Sri Lanka: new video evidence of grotesque violations

WARNING: PAGE CONTAINS EXTREMELY DISTRESSING VIDEO FOOTAGE

SUNDAY 09 MARCH 2014 There has been no shortage of distressing images emerging from the final two or three years of Sri Lanka's awful civil war. But this footage is amongst the worst I have seen, writes Callum acrae.

Warning: viewers may find footage in the below video extremely disturbing.

Object 1

Not because of the scale of the

deaths it depicts five deaths is a small incident in a war which saw upwards of 40,000 civilians massacred in the last few months alone, mostly by government shelling. This footage is awful because of the behaviour of the soldiers towards the

bodies of the female Tiger fighters, and because of the underlying culture of systematic brutality and sexual violence which it seems to illustrate. We don t !now exactly when it was filmed but it was at some point in the last two or three years of the war. "t was filmed by a soldier on a mobile phone and its shows #inhala$spea!ing soldiers their uniforms suggest they may be special forces who are laughing and cheering, as they celebrate the deaths of the Tiger fighters and perform acts of grotes%ue sexual violation on the bodies. We also don t !now exactly what happened or how these people $ who appear to be fighters, though they are not wearing combat fatigues $ came to die. '!o evidence of fabrication'' The images were examined by the leading forensic pathologist &r 'ichard #hepherd. (e concluded that the in)uries shown are genuine and that this footage was not fa!ed, but he also expressed surprise that the bodies showed few signs of the !ind of battlefield in)uries you might expect if this was the aftermath of a battle or ambush. What he could see was evidence $ in two cases at least $ of serious head in)uries, which appeared to have been caused by high velocity gunshots. This led him conclude* +The pattern of in)uries overall is such that " can t exclude the possibility of executions.+ The video which has been supplied to us by a Tamil ,roup, the -ritish Tamil .orum $ has also been independently authenticated by a respected digital image analyst who often wor!s for the -ritish courts. /fter an extensive frame$by$frame examination and analysis of the footage he concluded* +" found no evidence of fabrication or manipulation and "

have formed the opinion that the video file is authentic insofar as it appears to be an accurate representation of the events depicted.+ Se"ual violence -ut what is clearest of all in the footage is the climate of sexual violence. The bodies of the women but not the men have been stripped and are sub)ected to repeated sexual abuse. /nd what ma!es this of particular concern is that this is not an isolated incident. The evidence of the apparently systematic execution and sexual violation of prisoners was first revealed on 0hannel 4 News over four years ago and has continued to emerge. The #ri 1an!an government has responded by claiming the footage is, variously, doctored, manipulated or acted by Tamil Tigers dressed as government soldiers and spea!ing #inhala, the language of the vast ma)ority of government soldiers. There is no doubt that the Tigers too were guilty of terrible war crimes including the use of child soldiers and suicide bombings of civilian targets but that cannot be used by the #ri 1an!an government to )ustify its own actions. When we revealed images of the Tamil Tiger television presenter "saipriya, stripped and apparently executed, the government insisted she had been caught in crossfire. -ut then three months ago, we obtained new footage which showed the moment of her capture by armed forces. #he is unarmed and disorientated $ but alive and unhurt. "siapriya did not die in crossfire, she died in the custody of government forces. /nd it is in that context that we must view the latest evidence. / pattern of

systematic use of violence and executions. / pattern which $ in an army as disciplined and effective as the #ri 1an!an one suggests that command responsibility for these actions can be traced to the very top. /nd in #ri 1an!a that means it goes to the &efence #ecretary ,otabaya 'a)apa!sa and to his brother the overall commander of the armed forces, 2resident 3ahinda 'a)apa!a. Issues for Sri Lanka, the #!, and $avid Cameron This new evidence could not have emerged at a worse time for the 'a)apa!sa regime. The 4nited Nations (uman 'ights 0ouncil is meeting this month in ,eneva where it is considering calls for the establishment of an international commission of in%uiry into all the crimes committed during the final stages of this awful war. 4ntil now the council has resisted calls to set up some !ind of international in%uiry preferring to repeat calls on the government to mount its own investigation and ta!e serious steps towards reconciliation and the addressing of political grievances. -ut the 'a)apa!sa regime has responded with endless delays accompanied by increasing repression of the Tamils in the north and east and a continuing clamp down on any other dissent elsewhere in the country. -ut human rights activists and Tamil organisations had high hopes that after three years of discussions $ and following a recommendation from the (igh 0ommissioner for (uman 'ights, Navi 2illay $ the council would finally vote this month for the creation of a genuine independent international commission of in%uiry. (opes were raised still further when &avid 0ameron made a clear commitment during the 0ommonwealth (eads of ,overnment meeting last

