By Rizana Gazzali 

My Daughter the Terrorist reveals LTTE’s diabolical deception  

 “Terrorists are not terrorists without victims”, was an insightful comment made by a member of the audience, during a brief discussion at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, on April 4, 2008, following the screening of, “My Daughter the Terrorist,” a documentary on LTTE suicide bombers.

Hundreds of Sri Lankan expatriates in the U.S., who read the news of the screening of the documentary a few days before the event, reportedly bombarded the organizers of the film festival with protest emails, faxes and telephone calls, for promoting LTTE propaganda.  This time around, the screening of the film was not a cake walk for the promoters of terrorism and suicide bombers. The Department of State, the Justice Department, the FBI and the Governor of North Carolina were formally informed about it by the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington DC. The FBI reportedly contacted the organizers of the film festival. The pro-LTTE TamilNet hurriedly removed the news item from its web site on April 2 and returned it to the web site on the following day. Despite the fire and fury of this flurry of activity, the documentary was duly screened and attended by discerning individuals, who, unfortunately for the LTTE, failed to be duped by its obvious attempt at propaganda.

Beate Arnestad

Director

There were several comments from the audience about the one-sided view of the documentary and suggestions that it was promoting terrorism. There was only one positive comment from a viewer about the movie. The question that arises at the very inception is, did Norwegian film maker and director of the documentary, Beate Arnestad, understand the basic contradiction in her documentary? She says she was trying to analyze the psyche of suicide bombers and the reasons why they take to destroying life so ruthlessly.

At the same time she admits that one of the two suicide bombers she featured in her film, were kidnapped by the LTTE at the age of 12. If that is the case, how could it have been their free choice to become suicide bombers?  Can a 12 year old volunteer to join a terrorist outfit like the ‘Tigers,’ let alone stepping forward to be trained as a suicide bomber? Fielding questions from the audience, Arnestad said that the people she talked to, could not say anything bad about the Tigers, because they would be killed for it. If she was unbiased and professional, she should have probably had a disclaimer in the film about the limitations she encountered in working with suicide cadres handpicked by the LTTE. It is significant that her perspective of the LTTE appeared to be totally different then, to what was reported on TamilNet.  

LTTE Child Solider Training Camp in Tiger-held territory Northern Sri Lanka

 

Furthermore, even though Arnestad did not dwell on the issue of child soldiers, the documentary clearly showed that LTTE cadres consisted of child soldiers, a heinous practice despised by all civilized societies. Many were the scenes in the documentary which showed young teenagers as LTTE fighters.  Viewers felt sick at heart, listening to middle schoolers screeching frenziedly at the battlefront. Did the LTTE expect western audiences to applaud such methodology or to give a nod of approval? It also underlined the moral responsibility of media to portray with honesty, the horror of child soldiers, and not glorify the abominable practice in the name of causes however lofty they may be.

No cause, however worthy, can justify the sacrifice of innocent children, and no cause, however worthy, can justify the resort to terrorism aiming to kill innocent, unarmed civilians.  Arnestad, unwittingly or by design, revealed the ludicrousness of LTTE deception, by focusing on the suicide bombers’ claim, “Our leader wouldn’t send us to kill civilians," and immediately zooming in on the Sri Lanka Central Bank bombing on January 31, 1996, which killed 91 innocent civilians and wounded 1,400. Irrationality resulting from regimented brainwashing was vividly apparent. The documentary, by showing clips of a church damaged due to the conflict and one of the suicide bombers praying in church, unsuccessfully attempts to create a sinister view that the Sri Lanka government persecutes Tamil Christians.  One of the females says that when they seek shelter in churches during bombings, the churches are bombed too. According to several members of the audience, this did not come across as a credible message.  

Although some Tamils are Christian, the majority of them are Hindus, just as some Sinhalese are Christians and the majority of them are Buddhist. The audience appeared to be aware of this. Furthermore, the graves of dead Tiger cadres at the cemetery gave the game away, for there were no crosses seen on the graves, which would have been the case if they had been Christians. The latest LTTE suicide bombing, that killed the Sri Lankan government Cabinet Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle on Sunday April 6 as he participated as chief guest at a marathon race in Weliveriya in the Western Province, proves yet again, the diabolical lies proliferated by the LTTE.  

Minister Fernandopulle was a Tamil Christian and high on the LTTE hit list for some time because he spoke out against LTTE terrorism. He was killed with the same calculated ruthlessness as the LTTE used to eliminate another Tamil Government Minister in August 2005, the late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.  This also brings to mind, the ludicrousness of a statement made by U.S. constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein, who is currently representing an LTTE front organization Tamils for Justice. He recently stated in an article he wrote to the Washington Times, “There has never been a Tamil president, prime minister or head of the military.” Fein should be asked, how can there be any Tamils left in high positions in government or the security forces, when the Tigers systematically let loose their angels of death on Tamils holding key positions? As most western media of today, Arnestad has handled this extremely complex issue of Sri Lanka’s conflict in a simplistic, superficial manner, with two-dimensional characters, who are almost robot-like in their manner, and ludicrous in the way they grin mindlessly as they describe how they swallow cyanide capsules. They did not evoke any sympathy among the audience, and it would have been a very simple-minded person who could have come away from watching the movie, sympathizing terrorists or terrorist methodology. Arnestad cannot aspire to have made a great documentary for she had done little except interview the two female suicide bombers and their mother, and follow the girls as they pretended to be in training or stalking the enemy. The rest of the film is stock footage of fighting and terrorist attacks from Sri Lanka Defense Ministry archives or from the LTTE.  

Highlighting all this is the almost childish irresponsibility of Arnestad, as seen in her admission to TamilNet that she did not obtain government permission to travel to areas under LTTE control. If she had got hurt by a landmine or got caught to crossfire between the Tigers and the armed forces, because she was on dangerous territory without permission, it would have been the government that would have been blamed by the media watchdogs. May be it is a good idea to screen documentaries like My Daughter the Terrorist in western societies, to open their eyes to the diabolical deception the LTTE is capable of, and their absolute and compulsive belief in the use of terrorism to achieve their political objectives. 

The LTTE and its mouthpiece would wish to go on feeding deceitful tales to gullible western audiences, who would, they hope, keep lapping up the lies at the same pace they are dished out. The latest of these as published recently in TamilNet, would have the west believe that most of the Sinhala Catholics today, were Tamils three or four generations ago. If the west is willing to swallow this myth, the same way it was presumed to swallow the myth of a traditional Tamil homeland, is anybody’s guess. 

(Courtesy : - Asian Tribune - ) 

Web Link : http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/10442 

Director: Beate Arnestad
Producer/Co-Director: Morten Daae
Cinematographer: Frank Alvegg
Production Company: Snitt Film Production
Preview URL: http://www.snitt.no/mdtt/prints/movie.htm