Archive for the ‘War Crimes’

Thoughts on a documentary: We are complicit in Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields

Screen-shot-2011-06-14-at-8.29.49-PM

It was the most gruesome of visual feasts and it when it ended, the most disorienting sense followed. One is struck, not by the extremity of human suffering; but by stillness, by the insouciance of the pools of blood. They appear on screen as almost as if they are the everyday aftermath of one of the island’s heavier monsoon rains. Excepting, of course, the fact that happy children do not float paper boats in these pools, nor is the water that comfortable colour of milky tea. The children are dead; the water runs red with blood. And it is simply, understatedly there. “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” is a damning indictment of the various parties involved in the last few months of the civil war. It must be watched critically, and to do so, it is necessary to separate Jon Snow’s narration and open your eyes to the story that you must yourself piece together. Image upon images plays towards you,…

Continue reading »

Exclusive interview with Callum McCrae, Director of ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ produced by Channel 4

5F4A18ADD57A0F339B09213AC557831A1

Groundviews caught up with Callum McCrae, Director of the highly controversial and very disturbing film by Channel 4, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, in New York, a day before the film was due to be screened for senior diplomats, UN staff and others at the Church Centre, in front of the UN Headquarters. Callum was joined by Marion Bentley, Channel 4′s Publicity Manager. The interview is around 43 minutes. Download the MP3 (~51Mb) of this interview here to listen offline. This podcast is anchored to the following questions. General What was your objective in doing the C4 video now, more than 2 years after the end of the war? Killing of unarmed civilians, collateral damage, has occurred in other wars, other contexts British troops have been involved in? Has C4 covered them in as great detail? What is accountability for you? Do they think the video will help in achieving accountability in the SL case? How so? Who is your primary…

Continue reading »

The Story of the Hypocrite in a Tamil Man

ManamperiIsaipiriya

Reaction to the recent programme by UK’s Channel 4, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, has great variety, ranging from “Ah, didn’t we tell you all along, the Sinhalese and their army are nasty people,” from the side of a vast majority of ethnic Tamils, to, “Oh no, such horrors never happened, this is all just manufactured propaganda from the residuals of that terrorist outfit and its sympathisers,” from the Sri Lankan government and its supporters. The build up to the broadcast, in which the producer brilliantly increased the size of her viewer population by appealing to a kind of negative psychology: “please don’t watch my programme,” however, was too much to take for a particular Sri Lankan Tamil man, because, from simple back-of-the-envelope calculations, he already knew exactly what was in it. This Sri Lankan Tamil Man, whose story I am about to tell you, is a peculiar character whom we have met in the pages of Groundviews before, and is…

Continue reading »

Assessing the Validity of Legal Challenges to the UN Panel Report

UN_panel_on_sri-lanka11-111111

Apologists for the Sri Lankan government have marshaled a number of arguments in response to the growing pressure on accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Some are less clever than others. The argument that the Panel Report is part of a Western witch hunt against Sri Lanka as punishment for defeating terrorism needs only be restated for purposes of rebuttal. The claim is so self-evidently puerile a response to mounting evidence of serious international crimes that meaningful rebuttal is difficult. While some conspiracy theories are amusing, others are tiresome. The suggestion that a South African apartheid era human rights lawyer and a former Attorney General of Indonesia together with one of the world’s most respected international humanitarian law scholars conspired themselves to or fell prey to a conspiracy to restore the idea of a separate Tamil state is as stunning as it is idiotic. The better arguments are at least falsifiable and therefore more honest. Examples include those…

Continue reading »

Sri Lanka’s Post-War Crisis: War Crimes and Channel 4

5F4A18ADD57A0F339B09213AC557831A

Following the broadcast of ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ on the 14th of June and its public release – for seven days – on Channel 4’s website, there has been an overwhelming international reaction to what has been described as ‘brutal,’ ‘horrific’ and ‘shocking’ footage of war crimes. In an effort to collate the reportage following the release of the documentary, we have created a bundle that features the most significant news reports, blogs, comments and videos by international networks, which have been published on the web over the last few days. We have clipped several sources that include responses by ambassadors, civil servants and soi-disant advisors to the government. The news agencies featured in the bundle include the Guardian, New Statesman, Independent, Telegraph, Hindu, Hindustan Times, International Business Times and numerous other sources including leading blogs from Sri Lanka. Groundviews will continue to curate the bundle and upload new reports as soon as they are published. Please note that each…

