No Fire Zone

To their eternal credit, C4 News have worried away at this horrendous, oddly underplayed story since it first started appearing on our radars. They are in a minority. At some point in the future the UN, various national governments (including our own) and almost all other media outlets will look back on their behaviour during the final few months of the Sri Lankan civil war and hang their heads in shame.

They won’t be proud of their subsequent behaviour either – even as Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government drifts closer and closer to outright despotism, our elected representatives seem determined to look the other way. Almost unbelievably, Sri Lanka is hosting a summit of Commonwealth leaders soon; someone should organise a screening of this film which documents, in almost unbearable detail, the systematic deprivation, rape, torture and simple slaughter which caused the deaths of up to 70,000 Tamils in 2008, most of them in laughably named ‘No Fire Zones’ of the title.

This film is a difficult, not to mention enraging watch and should be approached with caution. Tragically, it’s essential viewing all the same.