You really have outdone yourself with this video. Great analysis with unbiased insight into both sides. One thing I want to note, however, is that, like you said, the reason the bombing and shelling of NFZ could very well be the actual reason that is to competently destroy the Tamils will to fight similar to what happened with Nagasaki/Hiroshima bombing. US in WW2 knew that an invasion of Japanese main land would be hugely costly to them manpower wise.

In fact, they believed in this to such an extent that they had probably millions of Purple heart medals prepared to be awarded to US soldiers in anticipation of this costly invasion. But that never happened as terror of nuclear bombs resulted in unconditional surrender of Japanese forces. Similarly, in this case, the SL gov needed to put an end to the fighting immediately and declare victory over the LTTE, and they probably wanted this gial to be achieved with low casualties.

Regardless, they did actually help civilians escaping the cage, unlike the diaspora claiming all those who escaped were shot down by the army. Also, I want to highlight another thing that I think is important and is not unique to the Eelam wars. While it is true that in most third world countries, indiscriminate shelling of contested areas with civilian populations are common, there is a more logical reason as to why this is the case rather than the popular view upheld by most westerners who think armies shell simply because they want to terrorize civilians.

That is the fact that most armies only have access to indirect fire with limited recon abilities. In other words, they lack sophisticated tools to properly identify combatants from civilians or insurgent camps from civilian settlements. So when you get intel that there are enemies in particular areas, then it will be shelled as you can't take a chance on missing shelling some terrorists or enemies. So they lack tools to either properly identify enemy combatants or tsrget them with precision to avoid collateral damage or both.