VIDEO: SL can be taken to ICC despite govt. contention

The UNP claimed that the allegationshurled against the Sri Lankan forces by international powers can be taken up ata war tribunal with or without the government?s cooperation.

 

UNP MP Mangala Samaraweera statedthis at a press conference held today (July 6) despite Opposition Leader RanilWickremasignhe stating earlier that no Sri Lankan can be taken to theInternational Criminal Court (ICC) because Sri Lanka is not a signatory of the RomeStatute.

 

However, he spoke of world leaderswho had been brought before the court despite their countries not having signedthe statute.

He added that the government should look to appointing a transparent committee in accordance with international laws to look into these allegations seriously in order to ease the international pressure on the country.

Furthermore, Samaraweera stated that the government should also look into investigating and identifying some of the soldiers depicted in the Channel 4 footage and take action against them if they are proven to have committed any crime.

Sri Lanka attempts to stop ABC from airing Channel-4 video

2ND LEAD (Adds details)
Sri Lanka attempts to stop ABC from airing Channel-4 video[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 July 2011, 13:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government run weekly, Sunday Observer, said the current edition that Sri Lanka�s High Commission in Australia has sent a letter of protest to ABC�s Australia Broadcasting Corporation's] Four Corners Program requesting "to avoid telecasting the documentary [Channel-4's "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields"] as it is completely biased and contains unsubstantiated allegations against the Government of Sri Lanka."

The program is scheduled for telecast on ABC Monday.

Acting High Commissioner Shashikala Premawardena, who also had a telephone conversation with ABC's Executive Producer Sue Spencer, had urged the ABC not to give any coverage to the video as the views expressed in the documentary were without any guarantee of authenticity, the paper said.

"The footage screened by Channel 4 last night ranks among the most horrific yet shown on British television. Naked prisoners shot in the head; the dead bodies of women who had been raped, dumped on a truck; the immediate aftermath of a shell landing on a hospital � images caught on mobile phones of the atrocities committed by government soldiers in the final months of Sri Lanka's brutal civil war," UK's popular daily The Guardian commented on the video.

Amnesty International said of the authenticity of the vide in its website, "Amnesty International considers the previous and new mobile phone videos to be credible evidence of war crimes.The United Nations� Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions has also concluded that the video is authentic."

Chronology:
03.07.11  Sri Lanka attempts to stop ABC from airing Channel..26.06.11  Commonwealth calls for investigation of Sri Lanka ..15.06.11  Sri Lanka rejects international investigation of w..15.06.11  On burying evidence: The Guardian15.06.11  Britain warns Sri Lanka to act on war crimes by ye..14.06.11  Campaign for Channel-4 programme gains momentum in..11.06.11  War crimes documentary publicity infuriates Colomb..09.06.11  Channel-4: airing horrific images necessary to obt..01.06.11  War-crimes film, Heyns report, drown Colombo theat..

External Links:
JP: Sri Lanka: Confronting the killing fieldsAmnesty: Sri Lanka�s Killing Fieldsguardian.co.uk: Cricket and the Killing FieldsGuardian: Lifting the lid on Sri Lanka's war crimesIBTimes: Channel 4 "Sri Lanka Killing Fields": Is the US war on terror responsible?Amnesty: �Sri Lanka�s Killing Fields� � shocking the UN into actionRay Cook: Sri Lanka�s Killing Fields � what genocide actually looks like

 

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Sri Lanka’s High Commission in Australia urged the ABC not to air the Channel 4 video “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields”

Sri Lanka’s High Commission in Australia urged the ABC not to air the Channel 4 video “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields”[ Sunday, 03 July 2011, 04:21.35 PM GMT +05:30 ]Sri Lanka’s High Commission in Australia, which protested the screening of Channel 4 video “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” on ABC’s Four Corners Program, has written to the Executive Producer Sue Spencer requesting to avoid telecasting the documentary, as it is completely biased and contains unsubstantiated allegations against the Government of Sri Lanka.

Acting High Commissioner Shashikala Premawardena, who also had a telephone conversation with Spencer, had urged the ABC not to give any coverage to the video as the views expressed in the documentary were without any guarantee of authenticity. The program is tentatively scheduled for telecast on ABC1 tomorrow.

In her letter to Spencer, she has described the LTTE’s brutality in executing civilians, policemen, leaders of the country, religious dignataries and also all those who went against the LTTE.

“There is a possibility that this footage is from LTTE executions that have been released to discredit the Sri Lankan government.

The military uniforms of the individuals do not clearly establish that they are Sri Lankan Army personnel.

The shots in the video clip could well be a treatment meted out by the LTTE in Army uniform.

The obvious bias of the program is further illustrated by the fact that a major portion of the video footage has been acquired from the LTTE and its sources”, she said.

She also stated that the portrayal of the ground situation in the program is as if the LTTE never existed in the areas that were being filmed and the Government forces were deliberately targeting innocent civilians. “This is a clear distortion of facts and the ground reality that existed at that time. Another aspect which did not get captured in the Channel 4 program was that the LTTE was a formidable fighting force that had developed a conventional military capability”, Premawardena said.

She has also recalled that the steps taken by the government to send food, medicine and other facilities while fighting with the LTTE were not shown in the video. “None of these facts are presented in the program which is a deliberate attempt to distort the true situation”, Premawardena said adding that the nature of presenting the facts in the video is clearly demonstrates the liberties taken by the program producers in twisting the truth to fit in with the agenda of the program.

Premawardena has explained that there were countless evidence in the video which clearly demonstrates its bias.

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Sri Lanka says original of Channel 4 video obtained

Sri Lanka says original of Channel 4 video obtained[ Saturday, 02 July 2011, 02:07.35 PM GMT +05:30 ]Sri Lanka says it has obtained the unaltered video of the footage aired by Britain's Channel 4in its documentary "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" on June 14.

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa has reportedly said that the Sri Lankan authorities had the original Channel 4 video clip before it was doctored by vicious elements.

The video reportedly obtained from England was aired on a local television station.

The footage shows that armed men in military clothing shooting a group of naked and bound men similar to the footage aired by Channel 4.

The armed men in the acquired video are however speaking in Tamil, the language spoken by the Tamil Tigers while in the Channel 4 version, the shooters are speaking in Singhalese, the language used by the military.

"We got this original video and we gave it to a local television station to air. It shows the armed men speaking in Tamil and not Sinhalese. So that shows that the video aired in Britain was a fake," Sri Lankan military spokesman Major General Ubaya Medawala has told Xinhua.

The controversial video aired by Channel 4 drew the ire of Western countries and right organizations which called for an international inquiry on the war crimes allegedly committed by Sri Lanka during the last stage of the three decades long war that ended in May 2009.

The United States and the United Kingdom even issued stern warnings to the Sri Lankan government to conduct an inquiry soon into the alleged war crimes or else face an international investigation.

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The war that confronts us: Looking at Sri Lanka’s official responses to Channel 4 video – Groundviews

Channel 4’s Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields is anything but understated. It is designed to shock, even if you are the most hardened of viewers. Images of blood-soaked bodies assail you from every angle. As a cellphone camera jerks around, you see the bulging eyes of a man-turned-killing machine. He appears to be enjoying himself. You feel disoriented. When you think you cannot take it anymore, there it is: Another body eviscerated, another child screaming for her mother, another man’s eyes [...]