More fake artillery findings by Sri Lankan Army

For the third time this month the Sri Lankan army has released fake reports that they seized LTTE artillery pieces. This latest report is unique in that, after being exposed on the previous cases, this time they went so far as to fake the photographs as well.

At first the Defence.lk website showed the following two photographs in an article titled "Two LTTE 130mm artillery barrels found - Puthukkudyiruppu west":



The only mistake about these photos is that they were both taken in 2007. After this had been exposed, Defence.lk subsequently updated their webpage with a caption under the photos admitting these photos were taken in 2007 and were not the actual photos of the artillery "barrels" seized today in the Vanni.

The other official Sri Lankan army website, army.lk, had their own doctored photos as "proof" of the find. The fact that they would go so far as to make fake photographs is really hilarious. Below are their version of the photographs:



Of the three photos they provided, two of the photos they give only in tiny thumbnail format. Once you have seen them, you can understand why they want to keep them so small. It's basically a photo of some old cement sacks, with who knows what inside. The third photo, which is the only large photo they provide, clearly shows its a staged photo. Please click on the photo to see the full screen version, so you can see the details up close:


What this photo shows is that a heavy digging machine was used to dig out this hole BEFORE the artillery barrel was placed in it. The army claims to have discovered this artillery weapon AFTER searching and digging for it, but the pattern and marks in the dug hole clearly show it was the other way around. This hole was first dug and then the item was placed into the hole.

1) Why is the hole perfectly lined up with the artillery barrel? If the item had been buried and camouflaged, there is no way the Sri Lankan army would have randomly dug a hole in perfect alignment with the artillery barrel. This clearly shows the hole was dug first, and then the artillery piece was lowered into the hole afterwards.

2) Note the firmness and consistency of the earth, it is clear that this earth was dug out one time. It is a freshly dug hole, not a redug hole.

3) Note that there is no dirt UNDER the artillery barrel, but there is dirt on TOP of the artillery barrel. This clearly shows they placed the artillery barrel in the hole and then chipped off the sides so the dirt would fall on top of it. As you can see in the photos, the sides NEXT to the artillerly barrel no longer have the teeth marks from the heavy digger, as they were chipped off to fill a little dirt on top of the artillery barrel, but all other places have very clear and visible teeth marks.

4) Note the teeth marks caused by the heavy digger. Again they are perfectly in line with the artillerly barrel, and they begin exactly where the artillery barrel begins. An amazing coincidence.

I think anyone who sees the photo honestly will admit it clearly is a staged photograph. The Sri Lankan army has been criticized recently for not providing photographic proof of their claims. As a result they instructed their soldiers to "make" proof for the propaganda stories they release.

Why is it that none of these artillery guns have anything except barrels? Do the LTTE fighters carry these around on their backs, and fire them while holding them with their arms? The obvious answer is it is alot easier to find a 4 inch pipe that looks like an artillery "barrel", then it is to fake an entire artillery gun. As far as we know these may even be toilet pipes. Knowing the Sri Lankan army, I wouldn't doubt them doing that at all.

We should also remember that on January 29th, when the government claimed to have recovered a 152 mm artillery gun, they also claimed it had been buried (though one website had an alternate version, that it was "disassembled for transport"). In that article they showed this photo, claiming this is what they recovered:


Later the REAL photo of what they found was discovered, and it was neither an artillery gun, nor were there any signs it had been buried:


Go ahead and click on this picture, so you can really laugh as you see the detail. Both claims, that it had been buried and recovered, as well as the claim that it had been dissembled for transport, are clearly lies. Having been caught in that case, the Sri Lankan army wanted to "prove" this latest find was actually "buried" and discovered by their soldiers. But it is clear from the pictures that it is just another propaganda lie from the government.

The government needs fresh news every day to keep the country's morale high. If the offensive starts to stall, and there are not "new" developments daily, people will start to realize they have been cheated. So we can expect many startling "discoveries" in the coming days as the offensive fails to move forward.