Captured on mobile phones, both by Tamils under attack and government soldiers as war trophies, the disturbing footage shows: the extra-judicial executions of prisoners; the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian camps and dead female Tamil fighters who appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused and murdered.
The film airs as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon faces growing criticism for refusing to launch an investigation into, "credible allegations," that Sri Lankan forces committed war crimes during the closing weeks of the bloody conflict with the Tamil Tigers. Last month, Ban Ki-moon published a report by a UN-appointed panel of experts which concluded that as many as forty thousand people were killed in the final weeks of the decades-long war between the Tamil Tigers and government forces. It called for the creation of an international mechanism to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed by government forces and the Tamil Tigers during that time.
This film provides powerful evidence which will lends new urgency to the panel's call for an international inquiry to be mounted - including harrowing interviews with eye-witnesses, new photographic stills, official Sri Lankan army video footage and satellite imagery. Also examined in the film are some of the horrific atrocities carried out by the Tamil Tigers who used civilians as human shields. The film includes footage of the aftermath of a suicide bombing in government centre for the displaced.
Experts on human rights law are interviewed in the film including former UN spokesperson in Sri Lanka Gordon Weiss, Amnesty International's International Advocacy Director Steve Crawshaw and international Human Rights Professor William Schabas. They say they believe this evidence represents a compelling case for war crimes investigation and prosecution.
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields includes full-length videos of naked and bound Tiger prisoners kneeling whilst they are shot in the back of their heads by men in army uniforms. When extracts of some of these videos were first shown on Channel 4 News the Sri Lankan government denounced them as fake - and have refused to accept they are real - despite being authenticated by UN specialists. In new footage, a Tiger prisoner is shown tied to a coconut tree. The same prisoner is captured in a series of photos - at first alive, threatened with a knife and then dead and covered with blood.
Further videos show evidence of systemic murder, abuse and sexual violence - women's bodies stripped of their clothes being dumped into trucks by soldiers. The film includes an interview with a woman who, with a group of civilians, handed herself and daughter over to government forces. She claims they were both raped; she witnessed others being raped, she heard screaming and shots and never saw them again.
The film reveals how the Sri Lankan government sought a war without witness, pressurising UN representatives to leave before it launched its major offensive designed to crush the Tigers and their fight for an independent state.
But in this film, people who bore witness to the terrible events tell their stories. A British Sri Lankan woman visiting relatives found herself caught up with hundreds of thousands of displaced people seeking shelter in a government-designated ‘no fire' zone. She helped assist in makeshift hospitals which should have been off limits from military attack. She believes it was deliberately shelled and she detailed how the attacks were relentless - each time the hospital was moved to a new position they came under fire from heavy artillery. Her claims are vindicated by the UN report.
She describes the death and terror wreaked by these attacks and the rudimentary conditions in the encampments. She describes helping a doctor amputate a six-year -old boy's leg with no anaesthetic in a bid to save his life.
Videos shot from inside the ‘no fire' zones show the raids, the horrific devastation of the shelling and are testament to the starvation and horrific conditions endured in the civilian camps during that time. Whilst other interviewees describe attacks on civilian convoys - one man describes watching his 14-year-old son die after his lorry was hit.
Channel 4 News has consistently reported on the bloody denouement of Sri Lanka's civil war. Two years on, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields presents a further damning account of the actions of Sri Lankan forces - a war which the government still insists was conducted with a policy of Zero Civilian Casualties. The film raises serious questions about the consequences if the UN fails to act - not only for Sri Lanka but for future violations of international law.
Channel 4 is to screen Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, a special one-hour investigation which features devastating new video evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Sri Lankan government forces and the Tamil Tigers at the UN this Friday 3 June.
The film will be screened on the margins of the UN Human Rights Council session. It will air on Channel 4 on 14 June.
Featured in the film will be a video first aired by Channel 4 News which shows government troops executing Tamil prisoners - described today by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heynes, as reflecting "definitive war crimes."
Presented by Channel 4 News journalist Jon Snow, the film features footage captured on mobile phones, both by Tamil civilians under attack and government soldiers as war trophies. It shows: the extra-judicial executions of prisoners; the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian camps and dead female Tamil Tiger fighters who appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused and murdered. Also examined in the film are some of the terrible crimes carried out by the Tamil Tigers, including the cynical use of Tamil civilians as human shields.
Channel 4's Head of News & Current Affairs Dorothy Byrne, who commissioned the programme, says: "The footage is probably the most horrific the channel has ever shown. The decision to show it at length was made only after serious and careful consideration. We believe this dossier of visual evidence combined with harrowing eye-witness testimony represents prima facie evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by forces of the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE. It is of the greatest possible public interest and as such we have a duty to journalistically scrutinise it."
The film, directed by Callum Macrae, provides powerful evidence - including photographic stills, official Sri Lankan army video footage and satellite imagery - which contradicts the Sri Lankan government's claims of a policy of ‘Zero Civilian Casualties'. The film raises serious questions about the failures of the international community to intervene and prevent the deaths of up to forty thousand people and lends new urgency to the UN-appointed panel of expert's call for an international inquiry to be mounted.
Macrae said: "The Sri Lankan government wanted a war without witness - deporting journalists and pressurising UN representatives to leave - but it didn't allow for the extraordinary power of mobile phone and satellite technology. We have trawled through hours of painfully raw recordings of the some of the most awful events I have ever seen in many years of war reporting. Sri Lanka's Killing Fields raises serious questions about the consequences if the UN fails to act - not only for Sri Lanka but for future violations of international law."
In a world exclusive, Channel Four News first revealed the existence of and broadcast the footage which is the subject of the report published yesterday by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Christof Heynes.
The video was first broadcast on 2nd December 2010, edited versions were replayed on 4th and 5th December during President Rajapaksa's visit to London.
Channel 4 News' Head of Foreign News Ben De Pear said: "The authentication of the footage by the UN which, as Christof Heynes says, could be important evidence of war crimes is of major international significance. We would like to pay tribute to the bravery of those who risked everything to get the footage out to the world, and to the relatives and friends who identified the victims in the video."
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Press Contact: Channel 4 - Marion Bentley; mjbentley@channel4.co.uk, +44 20 7306 3747/ +44 7914 381 803
NOTES TO EDITORS:
The UN investigator, South African law professor Christof Heyns said of the footage first shown by Channel 4 News: "What is reflected in the extended video are crimes of the highest order - definitive war crimes...The overall conclusion reached by the experts is that the video is authentic and the events reflected in the video footage occurred as depicted."
The original shorter version of this footage is referred to throughout the report of the UN Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka as the ‘The Channel Four footage'.
SCREENING
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields will be shown at 11:00 (Geneva) in Room XXII (22) of the Palais des Nations on Friday 3rd June at an HRC side event hosted by Amnesty International.
Interviews will be available with director Callum Macrae following the screening.