By Nayha Kalia 

‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’, a film shown on Channel 4, documents the final months of Sri Lanka’s brutal 25-year-long civil war featuring damning new evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The film is a critical call for the world to wake up to the horrific abuses that allegedly took place during these final months in 2009.

Far from the lenses of television cameras and digitally equipped newsrooms, tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the last phase of the civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan military. Reporters were blocked out of the war zone by the Sri Lankan government in an attempt to hide the brutality, death and destruction from the world.  But in this era of digital technology, concealing the truth is not easy.

Shocking truths are revealed through eyewitness accounts, amateur film footage, photographs and mobile phone videos. Both sides appear committed to victory at any cost. The audience is shown the horrific aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian camps and the corpses of female Tamil fighters who appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused and murdered.

The programme was given an 11pm slot because the final section exposed extremely graphic mobile phone footage of a series of live extra-judicial executions of prisoners, and the disposal and abuse of raped and mutilated naked bodies filmed by the murderers themselves as ‘trophy footage’. Other soldiers could be seen filming the scenes with their phones at the same time.  

Jon Snow, who presented Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, said ‘I have reported civil wars before but I have never seen such graphic evidence often at the hands of government soldiers themselves of what have all the hallmarks of war crimes.’

The documentary also showed the atrocities carried out by the Tamil Tigers who used civilians as human shields and executed a suicide bombing in a government centre for the displaced.

In April 2011 a UN report concluded that 40,000 people were killed in the final weeks of the war, while the Sri Lankan authorities said they were operating a policy of ‘zero civilian casualties’.

International reaction 

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has faced criticism after refusing to launch an investigation into what a UN panel of experts deemed ‘credible allegations’ of war crimes by Sri Lankan forces.

Ban Ki-Moon said in order to avoid precedence for lawless behaviour worldwide they can only establish an international investigation if the Sri Lankan government gives consent, or through a decision from Member States through a forum such as the Human Rights Council or UN Security Council.

While China, Russia, Cuba and Pakistan continue to support Sri Lanka’s demands for impunity, other influential governments are less inclined. Neighbouring India has demanded real moves towards reconciliation in Sri Lanka and the US has suggested it will not rule out international accountability.

Since the documentary was aired, the British government has renewed calls for an independent investigation into allegations of war crimes and has said it would lead international action if the Sri Lankan authorities failed to respond.  Alastair Burt, British Foreign Office Minister, said ‘the whole of the international community will expect the Sri Lankans to give a serious and full response to this evidence.’

Civilians still face brutality, but even so, this week 40 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who fled to the UK for safety are being deported.  

“Nobody should be deported from the UK if they are at risk of torture,” said Yolanda Foster, Sri Lanka Researcher at Amnesty International.

While human rights campaigners insist the refugees are at risk of reprisal and should not be sent back to Sri Lanka, and despite the broadcast of the programme, it seems unlikely they will be allowed to remain in the UK.

Response from Sri Lankan authorities

The Sri Lankan government said: ‘The Channel 4 film had the potential to incite hatred amongst different communities in Sri Lanka, including future generations, and thereby adversely affect the ongoing national reconciliations process.’

They repeatedly claim that they have been unfairly criticised for ending a conflict that claimed tens of thousands of lives amid regular suicide bombings of government targets by the Tamil Tigers.

They have also apologetically argued that civilian deaths were a necessary price to pay for the defeat of the Tamil Tigers – a group listed by many as a terrorist organisation. This has allowed for evidence associating the Sri Lankan government with war crime to be overlooked.

Sri Lanka’s defence ministry dismissed the videos as fabricated, saying they were intended to discredit the army.

What next?

In the two years since fighting ended no justice has been delivered, but will the global awareness generated by this documentary be a turning point?

Amnesty International has said that this historic opportunity must be seized. The international community must launch an investigation into crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka, or the price for us all will be intolerably high.  

A UN representative said the footage was evidence of ‘serious international crimes’. Although the Sri Lankan government has rejected the footage as falsified, the UN said it would continue the investigation to in turn allow for an international inquiry.

But will global intervention in disapproving the atrocities really help Sri Lankan society move forward? The civil war in Sri Lanka lasted more than 25 years, during which time it was a damning reflection on the international community who too often turned a blind eye.

Background  

Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009 when the Sri Lankan government claimed victory over the Tamil Tiger insurgents after a bloody military operation that killed thousands of people and displaced many more.

The long conflict that originally started in 1983 involved air raids, roadside blasts, suicide bombings, land battles and sea battles. More than 80,000 people have allegedly died.

While there is a long-established Tamil minority in the north and east, Tamil labourers were made to work the coffee and tea plantations in the central highlands during colonisation by the British.  The majority Buddhist Sinhalese community responded badly to what they understood to be favouritism, subsequently tensions between the two groups started to rise. Independence saw the assertion of Sinhala nationalism which further deepened ethnic division until civil war erupted in the 1980s between Tamils pressing for self-rule and the government.

International concern was raised about the fate of civilians caught up in the conflict zone during the final stages of the war.