Acting envoy writes to Four Corner's programme producer:

'Stop Channel 4 video telecast'

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

Sri Lanka's acting High Commissioner to Australia Sashikala Premwardhana has sent a letter of protest to Four Corner's Programme executive producer Sue Spencer, on behalf of the Sri Lankan government, calling on her to stop the telecast of the Channel Four Video, which was to be telecast under the theme; "Killing Fields of Sri Lanka."

The acting High Commissioner's response has been following a request from the television station for the proposed telecast of the video last Saturday.

The Executive Summary and the key elements of the acting High Commissioner's response to the television station have been:

* The programme content is completely biased and contains unsubstantiated allegations against the government of Sri Lanka. The views expressed in the film are without any guarantee of authenticity.

* The video footage of executions supposedly taken from a mobile phone has not been verified as authentic.

* There is a possibility that this footage is from LTTE executions that have been released to discredit the Sri Lankan government. The LTTE regularly executed persons that had compromised its loyalty.

* The military uniforms of the individuals do not clearly establish that these are Sri Lankan army personnel. The shots in the video clip could well be treatment meted out by the LTTE in army uniform.

* The obvious bias of the programme is further illustrated by the fact that a major portion of the video footage has been acquired from the LTTE and its sources. The LTTE deliberately embedded its military resources amongst the civilian population and it is very surprising that none of the video footage in the Channel 4 programme shows any LTTE military activity in the midst of the civilian population.

* The portrayal of the ground situation in the programme is as if the LTTE never existed in the areas that were being filmed and the government forces were deliberately targeting innocent civilians. This is a clear distortion of facts and the ground reality that existed at that time.

* Another aspect which did not get captured in the Channel 4 programme was that the LTTE was a formidable fighting force that has developed a conventional military capability. Therefore, the LTTE was not a passive bystander during this period. The Channel 4 programme fails to present the offensive role played by the LTTE during this period.

* At no point in the programme do they refer to the fact that the LTTE used artillery shelling and refer to the possibility that the shelling could be from the LTTE. This is a deliberate attempt to mislead the viewers.

* The English translations of interviews with Tamil civilians were deliberate distorted. For instance one such response of which the literal English translation at best could be ("that means) they might have attacked aiming the hospital (only"), but the text giving the English translation of the statement that appeared in the screen was "the hospital was targeted". Of the four or five Tamil civilians that spoke in the programme none of them specifically mentioned that the Sri Lankan army attacked them.

* UN Secretary-General spokesperson Martin Nesirky stated on June 21 that the Channel 4 had not correctly portrayed the visit of the UNSG to Sri Lanka in May 2009. This clearly demonstrates the liberties taken by the programme producers in twisting the truth to fit in with the agenda of the programme.

The government of Sri Lanka through its High Commission in London has repeatedly requested Channel 4 to provide a copy of the footage that was aired by them to ascertain the authenticity of the footage. To date, Channel 4 has not provided a copy of the footage that is in their possession to the government.

* The government of Sri Lanka has responded to the technical note of the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Chistof Heyns, in relations to the authenticity of the second, extended Channel 4 videotape, stating inter alia that the legal efficacy of any report or publication is hinged upon the fundamental requirement of impartiality and a complete lack of bias, having regard to the rules of natural justice and that the process adopted in regard to the publication of the videos and subsequent steps taken fall far short of this requirement and is tainted with the fundamental vice of bias and partiality.

* The fact that the contents of the video were not made available to the Sri Lankan government by Channel 4 lends support to the suspicion that the broadcast of the videos were for a collateral purpose.

* I urge ABC Four Comers not to air this programme and give coverage to content which is unsubstantiated and which is without any guarantee of authenticity.