CALLUM’S children of A LESSER GOD
Shenali WADUGE
For people who are so passionate about revealing the truth, getting
justice and showcasing to the world how horrible Sri Lanka’s Armed
Forces are would there be any need for 'sequels'. The best thing would
have been to pool everything available against Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces
– mobile phone pictures, videos, eye witnesses and spill the beans – so
what is the objective of these sequels every year close to Geneva
sessions or some other international event?
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Prbhakaran’s ‘great love’ for
children - a Sinhalese child hacked to death in Padaviya –
Anuradhapura |
Thirty three Buddhist monks waylaid
and massacred by the LTTE in Arantalawa, July 2, 1987 |
A Sinhalese child beheaded by the
LTTE terrorists – During ethnic cleansing campaign in the
Trincomalee district |
When the print and electronic media describes the pictures of
Prabakaran’s son as 'disturbing' frankly there was nothing disturbing to
the eyes of a boy munching on a cookie or the photo that was shown in
2012. Instead what would disturb the eyes of anyone would have been
these pictures:
Channel 4’s presenter described the picture of Prabakaran’s son in
2012 as 'barbaric' 'chilling piece of footage' – what would he say of
these pictures given?
It would be most interesting to know Callum Macrae’s response to
these pictures and given that he entered TV presenting and documentary
work in 1992 onwards we would like to have answered why none of the LTTE
heinous crimes against children as one can see by the photos above were
newsworthy enough to be turned into a documentary and why a boy munching
a cookie gets global coverage?
Expert opinion
Moreover, what we are very keen to know which no one seems to have
asked is where is Prof. Derrick Pounder the forensic pathologist at
Dundee University who just needed to look at the picture of a bloodless
child with gunshot injuries (Prabakaran’s son) and without a speck of
doubt conclude that – he (Prabakaran’s son) was shot five times (erasing
all doubt of other scenarios), that the 'speckling from propellant
tattoing' indicated the weapons muzzle was 2 or 3ft or less from the
dead boys’ chest, suggesting the boy could have even touched the gun,
that the boy had fallen backwards after being shot and the shooter had
stood over him and fired the rest of the shots and his conclusion is
'this is a murder' or 'execution'. Prof. Pounder also says “it was
possible the boy was made to watch the execution of his bound and
blindfolded guards before the gun was turned on him”.
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Callum
Macrae
‘Documentary’ film maker |
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LTTE terrorists killed an infant of 18
months (Mavadiwembu in
Sittandi in the Eravur area of the Batticaloa District) -
August 16, 2006 |
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A child killed by throwing into fire
by the LTTE - Ethnic cleansing against Muslims in Batticaloa
district |
How can this Professor know Prabakaran’s son had five bodyguards –
where or from whom did he get this figure? Do we need to conduct
autopsies if we can come to conclusions like Prof. Pounder – which is
why we are really missing his expert opinion in the 2013 sequel version
of Callum Macrae’s No Fire Zone aimed at tarnishing Sri Lanka’s Armed
Forces?
Please bring these experts back in the 2014 sequel of Channel 4 and
Callum Macrae close to Geneva.
To Callum Macrae, Channel 4 and a host of others jumping on the
bandwagon of annually producing sequels to tarnish Sri Lanka especially
its Armed Forces the spectacle of 'ahs' 'ohs' and 'wows' will diminish
once people begin to realize these are all commercially motivated
documentaries but if it makes the sponsors happy and funds keep coming
so be it – let the lies pour out.
What we expect is some unbiased coverage – thousands of children were
killed in barbaric ways by the LTTE. The GOSL has enough of video
footage and photos covered at the scenes of these crimes through three
decades – these pictures are what should 'perturb' and be referred to as
'horrendous crimes' far above a picture of a child lying with bullet
wounds but no blood with a man in slippers close to the body questioning
the inference of military being responsible – Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces
do not wear slippers.
The photos of the bunker at closer examination reveal sunlight but
the picture of the body lying on the ground doesn’t correspond with the
light and looks like someone had been fiddling with the picture.
However, given these questions Callum Macrae, Channel 4 or any of
their supporters cannot come to conclusions – allegations have to be
proved first.
Tamil civilians
Does Channel 4 seriously think that showing a sensational drama on a
sequel basis can change the fact that approximately 295,000 Tamil
civilians were saved, that 11,770 LTTE combatants gave themselves up and
majority of them have been rehabilitated and reintegrated with over 500
child combatants given State pardon while the army rescued wives and
families of key LTTE leaders – without shooting them? Shooting
everything that moved was the orders given to the US military – our
military has shown we conduct military affairs far different.
The people of Sri Lanka are all unanimous about one thing and that is
our Armed Forces has done what no military in the Western world has been
able to do after over a decade of 'War on Terror' – the plan was to
eliminate the LTTE ground force combined with an equal objective of
saving all the civilians that the LTTE had been herding to use as human
shields or civilian combatants – that venture cost 5,000 military lives
but saved approximately 295,000 Tamil civilians all of whom are now
living and getting on with their lives in areas that now have
electricity where no electricity prevailed because the LTTE blew up the
grids.
Callum Macrae, Channel 4 can produce any amount of documentaries but
these cannot change the facts that we see before our eyes – a picture
may be worth a thousand words but what we see with our eyes when we
travel to areas that were out of bounds is worth tenfold that number.
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A Tamil mother mourns over her child
who was killed by the LTTE terrorists, for refusing to join
the terrorist training sessions |
A mother and her infant - Hacked to
death by the LTTE terrorists in one of their ‘night raids’
at a village - Morawewa |
The relatives collect the remains of
a child butchered by the LTTE – Ethnic cleansing against
Sinhalese |
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