Brian Calvert is a freelance print and radio correspondent based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. His work has appeared in New York Times Magazine, The National's Review, Canada Broadcasting Corporation's Dispatches, Weekend Journal and others. He has written about surfers in Gaza, mountaineers in Afghanistan, insurgents of southern Thailand and the civil war in Sri Lanka.
Velupillai Prabhakaran, the deceased leader of the Tamil Tigers, once
likened himself to a spider in the center of a web. But over the past two years, the Sri
Lankan military methodically, unflinchingly pulled his web apart,
ultimately dismantling one of the most sophisticated insurgencies in
the world. Still, though Prabhakaran is no more, the root causes of the original insurrection survive him.
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- The information war that has emerged from Sri Lanka's 20-year insurgency teaches us as much about the importance of narrative in counterinsurgency as it does about the conflict itself. Support for both sides of the conflict has even found its way onto Facebook, where hundreds of groups pit the lion iconography of the Sri Lankan flag against the tiger emblem of the LTTE. more
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- The Sri Lankan government has been widely criticized for its campaign against the Tamil Tigers, including allegations of torture, extrajudicial killings and attacks on civilians. But it has also been successful in the past two years in convincing foreign governments to act against the insurgents and their support networks abroad. more
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- In the silent, low-res imagery of the closed-circuit video footage that rapidly spread across YouTube, the young Tamil woman appears unafraid, even poised. Wrapped in a crisp sari, hair in a tight bun, she waits across the desk from the political secretary of a Sri Lankan minister. But something, almost imperceptible in the footage, goes wrong. So, as a dozen people go about their business behind her, the woman rises from her chair, tugs at her bra and explodes, instantly raising the Sri Lankan death toll by two. more