UK Foreign Office Calls for Sri Lanka War Crimes Inquiry

The British Foreign office has renewed pressure on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of war crimes after shocking images showing the corpses of naked women were shown in a film by Channel 4.

Foreign Office Minister, Alistair Burt, said that he was “shocked by the horrific scenes”, which reportedly show mobile phone footage filmed by Sri Lankan soldiers during the 2009 military operation which crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels, ending 25 years of war.

Both the Tamil Tiger insurgency and Sri Lankan army have been accused of human rights abuses and it’s estimated that over 100,000 people were killed during the conflict.

Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry has dismissed the video as a “fake”, saying in a statement on its website that:

“The new Channel 4 video of alleged extra-judicial killings in Sri Lanka which the new UN Rapporteur, Prof Christof Heyns claimed as being authentic after having same tested by three US forensic experts at the Geneva sessions of the UNHRC in June 2011, has once again been determined as a fake by Mr Siri Hewavitharana of Australia, who is one of the world's leading experts on digital video systems and former head of Cisco's Global Broadcast and Digital Video Practice division.”

Killing Fields

The hour-long film, entitled Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, is the product of a collection of video and eyewitness accounts which has taken two years to produce. The programme claims that reports have proven that war crimes were committed during the fighting period towards the end of the conflict.

Further footage included the aftermath of civilian hospitals targeted by military shelling and the apparent extrajudicial killing of prisoners, however, it also examined violence carried out by the Tamil Tigers. One such incident included a suicide bombing in a government centre for the displaced.

Channel 4 Presenter Jon Snow said that it was “one of the most shocking films” the channel had ever produced.

“Convincing Evidence”

The film was shown to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in May, only two months after it had published its annual human rights report for 2010. In it, a panel of experts assembled by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, reported that it had found “credible allegations” of war crimes on both sides. The panel also voiced concern over continued human rights violations, disappearances and arbitrary arrests since the war had ended.

Responding to the film, Mr Burt said: “The recent UN panel of experts’ report, this documentary and previously authenticated Channel 4 footage constitute convincing evidence of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

“The whole of the international community will expect the Sri Lankans to give a serious and full response to this evidence.

“Since the end of the conflict the UK has called for an independent, thorough and credible investigation of the allegations that war crimes were committed during the hostilities and the UK government expects to see progress by the end of the year. I reiterated this message to the Sri Lankan foreign minister on June 14.

“If the Sri Lankan government does not respond we will support the international community in revisiting all options available to press the Sri Lankan government to fulfil its obligations.”

By Elzanne van der Watt

[Image courtesy of RubyGoes]