Continue reading »

The ramifications of the Channel 4 documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’

5F4A18ADD57A0F339B09213AC557831A

The recently telecast Channel 4 documentary on ‘Killing Fields of Sri Lanka’ sheds no new light (despite claims to the contrary), in terms of groundbreaking evidence, regarding the incidents related to the end of the war in Sri Lanka.  If anything, it will seek to entrench already hardened attitudes and decrease the ever reducing space for dialogue and reconciliation. From the government’s perspective, it will seek to discredit the documentary as fake as it feeds into the insecurity that it surrounds itself with, of a perception that the west has been influenced by a highly successful pro LTTE lobby.  The end result will be the securing of its ‘credibility’ especially as a ‘victim of an external conspiracy’ consequently rallying the people’s sympathy, thereby making any genuine attempt to hold the government accountable for anything fruitless. On the other side, for the pro LTTE lobby (largely represented by their supporters in the UK, US and Canada) this will be a ‘vindication’ of…

Continue reading »

Twitter explodes with reactions and responses to Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields

Screen shot 2011-06-14 at 8.29.49 PM

Channel 4 broadcast Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields tonight in the UK, which it describes as “a hard-hitting investigation into the final weeks of the Sri Lankan civil war, featuring devastating video evidence of horrific war crimes.” Sri Lanka’s response to the video has been unsurprisingly ham-fisted, but already, the video is having an impact internationally. As noted by Bloomberg, the UK’s Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt, after watching the video, urged Sri Lanka to initiate an “independent, thorough and credible investigation” into allegations of war crimes. Twitter provides one measure of how the video was received. Viewers were encouraged by Channel 4 to tweet with #killingfields, and the responses from those who saw the documentary just after it was first broadcast on public television are quite revealing. If the Twitter search widget below doesn’t load, click here for an RSS feed generated live from tweets tagged with #killingfields, or click here to access Twitter’s search page directly. Repost This Article

Continue reading »

Checkmate, Rajapakse! The UN Report, Militarism and Public Religion in Sri Lanka

UN-Sri-Lanka-feature

The author of this article, in January 2012, wanted us to take it down. Although published under a pseudonym on Groundviews, the real name of the author and the full content of the article is available online on a number of websites. Repost This Article

Continue reading »

When allegations become evidence

UN_panel_on_sri-lanka1

Media and advocacy groups make mistakes. It’s true. The reason for the errors can vary from simple human error, time constraints resulting in insufficient research to subtle manipulation of facts and wording to push an agenda. Once a mistake has been pointed out, most reputable organisations will publish an acknowledgement along with the correction. Less reputable organisations may ignore the error or correct the error without any acknowledgement. How organisations deal with errors are a great indicator of the quality of the publication. The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, appointed an advisory panel to report on the final stages of Sri Lanka’s separatist war. The Darusman report was published in April and human rights advocacy groups, including Amnesty International, International Crisis Group and Human Rights Watch, initiated a controversial media campaign accusing Sri Lanka of war crimes. The most glaring error propagated by this media campaign is the assertion that there was “credible evidence” of crimes. There was not. The…

Continue reading »

Giving the middle finger: Sri Lanka’s conflicting responses to war crimes allegations

Screen shot 2011-06-04 at 8.49.51 AM

Mr. A Nawan, Deputy Solicitor General of Sri Lanka This symbolic screen grab is from a short video on Channel 4′s website, on the occasion of screening in Geneva a one-hour documentary into the denouement of the war in Sri Lanka. As Channel 4′s website notes, “Disturbing footage in the film includes the apparent extra-judicial massacre of prisoners by government forces, the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian hospitals and the bodies of female Tamil fighters who appear to have been sexually assaulted. Also examined in the film are atrocities carried out by the Tamil Tigers, including the use of human shields, and footage depicting the aftermath of a suicide bombing in a government centre for the displaced.” The Deputy Solicitor General of Sri Lanka notes in response to the screening of the documentary, “We have already made a preliminary investigation on the video and we have scientific material established that this particular video is not authentic.” Clearly he knows…

Continue reading »

How Sri Lanka Defeated Terrorism, Defence Seminar: Observations from a participant

