AMNESTY, HRW SLAMMED OVER C-4 FILM
‘No real evidence in these movies’:
Sri Lanka strongly protests against the organizers of an event at
which the so-called Channel 4 documentary No fire zone: the killing
fields of Sri Lanka is being screened at the UNHRC in Geneva, Sri
Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN Human Rights Commission
stated in a press release from that city, yesterday (March 1).
Among others things Permanent Representative Ravinatha Ariyasinghe
states that the annual screening to coincide with the UNHRC sessions
shows there is no real evidence in these movies. If there was, there
would be a reason to bring redress to victims fast, and the evidence
will be out on a single occasion, and not annually.
He also states: “ The government of Sri Lanka strongly protests
against the efforts by the organizers of the event – Human Rights Watch,
Amnesty International and Festival du Film et Forum International sur
les Droits Humains (FIFDH), to use the UN premises for the screening of
this film No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka also strongly protests the perception that has been sought
to be created in the public mind, through pro-LTTE websites, as well as
by duping even better known media organs such as even the International
Herald Tribune, which yesterday in an article quoted the Director of
this film Mr. Callum Macrae as saying that the film “would be screened
at the 22nd Session of the Human Rights Council now underway in Geneva,
where the United States plans to introduce a resolution asking Sri Lanka
to investigate the allegations of the war crimes by its army”. The
following is the full text of the press release: “Intervention by
Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to
the United Nations in Geneva at the screening of “No Fire Zone: The
Killing Fields of Sri Lanka”- 1 March 2013 The Government of Sri Lanka
strongly protests against the efforts by the organizers of this event –
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Festival du Film et Forum
International sur les Droits Humains (FIFDH), to use the UN premises for
the screening of this film “No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri
Lanka”.
Sri Lanka also strongly protests the perception that has been sought
to be created in the public mind, through pro-LTTE websites, as well as
by duping even better known media organs such as even the International
Herald Tribune, which yesterday in an article quoted the Director of
this film Mr. Callum Macrae as saying that the film “would be screened
at the 22nd Session of the Human Rights Council now underway in Geneva,
where the United States plans to introduce a resolution asking Sri Lanka
to investigate the allegations of the war crimes by its army”.
Sri Lanka views this film ‘No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri
Lanka’, which follows the screening of ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’
(June 2011) and ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished’
(March 2012) screened on the sidelines of previous HRC sessions, as part
of a cynical, concerted and orchestrated campaign that is strategically
driven and aimed at influencing the debate in the Council on Sri Lanka.
It is clearly motivated by collateral political considerations.
Earlier this week, upon coming to learn of this insidious attempt, on 24
February 2013 I drew this matter to the attention of Ambassador
Remigiusz Achilles Henczel, President of the Human Rights Council.
This was followed up with a meeting with the President on 25 February
2013, where I drew attention to ECOSOC Resolution No. 1996/31 of 25 July
1996 that stipulates the parameters of the consultative relationship
between the UN and NGOs, which clearly lists as grounds for suspension
and withdrawal of consultative status of NGOs, inter alia, specifically
where such an organization either directly or through its affiliates or
representatives acting on its behalf, clearly abuses its status by
engaging in a pattern of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of
the charter of the UN including unsubstantiated or politically motivated
acts against member states of the UN incompatible with those purposes
and principles.
This being the third occasion when a Channel 4 film is being showed
to coincide with a session of the Human Rights Council, I pointed out
that a clear pattern had been established by the NGOs involved, who in
the view of the Government of Sri Lanka are abusing their privileged
status with ECOSOC. During my meeting with him, and subsequently by his
letter dated 27 February 2013, Ambassador Henczel has disassociated the
UN Human Rights Council from today’s event and has observed that such
events “do not reflect an official position of the Council”.
He has emphasized that “the organizers of such events, take full
responsibility for the content of their events”. The question the
Government of Sri Lanka today wishes to pose from Human Rights Watch,
Amnesty International and FIFDH, is as to whether they can take full
responsibility for the contents of this film? It will take a few days,
possibly weeks, before experts in the field would be able to ascertain
the true facts about the contents of this film.
However, if the two preceding Channel 4 broadcasts are anything to go
by in trying to judge the credibility of this film, it does not give us
much hope. - When the original footage, much of which is now recycled,
first came out about 3 months after the ending of the conflict in 2009,
it was sourced to a shadowy group ‘Journalists for Democracy’.
Organizations using the photographs and video footage did so with a
disclaimer, that they could not vouch for the authenticity of the
material. - In 2011, as the first in this sequel, ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing
Fields’ was brought out, all we had to believe, was Mr. Macrae’s words
regard its authenticity.
- The star witness and chief protagonist of the 2011 film Ms.
