wednesday while allegedly filming and photographing a military base.[ citation needed ]

Prabhakaran was arrested by Sri Lankan security forces in the northern Kilinochchi district and is undergoing an investigation by the island nation's Terrorist Investigation Department on charges of violating visa regulations and taking pictures of a military installation, The New Indian Express reported.[ citation needed ]

Tamil Prabhakaran, who is a contributor to Junior Vikatan, a Chennai-based Tamil-language magazine, was working on a documentary about the current state of the Tamil population in the north, according to international news reports. [3] [4]

Alleged use of chemicals weapons during the war

The Indian news channel NewsX broadcast the footage of a person who appears to be a Sri Lankan army soldier reportedly boasting of the use of chemical weapons against LTTE fighters and civilians during the final stages of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka. [5]

But as per media reports the filmmaker Maga.Tamizh Prabhagaran listup the proofs for chemical weapons usage in Sri Lanka. From his interview 'The cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda went missing after he started researching the Sri Lankan military's chemical weapon use and started publicising his findings to diplomats out of Sri Lanka. His wife also wrote a letter to BBC Sinhala about Prageeth's chemical weapons investigation. [6]

Interview of an army officer

The footage shows an alleged Sri Lankan soldier pointing to a chemical weapon and describing in detail how it works.

"This one is a very potent weapon," says the soldier pointing to ammunition, adding, "When it hits the grounds it disintegrates into several pieces. The chemical in this burns the skin immediately, We used this in the last stages of the war. We used it on LTTE fighters holed up on the beach. All the people died when we used this" Pointing to another store of weapons, a soldier explains, "This one is dropped from a plane. It will explode only when it hits the ground. An area of 1 square Km is completely destroyed by this".

Sri Lankan reaction

Sri Lankan army spokesperson Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya denied the allegations and told the media "As you know Sri Lanka did not manufacture weapons or munitions and we procured our inventories from know suppliers through government to government interventions. The LTTE however were known for their attempts at manufacturing arms and munitions and large stocks of chemicals were even recovered from their bases during search operations. The latest video is another attempt by some parties to sensationalize baseless allegation against the Army in particular and the Government in general. We reject such appalling attempts driven by vested interests".

Film Festivals

1. Official Selection : 7th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala 2. Official Selection : International Festival of Local Televisions 2014 3. Screened in Social Justice Film Festival, Chennai

Awards

Kalakkam's Best Documentary Award'2014

Special Mention

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam</span> Militant Tamil organisation in Sri Lanka (1976–2009)

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a Tamil militant organization that was based in northeastern Sri Lanka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sri Lankan Civil War</span> 1983–2009 conflict

The Sri Lankan Civil War was a civil war fought in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. Beginning on 23 July 1983, it was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Velupillai Prabhakaran-led Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the island, due to the continuous discrimination and violent persecution against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Velupillai Prabhakaran</span> Leader of militant Tamil organisation in Sri Lanka (1954–2009)

Velupillai Prabhakaran was an Eelam Tamil revolutionary. Prabhakaran was a major figure of Tamil nationalism, and the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE was a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka in reaction to the oppression of the country's Tamil population by the Sri Lankan government. Under his direction, the LTTE undertook a military campaign against the Sri Lankan government for more than 25 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kittu (Tamil militant)</span>

Sathasivam Krishnakumar was a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel and leading member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist Tamil militant organisation in Sri Lanka.

Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan is a Sri Lankan politician and former militant. Formerly a fighter for the Tamil separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), for over 20 years, Muralitharan later rose to prominence after defecting from the LTTE and forming the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), a breakaway faction of the LTTE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eelam War IV</span> Conflict between Sri lanka and LTTE separatists

Eelam War IV is the name given to the fourth phase of armed conflict between the Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Renewed hostilities began on the 26 July 2006, when Sri Lanka Air Force fighter jets bombed several LTTE camps around Mavil Aru anicut. The government's casus belli was that the LTTE had cut off the water supply to surrounding paddy fields in the area. Shutting down the sluice gates of the Mavil Aru on July 21 depriving the water to over 15,000 people - Sinhalese and Muslim settlers under Sri Lankan state-sponsored colonisation schemes in Trincomalee district. They were denied of water for drinking and also cultivating over 30,000 acres of paddy and other crops. The fighting resumed after a four-year ceasefire between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and LTTE. Continued fighting led to several territorial gains for the Sri Lankan Army, including the capture of Sampur, Vakarai and other parts of the east. The war took on an added dimension when the LTTE Air Tigers bombed Katunayake airbase on March 26, 2007, the first rebel air attack without external assistance in history.

Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingam is a former prominent member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Pathmanathan was on Interpol's most wanted list for various charges including arms smuggling and criminal conspiracy. He is also wanted by India's law enforcement agencies in connection with the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and for violation of the Terrorist Act and the Indian Explosive Act. He was arrested on 5 August 2009. Pathmanathan was released from prison on 17 October 2012, when the complaints against him by Sri Lanka were withdrawn.

The following lists notable events that took place during 2009 in Sri Lanka.

Prageeth Ekneligoda born April 9, 1960, is a Sri Lankan Cartoonist, Political analyst and Journalist. He was reported missing on January 24, 2010, two days before the Presidential polls in Sri Lanka when the country was under the Presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa and has not been seen since. He actively participated in the presidential campaign of common opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka while working as a freelance journalist for a pro-opposition website Lankaenews.com. Members of his family believe he has been abducted by pro-government supporters because he was investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons, charges that were denied by the government of Sri Lanka. In 2009 Amnesty International released information regarding the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. Reporters without borders has issued a statement concerning him. The investigation into his disappearance is being led by the Colombo Crimes Division. He is married to human rights activist Sandya Eknaligoda who was given an International Women of Courage Award in 2017 for her campaigns.International Federation of Journalists lists his case in its campaign "Without a Trace" amongst the top 10 cases of enforced disappearances of media workers which still remains untraced in Asia Pacific.

War crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War are war crimes and crimes against humanity which the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been accused of committing during the final months of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009. The war crimes include attacks on civilians and civilian buildings by both sides; executions of combatants and prisoners by both sides; enforced disappearances by the Sri Lankan military and paramilitary groups backed by them; sexual violence by the Sri Lankan military; the systematic denial of food, medicine, and clean water by the government to civilians trapped in the war zone; child recruitment, hostage taking, use of military equipment in the proximity of civilians and use of forced labor by the Tamil Tigers.

The Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War was the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka intended to perform a peacekeeping role. The deployment followed the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord between India and Sri Lanka of 1987 which was intended to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between militant Sri Lankan Tamil nationalists, principally the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the Sri Lankan military.

A mass murder of Sri Lankan Police officers took place on 11 June 1990. Members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant organization, are alleged to have killed over 600 unarmed Sri Lanka Police officers in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. Some accounts have estimated the number killed as high as 774.

Divisions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam refers to the military, intelligence and overseas divisions the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Most of these divisions were destroyed during the Eelam War IV, and only parts of the intelligence and financing divisions remain overseas.

<i>Lies Agreed Upon</i> Sri Lankan state-produced documentary about the Sri Lankan Civil War

Lies Agreed Upon is a documentary produced by Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence in response to a documentary aired by Channel 4, named Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, about the final weeks of the Sri Lankan Civil War. The documentary gives the Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence response to war crimes accusations and rebuts points made by the producers of the Channel 4 documentary, who presented it as "a forensic investigation into the final weeks of the quarter-century-long civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the secessionist rebels, the Tamil Tigers." Lies Agreed Upon was first aired at an official function held at Hilton Colombo on 1 August 2011, one and half months after the broadcasting of "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields". Ministry of Defence released another report named Humanitarian Operation – Factual Analysis : July 2006 – May 2009 on the same day.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist militant organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka, had various organizations affiliated to it. These include charitable organizations, political parties, state intelligence organizations and even governments of Sri Lanka and other countries. Although the LTTE was militarily defeated in 2009, the Sri Lankan government alleges that a number of foreign-based organizations are still promoting its ideology.

Tamil Prabhakaran is an Indian Tamil journalist and documentary film maker.

There are allegations that chemical weapons were used by the Sri Lankan military and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the Sri Lankan Civil War. No strong evidence for indicating the consistent use of such weapons during the war have been found thus far.

Manipur: The Land of Tears is a 2014 television documentary film produced by News7 Tamil Channel, directed by Maga.Tamizh Prabhagaran young Indian journalist and filmmaker.

LankaeNews.lk is a Sri Lankan online News website that provides news and feature articles on current affairs in Sri Lanka. It is known and has been targeted for its independent reporting.

Maga may refer to the following people:

References

  1. ↑ "Lankasri News Tamil News Website | Latest Breaking News Online | Daily Tamil News, Sri Lankan News | Indian and World News".
  2. ↑ "Lankasri News Tamil News Website | Latest Breaking News Online | Daily Tamil News, Sri Lankan News | Indian and World News".
  3. ↑ "Indian journalist arrested in Sri Lanka". 27 December 2013.
  4. ↑ ‘Land grabs part of structural genocide’ - interview with Tamil Nadu journalist Maga Tamizh Prabhagaran | Tamil Guardian
  5. ↑ British Tamils Forum
  6. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2011/01/110128_prageeth_galle.shtml Prageeth missing due to chemical weapon probe, BBC
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.