SRI LANKA: Film Reveals Atrocities in Final Months of Civil War

• by Naseema Noor (washington)
• Monday, July 18, 2011
• Inter Press Service

'Sri Lanka's Killing Fields', screened at the U.S. Capitol Friday, is 'a gruesome example of humanity at its worst', said lawmaker James McGovern, co-chair of the House of Representatives' Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, who introduced the film.

Directed by filmmaker and journalist Callum Macrae, the British documentary presents eyewitness testimony and harrowing footage of atrocities committed against civilians by both the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and the LTTE between January and May 2009 in an increasingly small area in northeastern Sri Lanka, where the LTTE, better known as the Tamil Tigers, had fought a brutal war of independence since 1983.

In order to wipe out the insurgency, Sri Lanka launched an all-out offensive against the Tamil Tigers two and-a-half years ago. It decisively beat the LTTE but exacted a heavy toll on the minority Tamil population, spurring calls for an investigation.

The 50-minute documentary, which first aired on British television Channel 4 in June, was sponsored by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, the International Crisis Group (ICG), and the Open Society Foundation. It was also shown in Geneva and the United Nations in New York.

Verified by the United Nations as authentic, the film's footage was captured on camera and mobile phones by civilians, Sir Lankan soldiers, and Tamil insurgents. It is rough, and difficult to watch.

Indeed, in one scene, camera footage shows the aftermath of the army's shelling of a hospital: bodies parts are strewn everywhere and 'you can see blood from the dead bodies flowing with the rain water,' according to an eyewitness.

A U.N. Panel of Experts report from April 2011 on the Sri Lankan war found that the army's military campaign relied heavily on shelling, including in the so-called no-fly zones, which led to the deaths of upwards of 40,000 civilians.

Eyewitnesses and human rights organisations allege that the army intentionally targeted civilian locales, including hospitals and food distribution lines.

In another heart-wrenching scene, footage shows young girls crying out from a bunker to their mother, who lies bleeding just several feet away. The documentary explains that a second round of shelling, which eyewitnesses say was intended to kill civilians who came to the aid of the wounded, prevented the girls from reaching their dying mother.

Other footage shows soldiers summarily executing prisoners, and dead women who appeared to have been sexually assaulted.

But the atrocities, which the U.N. and human rights groups say may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, was not limited to the army.

'Sri Lanka's Killing Fields' also shows aerial footage of LTTE soldiers shooting at a crowd of civilians.

The U.N. has found credible allegations that the Tamil Tigers used civilians as shields and killed those who tried to escape, in addition to committing other crimes.

'These scenes provide much more than simply shock value... They also are powerful evidence of the need for an independent investigation to hold those responsible accountable for the crimes,' said McGovern.

'If the Sri Lankan government is unable or unwilling to act, then the international community must respond in its place,' he added.

Following the screening on Friday, a panel of experts from the human rights groups that sponsored the film discussed efforts to hold the Sri Lankan government responsible, the recent U.N. report, and the U.S.'s response to these developments.

Mark Schneider, the vice president of the ICG, criticised the Sri Lankan government's inquiry into the conflict, called the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, as flawed and failing to meet international standards for effective accountability.

'The question of how do you move beyond — to the future, if you will — depends on, in [the ICG's] view, full, adequate reconciliation based on full, adequate accountability,' he said.

'This has not occurred, it isn't occurring and it should be the objective of all those who seek a future of progress and development in Sri Lanka in which all of the ethnic groups in the country participate without fear, without discrimination, and with full access to the democratic process,' he said.

Tom Malinowski, the Washington director of HRW, spoke about the strategic argument for holding Sri Lanka accountable, in addition to the obvious moral one.

In contrast to the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy of separating civilians from militants and targeting only the latter, 'the Sri Lankan government gambled on a different strategy... that in order to wipe out the insurgency, you have to use overwhelming lethal force [including against civilians] while kicking out all of the journalists and international observers,' he said.

'If you do that, you'll be criticised, have resolutions passed against you, but it doesn't matter because you're going to win and when you win, you can rewrite the history.

'It is profoundly not in America's interest to allow this model to stand,' Malinowski emphasised.

He also contrasted the international community's response to Muammar al-Gaddafi's possible slaughter of civilians in Benghazi to the inaction on Sri Lanka.

'We established a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent from happening there exactly what happened in Sri Lanka,' he said.

'Now I'm not saying we should [follow suit in Sri Lanka] but the least we can do is let the survivors know we know what happened, and it matters to us to hold those responsible accountable,' he said.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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