Damilvany Gnanakumar, portrayed as a UK citizen who went to Sri Lanka
and got held up due to the fighting and who served as a medical
volunteer, later proved to be a member of the LTTE ‘Soodiya’ Regiment
and a prominent member of the Tamil Youth Organization (TYO), who
unknown to her family went back to Sri Lanka to help ‘Castro’, the
LTTE’s point person responsible for coordinating its international
network - Another prominent personality referred to in the film –Ms.
Isipriya who was portrayed as a ‘TV announcer’, is a trained LTTE cadre
holding the rank of Lt. Colonel, and was responsible for the training of
LTTE female suicide cadre - It turns out that translations at critical
points of the film were also consciously distorted to mislead the
viewer, such as the point at which civilians are seen being huddled into
a trench, seemingly to protect themselves against shelling.
However, the comments by the people correctly translated, merely
denote their asking not to be filmed, again re-emphasising the stage
managed nature of this film. - Even something as simple as a civilian
protest, which is described as a “spontaneous” move in the film, was
later proved to have been stage managed by the LTTE. - The accusation
that GOSL denied food and medicine, and deliberately targeted civilians
in the ‘no-fire’ zone is completely without basis, and runs contrary to
the massive humanitarian operation known to have been carried out by the
Sri Lankan security forces, who in the final stages of the conflict, at
great risk to themselves, brought back to safety nearly 300,000
civilians including women and children, held as human shields by the
LTTE for over a year.
It also runs against the fact that the Government of Sri Lanka has
successfully rehabilitated and reintegrated 95% of the 11,955
ex-combatants who surrendered or were arrested at the end of the
terrorist conflict, including 594 ex-child combatants.
They say justice delayed is justice denied. Similarly so called
evidence withheld, for the purpose of crafting a more juicer film in
time for the next Human Rights Council, raises questions of the motives
of the producers of these films.
If the concern was to bring justice to alleged victims, if they
believed this material to be authentic, it would be only logical to
expect that they present it here and now, rather than the present
recycling operation done, with a little more manufacturing each year.
But that is precisely what all those who have collaborated in this
exercise, are doing. It is not only the Government of Sri Lanka that has
found these annual films to be objectionable.
They have been criticized by many, including reputed newspapers such
as the Sunday Times of the UK, which in June 2011 described the
commentary of past broadcasts of Channel 4 as “intemperate and partisan”
and rightly pointed out that most of the footage which was used is
“unattributed and uncorroborated”.
While Mr. Macrae who produced this film, and Channel 4 which embraced
the project have gone to great lengths to use it to vilify Sri Lanka,
they turned down repeated requests by Sri Lanka’s domestic
reconciliation mechanism, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation
Commission (LLRC), to make available to them a copy of the original
footage, so that its authenticity can be verified. It should also be
noted that the first ever UK preview of this film was screened at the
3rd Anniversary celebrations of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) on the 27th
of February – two days ago.
The GTF is a well known pro-LTTE forum, and the fact that the
director of the film saw it fit to preview it at such an occasion
clearly exposes that these personalities have been heavily influenced by
the propaganda of the pro-LTTE lobby and their skewed views on
developments in Sri Lanka.
This event establishes, without any doubt, the nexus that exists
among the leading critics of the GoSL and the pro-LTTE lobby. The
presence particularly of Dr. Yasmin Sooka, Executive Director of the
Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa, and one of the three
authors of the Darusman Report of 2011, makes clear that she is intent
on playing prosecutor, judge and jury all in one.
This event, together with several other ‘propaganda stunts’ presently
on-going in Geneva and other capitals, as well as to follow in the
coming weeks, is but a reminder of the considerable ‘spoiler’ role
sections of the pro-LTTE Sri Lankan Tamil expatriates who have become
vote banks and pressure groups in several Western countries are intent
on playing.
While espousing the ideology of the LTTE, using its resources and
being manipulated by its surviving military leaders, they pay scant
regard to the Tamil community living in the North and the East and other
parts of Sri Lanka who having emerged from a 30 year long terrorist
conflict, who together with the enlightened sections of the Sri Lankan
Tamil expatriates, are keen to re-build their own future and that of
their children in a new and peaceful Sri Lanka, in a spirit of
reconciliation.
By providing a platform for the screening of this film which includes
footage of dubious origin, content that is distorted and without proper
sourcing and making unsubstantiated allegations, the sponsors of this
event seek to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka and detract from the
considerable positive developments that have taken place in the former
conflict zones, within less than 4 years since the guns fell silent.
A consequence of this action would be the undermining of the ongoing
reconciliation process in Sri Lanka. This is not surprising, for like
Mr. Macrae and Channel 4, at least two sponsors of today’s event - Human
Rights Watch and Amnesty International, also refused invitations from
the LLRC to testify before the Commission. I believe the lesson to be
drawn from this is, that it is probably easier to cast aspersions from a
far and keep the pot boiling, than to contribute towards the ongoing
process of reconciliation in Sri Lanka.” |