As the shells fall, the trench provides little protection. It is only three feet deep and the adults, crouched protectively over their children, can barely get their heads below the level of the ground.
But someone has not jumped into the trench; someone with a small video camera. Despite the nearby crump of the shells, he keeps filming.
A woman in the trench is clutching a baby and crying desperately.
"Please get in the bunker! Don't take the video!" she shouts in Tamil. "What are you going to do with the video? They are killing everyone …"
Two years later there is an answer to that woman's terrified question.
- Callum Macrae, director of Channel 4’s film, ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’. See the full text of his comment here.
The film will be broadcast at 11pm, UK time, on Tuesday June 14