But in a desperate bid to quash the Tigers' creeping advance, the army is accused of random brutality. A family weeps over the arrest of their son, fearful that like hundreds of others he will ‘disappear’ from custody. In the town’s football field a mass grave is exhumed, the bodies it seems of Tamils caught in the crossfire. Cases like this only serve to convert civilians to the Tigers’ cause. But not as simple as that. The rebels’ persistent fighting cuts off vital supplies of food and medicine. “People are dying every minute from lack of proper care", laments a doctor. The army though admits that they cannot resolve the crisis. “There is no military solution to this problem,” concedes a general. Because for the Tigers, its all or nothing - a homeland or a glorious death. And so the fighting and the deaths go on.

Produced by ABC Australia