Lankan soldiers executed naked men, women?

[RPK]

Lankan soldiers executed naked men, women?

London: The UN has sought a fresh probe into alleged war crimes by Sri Lankan troops after Britain's Channel 4 News released a video featuring soldiers executing naked men and women.

The video, which was broadcast on Tuesday, shows government troops executing civilians in the last few weeks of the 26-year Sri Lanka war, which ended last year when the island government declared victory over the Tamil rebel group LTTE.

"It is shocking indeed, and clearly deserves more investigation," Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, was quoted as saying by Channel 4 News.


In the video, a soldier is seen shooting one of the blindfolded prisoners in the leg as he lies amongst the bodies of other Tamil prisoners on the ground. The soldier is then seen walking away and turning directly to the camera.

His image is briefly out of camera shot behind another soldier before he appears again close to camera - his face and moustache clearly visible.

The video then shows what appears to be a Sri Lankan soldier dressed in camouflage shooting another prisoner directly in the head. This would appear to be an execution.

The video is a longer version of one which already sparked a UN investigation 16 months ago when it first came to light. Channel 4 News has sent the new video to the UN panel investigating allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lanka High Commission in Britain had denied that the videos broadcast by Channel 4 News were authentic.


In a statement, it told Channel 4 News: "The High Commission of Sri Lanka categorically denies that the Channel 4 News TV video is authentic.”

"Last year when Channel 4 News telecast a similar video the government of Sri Lanka clearly established, by reference to technical considerations, that it was not genuine but fake. The present video is nothing more than an elongated version of the same video."

The statement said: "It is observed that there is a common pattern in these sinister moves. Some sections were replete with photographs of alleged war crimes when Sri Lanka's application for the extension of GSP+ facility was being considered by the European Commission."

 

[TenjikuKensei]

I welcome this development. The culprits behind the murder&injury of ~10-20000 civilians(in 2009 alone) should and would be brought to justice. The Truth cannot be hidden for long!

 

[Peacefull]

You reap what you SOW.

India Sowed LTTE reaped it through murder of its army & politicians in the hands of LTTE.

Good riddance anyway.

 

[somebozo]

How many people agree that this allegation was in part motivated by India over its loss of "strategic terror wing" named LTTE which has not focused the Tamil insurgency back into Indian mainland. Show your votes by thanking!

The rise of suspicious execution videos during COIN ops be it Lanka or Pakistan is suspicious at best.. I wonder if army men do carry a pocket camera around..hey let us film the terrorist execution..some conspiracy is cooking wiki leaks style for the future.

 

[TenjikuKensei]

How many people agree that this allegation was in part motivated by India over its loss of "strategic terror wing" named LTTE which has not focused the Tamil insurgency back into Indian mainland. Show your votes by thanking!

The rise of suspicious execution videos during COIN ops be it Lanka or Pakistan is suspicious at best.. I wonder if army men do carry a pocket camera around..hey let us film the terrorist execution..some conspiracy is cooking wiki leaks style for the future.

You fail to realize that those video releases preceded wiki-leaks. If you look at the Channel 4 news article, you will note that the news article only says that the Wikileaks corroborates that which was already known.

You reap what you SOW.

India Sowed LTTE reaped it through murder of its army & politicians in the hands of LTTE.

Good riddance anyway.

Apparently you lack any knowledge about the Lankan civil war as your above comment makes crystal clear.

Here is a Hint, The armed insurgency started after 30 years of ahimsa protests by the minority. Protests which fell on deaf years and only brought about increasing amounts of pogroms and discrimination.

However, you are free to subscribe to simplistic tabloid version of history if you so prefer.

 

[Peacefull]

You fail to realize that those video releases preceded wiki-leaks. If you look at the Channel 4 news article, you will note that the news article only says that the Wikileaks corroborates that which was already known.




Apparently you lack any knowledge about the Lankan civil war as your above comment makes crystal clear.

Here is a Hint, There armed insurgency started after 30 years of ahimsa protests by the minority. Protests which well on deaf years and only brought about increasing amounts of pogroms and discrimination.

However, you are free to subscribe to simplistic tabloid version of history if you so prefer.

Here is the Hint: Srilanka is not an integral part of India, You had no right to poke your nose in theirs.

 

[TenjikuKensei]

Here is the Hint: Srilanka is not an integral part of India, You had no right to poke your nose in theirs.

Here is a Hint, I'm not Indian, I'm a Jaffna Tamil (from the northern part of Lanka). So I have all the reason to poke my nose into this matter.


btw If you have any questions about my choice of flags, check my intro thread.

 

[Peacefull]

Here is a Hint, I'm not Indian, I'm a Jaffna Tamil (from the northern part of Lanka). So I have all the reason to poke my nose into this matter.


btw If you have any questions about my choice of flags, check my intro thread.

No matter what terrorism is not a option - once you use against others, others have a very valid reason to use it against you.

Iam not debating on flags iam here debating on the methods used.

 

[TenjikuKensei]

No matter what terrorism is not a option - once you use against others, others have a very valid reason to use it against you.

I see a straw-man being set up here. Check my above posts to see if I voiced my support for the LTTE?. Oh and btw, I always supported the rebellion, but not the civilian deaths.

However I was very clear about the intentional massacre of civilians by the thousands by the Lankan Army.


Ahimsa works with a form of government which has at least a modicum of democratic rule (as it did with the British During Gandhi's era), but it does not work at all against a mono-ethnic and mono-religious government. If one looks at lankan history, the Riots and pogroms against minorities only increased in frequency and magnitude from the time of independence till the formation of the rebel groups. A clear failure of a non-violent protests and Satyagrahas which were seen as a a show of "weakness".