Screen-shot-2011-06-02-at-2.04.57-PM1

From the 31st of April to the 2nd of May I attended the Defense Seminar organized by the Sri Lankan Army. I wish to draw on what I saw as some of the positive and negative points of the conference. I will also comment on some of the many ‘highlights’ that occurred during the conference and perhaps give a different narrative of these from the ones I have read so far. What can be said from the outset is not the fact that the seminar was not the resounding success that it was portrayed by some parties, nor was it a dismal failure. The seminar was a mixed bag. While the seminar was framed as the “Sri Lankan Experience” in defeating terrorism, it mainly presented the view of the Army’s experience on defeating terrorism. I sincerely believe that the army played a pivotal role in combating terrorism, and that without the drive, courage, and execution of the strategic plan set…

Continue reading »

Mojo for mayhem or source of serendipity? Sri Lankan Army’s model to defeat terrorism

Screen-shot-2011-06-02-at-2.04.57-PM

Since May 2009, we have been told by government that the Sri Lanka army defeated the LTTE using a combination of new tactics and strategies, undergirded by an unswerving political will helped by weapons supplies, credit lines and diplomatic support from the likes of China, Iran and Pakistan. There are many versions to the story, but the essential ingredients remain the same. To its credit, the government’s recently concluded Defeating Terrorism: Sri Lankan Experience seminar in Colombo placed on record, from the perspective of the army, the reasons for its victory over the LTTE and lessons learnt. It is far too interesting a document – for what it states as much as for what it does not – to be limited in circulation to the conference attendees alone, and we publish it here for debate and discussion. To view full screen, click here. Repost This Article

Continue reading »

US Defence Attache’s observations on the end of war in Sri Lanka (Updated with US State Department response)

Screen-shot-2011-06-01-at-11.09.39-AM1

The on-going ‘Defeating Terrorism: The Sri Lankan Experience‘ seminar is providing much food for thought. The Global Context of Counterterrorism: Strategy, Ethics, and Sustainability in Sri Lanka’s COIN Experience by Dr. David Kilcullen published on this site is based on a speech delivered at this seminar. The proceedings are webcast live (though our experience is that the webcast only works on the Windows platform and not on OS X or Linux, and is rather poor in terms of quality) with key presentations archived on YouTube here. We were sent today the brief submission of the US Defence Attache’s observations on the end of war in Sri Lanka, recorded from what must have been one of the Q&A or discussion sessions today. What he says is, “Hello, may I say something to a couple of the questions raised. I’ve been the defence attache here at the US Embassy since June of 2008. Regarding the various versions of events that came out…

Continue reading »

The Global Context of Counterterrorism: Strategy, Ethics, and Sustainability in Sri Lanka’s COIN Experience

Screen shot 2011-06-01 at 11.09.39 AM

[Editors note: We were forwarded Dr. Kilcullen's speech by someone present at the on-going "Defeating Terrorism: The Sri Lankan Experience" seminar in Colombo. The person who sent us the email noted that "Australian counter-terrorism expert David Kilcullen speech today at def seminar. It was the best for the day where he insinuated that by giving strong political leadership to finish the war, the MR is indirectly responsible for war crimes. He got a very good ovation from the audience, which included the army commander and Rajiva Wijesinha. We were laughing, because the "government" folks missed the egg on their face lines." Emphasis ours.] ### Defense Secretary Rajapaksa, Professor Peiris, General Jayasuriya, distinguished officials, officers, and delegations: Good morning. Thank you for organizing this important conference, and for your kind invitation to talk frankly with you about Sri Lanka’s experience in Eelam War IV.  As I said when I accepted the invitation to attend, I believe your defeat of LTTE is…

Continue reading »

Is the war crimes video confirmed by UN as authentic “unrepresentative and irrelevant”?

5F4A18ADD57A0F339B09213AC557831A

The Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, presented at the 17th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva today found, after digital forensic investigations, new footage from the final days of Sri Lanka’s civil war as authentic and proving that war crimes took place there. As noted in this AFP report, “What is reflected in the extended video are crimes of the highest order — definitive war crimes,” the U.N. investigator, South African law professor Christof Heyns, said in a report released Monday to the global body’s Human Rights Council. Heyns said he reviewed the footage showing the apparent execution of unarmed men and women with technical and forensic experts. “The overall conclusion reached by the experts is that the video is authentic and the events reflected in the video footage occurred as depicted,” he told the council. Sri Lanka’s government has maintained that the video is not real.”…

Continue reading »
Page 5 of 11« First...34567...10...Last »

About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

cezarneaga.eu