It's open season on Sri Lanka

Its Sri Lanka Season on Channel 4 UK once again, well timed to sync with the sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, and ably supported by the Darusman Panel's report to the UN Secretary General on what they have admitted as unverified and unauthenticated evidence of alleged war crimes and violations of humanitarian law by Sri Lankan troops in the final phase of the battle to defeat the LTTE.

That Channel 4 was to air this newly fabricated video of what many describe as horrendous crimes by Sri Lankan troops was known for some time. The Sri Lankan authorities produced evidence from experts that the material was false and that it did not stand up to proper investigation to prove its authenticity. But Channel 4 was not bothered with such aspects of verification or authenticity in airing it. Because, just as in the last bloody lying season of Channel 4, the play this season was also to please an influential group of pro-LTTE activists in the UK, and in some other Western countries. These are people who are flush with funds, holding the purse strings of the Tamil separatist movement abroad, and ready to dish it out to any person or organization ready to damage the reputation of Sri Lanka.

UK politicians

The June 14, one hour programme on Channel 4 titled 'Sri Lanka's killing fields' had plenty of advance publicity to grab viewers, and more importantly to galvanize some UK politicians to make a swift demand for action against Sri Lanka, on the basis of this video - however doubtful its credibility may be.

Unsurprisingly, one saw Alistair Burt, the Conservative MP and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office rise, very fast to the call of the pro-LTTE Tamils. One is not certain how many British Tamils with pro-LTTE affiliation are voters in his electorate of North East Bedfordshire. But it appears that he has been very well groomed by them, using the special tool kit prepared by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) to be sent to members of the British Parliament and other legislative bodies in the UK, and other parts of the world too, on the Channel 4 video.

Alistair Burt said was quick to rush in with a statement that he was "shocked by the horrific scenes" in the documentary, which he said contained "convincing evidence of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law".

Burt said the UK was ready to join the rest of the international community in pursuing 'all options available' to pressure the Sri Lankan government to act, reported BBC, very much echoing its own pleasure at having Channel 4 add more fuel to its own campaign against Sri Lanka.

Darusman Report

The External Affairs Ministry in Colombo, responding to Alistair Burt said the Channel 4 documentary, like the Darusman Report, does no more than put together a sequence of events and images, to justify a conclusion arrived at in advance. The origins of this footage are yet to be established, and no one has so far taken responsibility for its contents. It is a mere collection of visuals previously aired through LTTE websites and a miniscule section of the international media, at the behest of parties with vested interests to undermine the present efforts at reconciliation and development taking place in Sri Lanka. The views expressed in the film are without any guarantee of authenticity.

Such responses addressed to rational and reasonable people cannot elicit the intended intelligent response for persons, whose minds have already been made to be unreasonably and unfairly critical of Sri Lanka due to the successful lobbying done by the pro-LTTE Tamils of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and other such organizations.

The Tool Kit

It is interesting to read the letter that the GTF drafted and circulated among Tamils in the UK to be sent to their MPs, well in advance of the Channel 4's June 14 programme on Sri Lanka. Here it is: "Dear (insert name of MP/Representative) MP,

I am a member of your constituency living in (insert your address details).

I am a (British) citizen and member of the Tamil community with close links to Sri Lanka.

I have friends and family there and I am deeply troubled by recent events relating to the country. In light of this, I wanted to raise with you the issue of the United Nations Panel of Experts report on Sri Lanka and to ask whether you would be willing to raise this matter in Parliament on my behalf.

Significantly during the 17th Session of the Human Rights Council currently taking place in Geneva, extended footage of the execution video obtained by Channel4 News UK has been analysed by the UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, Christof Heyns, who has stated that this evidence amounts to 'definitive war crimes'.

A Channel 4 news television documentary, Sri Lanka's killing fields, will be broadcast on June 14 at 11:05pm (BST) in the UK.

The one-hour programme looks set to include footage not previously broadcast, as well as a shocking video of summary execution and rape-murder which Channel 4 News has already aired (the video was denounced by the Sri Lankan government as a fake, and later authenticated by UN experts). The film was screened in Geneva on June 3 at an event hosted by Amnesty International. The video further intensifies the need for truth and justice in Sri Lanka.

The UN Panel's Report published in April 2011 states that tens of thousands of innocent civilians lost their lives, during the final months of Sri Lanka's civil war in 2009 (a link to the full report can be found here: http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Sri_Lanka/POE_Report_Full.pdf)

International law

The Panel's recommendation to the UN Secretary General, Ban ki-Moon, was to immediately proceed to establish an independent international accountability mechanism in Sri Lanka.

Accountability for crimes against humanity is a duty under international law. Given that the Sri Lankan government has dismissed the UN Report as 'fundamentally flawed', I do not believe that a proper process of accountability will be forthcoming from within Sri Lanka.

Therefore, I would be very grateful if you, as my representative in Parliament, will raise these issues with the British government and the Prime Minister during Foreign Office Questions and Prime Minister's Questions. I believe British parliamentarians and the UK government can play a crucial role in ensuring truth, justice and, ultimately, reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

Thank you for your help on this matter and I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,"

The tool kit also has given detailed instructions of British Tamils who were chosen to receive it, on how they could contact their MPs by telephone, and what has to be stated, as well as what message has to be left if the MP is unavailable at that time. All of this shows the very careful preparation that has been made, prior to the Channel 4 programme, and well in sync with the current session of the UN Human Rights Council Sessions in Geneva, with Amnesty International and a UN Rapporteur also throwing their weight, to drag Sri Lanka into bloody tragedy of separatist terrorism that it was able to defeat two years ago, and where since then there has been no Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim or any other killed or injured due to terrorism.

The intent of the GTF and its supporters in the UK to attack Sri Lanka is no cause for surprise, but what causes concern is the ease with which a person such as Alistair Burt could have been so easily fooled by them. Born in Lancashire, he had his higher education at St John's College, Oxford where he was elected President of the Oxford Law Society in 1976 and graduated with a degree in jurisprudence law in 1977. Here is an experienced politician, with knowledge of jurisprudence, who does a jack-in-the-box leap to warn Sri Lanka of dire consequences, even before waiting for the Sri Lankan government's response to the evil canard of Channel 4 and its promoters, when there are more voices that one to state with emphasis that both the Darusman Report and the Channel 4 video have huge problems of credibility.

In conclusion it is useful to quote from the statement issued by the Sri Lankan High Commission in London on the Channel 4 footage, before Alistair Burt broke loose to show his love of those who still support terrorism, and remain angered by its defeat in Sri Lanka.

Channel 4 film

"The government of Sri Lanka is concerned about the distress the images in the Channel 4 film aired without any guarantee of their authenticity might have caused to the viewers, particularly to those belonging to different communities in Sri Lanka.

"This is an exercise which is carried out by a small section of international media at the behest of certain parties with vested interests and it caters only to the interests of separatist forces living outside Sri Lanka, the final objective of which is to push Sri Lanka back to war, by way of lacerating the wounds that the country is attempting to heal. The Channel 4 film has the potential to incite hatred amongst different communities in Sri Lanka, including future generations, and thereby, adversely affect the ongoing national reconciliation process."

It will help Alistair Burt to look up his textbooks and notes on jurisprudence before he jumps out again with rash allegations and threats against any country or people, based on hugely flawed and suspect evidence.