South Asia 5 July 2011
Sri Lanka maintains that no civilians were killed by troops during the war The British TV station Channel 4 has strongly rejected claims by Sri Lanka's government that footage broadcast in a recent documentary is false.
The film in question appears to show troops executing Tamil prisoners, but Sri Lanka's government now says the killers were rebels in army uniform.Channel 4 rejected the idea, saying its work had been meticulously checked.
It also stressed the film had made clear that both the army and Tamil Tiger rebels had committed atrocities.
The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says that the latest claims are part of a broad government campaign to discredit the Channel 4 documentary, entitled Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, which was broadcast last month.
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