Channel 4 News shows footage claimed to show Sri Lankan forces executing Tamils earlier this year
Channel 4 News shows footage claimed to show Sri Lankan forces executing Tamils earlier this year. Jonathan Miller reports.
Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, which obtained the material, said it was filmed in January - when the international media were prevented by the Sri Lankan government from covering the conflict zone. The images in Jonathan Miller's report contain extremely disturbing images.
Tonight, the Sri Lankan High Commission denied the government had carried out atrocities against the Tamil community. A Sri Lankan army spokesman also called the video a "fake". Read the response here.
For Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority, the end of 26 years of war was something to celebrate. The rebel Tamil Tiger army vanquished. It had been a brutal war - upwards of 80,000 dead. Soldiers, civilians, Sinhalese and Tamil traumatised and brutalised by what they has been through.
By January this year, government forces were closing in on a shrinking conflict zone with unknown thousands of Tamil civilians being killed.
But independent journalists and observers were prevented from getting anywhere near the combat. There were rumours terrible things were happening, but this was a war without witnesses.
However one soldier we now know had a mobile phone. And eight months on, his footage of a callous execution has emerged. There is no indication of the ethnicity of the dead men, but the group which obtained the pictures claim the victims are Tamils.
280,000 Tamils remain incarcerated in camps for displaced people. The government says it needs to screen the civilian population for suspected Tamil Tiger militants.
Three months ago Sri Lanka's victorious president Mahinda Rajapaksa promised equal rights for Tamil and said they would be protected.
If the killing field footage is authenticated, it will do little to reassure Tamil civilians.
Sri Lanka High Commission response
"The High Commission of Sri Lanka categorically deny that the Sri Lankan armed forces engaged in atrocities against Sri Lankan Tamil community. They were only engaged in a military offensive against the LTTE.
"The High Commission has noted that in many instances in the past, various media institutions used doctored videos, photographs and documents to defame the Sri Lankan government and armed forces. Therefore, we request you to verify the authenticity of the video footage before the telecast".
cont.,According to Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), a multiethnic exile organization, the video was taken by a soldier with a cell phone in January 2009 at Kilinochchi. Sri Lankan soldier apparently took this footage, which was then smuggled out of the country by (JDS) activists. It may constitute the first hard evidence for those who believe war crimes were committed by Sri Lanka in the effort to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
mawatha silva 2009-08-30
These scenes, captured on video, allegedly show extra-judicial killings of Tamils by Sri Lankan troops earlier this year in the bitter and bloody endgame of the country’s civil war. The man is young, naked, bound and blindfolded; a corpse lying across his legs. A soldier approaches him in what appears to be Sri Lankan army uniform and shoots him at point-blank range, apparently amused at the death. “It’s like he jumped,” he says. After the murder the video, taken in daylight, pans out to show eight bound corpses, all shot in the head and all but one naked. Voices in the background speak Sinhalese; as the footage concludes, viewers see a ninth bound victim. The significance of this footage – particularly shocking for the seemingly casual way in which the killings were carried out – is even greater given the way that journalists and independent observers were prevented by the government from reaching the war zone. According to Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), a multiethnic e
alexeyv 2009-08-29
I'd hazard a guess that these folks had guns.
Thambi 2009-08-29
The execution of captured combatants should be done in a more humane manner (they shouldn't be stripped naked) but the video doesn't depict a war crime.
The executed are captured combatants after all. There is no torture here. The execution is quick and painless. A shot in the head leads to a quick death. Watch clips of Chechynan executions for truly gory stuff (knife decapitations).
I should stress that I'm against murder even that of combatants but focusing on this incident isn't going to resolve the current detention issue. The IDPS are not being executed this way and their is no evidence that civilians were ever executed in this manner.
Peace36 2009-08-29
WAR CRIMES = Sinhalese Governement
The sinhales governement massacres Tamils!!!
We see the real FACE of this governement!!!
In this video , we see youngs mens..but they are not Tigers..They are actually tamils teenagers !!!
New pictures: June 2009
http://www.athirvu.com/target_news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1251539986&archive=&start_from=&ucat=15&
dart 2009-08-28
This problem was created by the Brutish who walked away leaving Tamil Nadu coolies in SL,Fiji and elsewhere.There has been tacit support for the terrorist Tamils with large sums raised in Chennai and from expats especially residing in the UK.Israel supplied weapons and equipment both to Colombo and the Tamils as well as helping to raise funds for the purchase by the government thus ensuring a bloody 25 year war.The British have long been getting others to fight their wars just as the US is doing now-eg. al Qaida in Kosovo,Chechnia and Afghanistan,Ethiopia and Columbia are proxy wars among others.Sri Lanka ,Tibet and Burma are all on the american list for destabilisation,basing and looting.The repugnant David Frum who penned Bush`s `axis of evil` speech describing ME countries had it completely backwards and as usual the stupid goyim did`nt notice.
dart 2009-08-28
Banking together with arms or drug sales are usually the hallmark of imperial interferance in another country`s affairs.Arms sales are often undertaken via a proxy as has been the case with Israel and SL as well as other countries.This would not have been allowed without the complicity of the US and its no secret in northern SL that they have their eyes set on Trincomalee as a natural deep water harbour for a SE asia fleet to challenge the Straight of Molacca.The wartime violence filmed here is far less vile than that of Gaza which of course was sanctioned by the US.
Asperin 2009-08-28
That is why guns are so important, with them, these men being executed in this video could have defended themselves against these Statist pigs. The State shows again how violence is its language. Secession is their WORST nightmare.
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