Iam not debating on flags iam here debating on the methods used.

^^ I made that statement just in case someone questioned why I have an Indian flag. A post to pre-empt any questions along those lines.

 

[Peacefull]

I see a straw-man being set up here. Check my above posts to see if I voiced my support for the LTTE?. Oh and btw, I always supported the rebellion, but not the civilian deaths.

However I was very clear about the intentional massacre of civilians by the thousands by the Lankan Army.


Ahimsa works with a form of government which has at least a modicum of democratic rule (as it did with the British During Gandhi's era), but it does not work at all against a mono-ethnic and mono-religious government. If one looks at lankan history, the Riots and pogroms against minorities only increased in frequency and magnitude from the time of independence till the formation of the rebel groups. A clear failure of a non-violent protests and Satyagrahas which were seen as a a show of "weakness".



^^ I made that statement just in case someone questioned why I have an Indian flag. A post to pre-empt any questions along those lines.

Lets sum up - what is your point!

 

[TenjikuKensei]

Lets sum up - what is your point!

It is that which I posted on post#2.
It's succinct enough

 

[Peacefull]

It is that which I posted on post#2.
It's succinct enough

I agree with your post two - however i would also like to highligh the fact - india had no reason to raise a monster called LTTE without knowing how to control it.

You reap what you sow - India terrorised lankans using ltte as a tool which came back hauting.

Good riddance anyway.

 

[TenjikuKensei]

I agree with your post two - however i would also like to highligh the fact - india had no reason to raise a monster called LTTE without knowing how to control it.

You reap what you sow - India terrorised lankans using ltte as a tool which came back hauting.

Good riddance anyway.

You forget that the LTTE and the other rebel parties were formed at least 5 years Before India even came into the picture. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out why they were formed. Furthermore also note that the Tigers were only one of the many groups India supported later on.

As for terrorizing the population; lets look at it this way.The amount of Tamil civilians killed (before and after the formation of the rebel parties) stand at above 100000, the amount of civilians killed by the rebel groups stand somewhere around a couple of thousand at most. Even though I hate to play numbers with lives; one has to be absolutely blind to not notice this huge disparity between numbers. Did the tigers carry out terrorist attacks? definitely. Are they deplorable? doubly so. However, does it pale in comparition by the atrocities committed before and after the formation of the rebel groups by the Lankan military/government? A resounding yes. So your karmic allusion is actually reversed. Oh and btw for all the demonization the tigers get (deservedly so at times), They did not cross certain lines. However, the same could not be said of the lankan military; which not only outdid everyone when it came to human rights abuses, but also was instrumental in the formation of the rebel groups.

 

[Lankan Ranger]

Sri Lanka rejects war crimes video, UN calls for probe

Sri Lanka has described as ‘fake’ a new video released by Britain’s Channel 4 News that allegedly featured its troops executing naked men and women, as the UN rapporteur sought a fresh probe.

The video, which was telecast Tuesday, shows Sri Lankan government troops executing civilians in the last few weeks of the 26-year war, which ended in May last year when the government declared victory over the Tamil rebel group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

‘It’s an expanded version of the video that was released by the LTTE last year. We have investigated that video and found it to be fake,’ an official of the Sri Lankan high commission in New Delhi told IANS.

‘There are many discrepancies in the video. It’s a handiwork of the propaganda machinery of the LTTE,’ said the official.

In the video, a Sri Lankan soldier is seen shooting one of the blindfolded prisoners in the leg as he lies among the bodies of other Tamil prisoners on the ground. The soldier is then seen walking away and turning to the camera.

His image is briefly out of camera shot behind another soldier before he appears again close to camera – his face and moustache clearly visible.

The video then shows what appears to be a Sri Lankan soldier dressed in camouflage shooting another prisoner directly in the head. This would appear to be an execution.

The video is a longer version of one which already sparked a UN investigation 16 months ago when it first came to light. Channel 4 News has sent the new video to the UN panel investigating allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka.

The UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions has called for a fresh probe into the video.

‘It is shocking indeed, and clearly deserves more investigation,’ Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur, was quoted as saying by Channel 4 News.

The Sri Lanka high commission in Britain, too, denied that the videos broadcast by Channel 4 News were authentic.

In a statement, it told Channel 4 News: ‘The high commission of Sri Lanka categorically denies that the Channel 4 News TV video is authentic.’

‘Last year when Channel 4 News telecast a similar video, the government of Sri Lanka clearly established, by reference to technical considerations, that it was not genuine but fake. The present video is nothing more than an elongated version of the same video.’

Sri Lanka rejects war crimes video, UN calls for probe | Defence / Terrorism

 

[Lankan Ranger]

China supports Sri Lanka`s stance on UN panel

The Chinese government today reiterated their support for Sri Lanka`s stance against the Panel of Experts appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to investigate alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka during the war against the Tamil Tiger rebels.

China said Thursday that it believes Sri Lanka is capable of handling their own problems and urged the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and world community to help the Colombo stabilize its internal situation.

Responding to questions regarding the panel at a regular press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Sri Lanka has appointed its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission to probe the violations of human rights during the war.

`China believes that the Sri Lankan government and its people are capable of handling various issues,` the spokesman said.

`We hope the international community including UN Secretary General can create a favourable external environment for the Sri Lankan government to stabilise its internal situation and accelerate economic development,` Qin said.

Sri Lanka has strongly opposed the appointment of the three-member panel headed by Indonesia`s former Attorney General Marzuki Darusman.

The government has said the panel is totally unnecessary and unwarranted as the government has instituted its own mechanism by appointing the 8-member Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission to probe the alleged crimes.

Sri Lanka SECURITY:: China supports Sri Lanka`s stance on UN panel