November. (e said then* +1et me be very clear, if that investigation is not completed by 3arch then " will use our position on the 4N human rights council to wor! with the 4N human rights commissioner and call for a full credible and independent international in%uiry.+ -ut then the draft text of a resolution apparently agreed by the -ritish amongst others, and to be discussed by the ('0 at the end of this month $ was lea!ed last wee!. To the surprise of many observers, and despite &avid 0ameron s deadline, the resolution does not call $ in so many words $ for the setting up of an international 0ommission of "n%uiry from this meeting of the 4N (uman 'ights 0ouncil. "t repeats the call made in various forms at ('0 meetings over the past two years on #ri 1an!a to conduct its own ade%uate in%uiry. -ut the sting in the tail is that if passed, it does mandate the (uman 'ights 0ommissioner, currently Navi 2illay, to +assess progress toward accountability and reconciliation+ and specifically +to investigate alleged violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in #ri 1an!a.+ That critical line will be interpreted in various ways by various interests. "t will not be welcomed by the government in #ri 1an!a which will certainly perceive it as a gross intrusion on their national sovereignty and the !ind of +country$specific+ resolution which represents an abuse of process at the 4N('0. #upporters of the resolution including the 4# and the 45 will argue it represents slow but significant progress. #pecifically they will say that the mandate given to 2illay s office does indeed constitute a form of international in%uiry.

-ut many human rights activists and Tamil organisations will see it as a disappointing climb$down from the credible international mechanism or 0ommission of "n%uiry which they felt was promised by Navi 2illay s report and echoed in &avid 0ameron s pledge last November. To them it will seem that #ri 1an!a is in effect being given yet another year to string the international community along. %ight to re&ly The #ri 1an!a (igh 0ommission has issued the following response to the latest video evidence* '(our latest attem&t to denigrate Sri Lanka is a continuation of your &ernicious cam&aign that has already been e"&osed in the book 0orrupted 6ournalism 0hannel 4 and #ri 1an!a. (our allegations are such unmitigated and unsubstantiated rubbish that you make even gutter )ournalism a&&ear to be *ulit+er *ri+e,winning &rofessionalism. -hat makes your )ournalism doubly dubious and obno"iously unbalanced is that you e"&ect us to comment on footage which, in fairness, we have not even been given the o&&ortunity of seeing or hearing. It is a &ity that your continuing &ro&agandist vendetta against Sri Lanka only continues to undermine the &rocess of reconciliation and healing that we have undertaken after a near three,decade long terrorist war. It is certainly not going to hel& those in Sri Lanka you &retend you are hel&ing but who only wish to live in &eace without e"ternal meddling and &osturing. (our crude )ournalism e"&oses both Callum and your calumny'. #ri 1an!a (igh 0ommission, 7 3arch 8094 "t really is the most remar!able response to a re%uest for a comment that " have experienced in thirty years as a )ournalist and film$ma!er. -ut " m afraid it does rather illustrate the mind$set of the #ri 1an!an regime of 2resident 'a)apa!sa. 'ather than confront the evidence, investigate the crimes and address the international community s concerns, the response is to shoot the messenger. The problem for the government and its supporters is that at every stage our )ournalism has been vindicated. :very complaint made by #ri 1an!an government supporters to the regulator ;.0;3, has been re)ected. :very

time the government tries to claim our video footage is +fa!ed+ or misrepresented, new video evidence emerges which all too often suggests a reality even worse than we had previously feared. "nstead of addressing the issues raised by our evidence, government supporters have simply mounted an increasingly hostile series of attac!s on our )ournalism. When " announced my intention of travelling to the 0ommonwealth (eads of ,overnment meeting in #ri 1an!a, the response was a series of anonymous death threats. When the 0hannel 4 News team and " tried to travel to the former war <ones, the train on which we were travelling was physically stopped by pro$ government supporters denouncing our films, =though when we as!ed if they had actually seen the films, none had>. 0hannel 4 News .oreign /ffairs 0orrespondent 6onathan 3iller was hit by a stone thrown by a government supporter when filming in 0olombo. /nd here in the 45 well$funded but anonymous govern supporters published a 888$page boo! entitled0orrupted 6ournalism* 0hannel 4 and #ri 1an!a. "t was an extraordinarily scurrilous and misleading treatise, full of inaccuracy and unsubstantiated allegations $ but it was so widely distributed internationally that we decided we had to respond. " was obliged to write a 80,000 word detailed rebuttal. /nd now we have this latest response. / response that, as before, entirely fails to address any of the real concerns which the #ri 1an!an government needs to confront. 0allum 3acrae is a )ournalist and director of No .ire ?one. @ou can follow A0allumB3acrae on Twitter.