WikiLeaks: Hard To Campaign For “Carnival Of Fools” – Anura B

Colombo Telegraph

By Colombo Telegraph -

“Sri Lankan Foreign Minister (and brother of President Kumaratunga) Anura Bandaranaike told the Ambassador he is contemptuous of SLFP Presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapakse’s alliance with the Marxist JVP, will not campaign very hard on Rajapakse’s behalf and is not at all sure he would want to be Prime Minister in such a government-‘a carnival of fools’ the US Embassy Colombo informed Washionton.

“Turning to the substance of the campaign, Bandaranaike characterized the alliance of his Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s (SLFP) candidate, current Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) as ‘disturbing’ and ‘totally contradictory to stated (SLFP) policy.’

“He fears religious freedom would suffer under a Rajapakse presidency. Bandaranaike said he looked forward to working with the U.S. on international issues given the shared democratic tradition between the two countries. In particular, he echoed U.S. concerns re Maldives and reiterated Sri Lankan support for Afghan SAARC membership. Engaging and intelligent despite his lightweight reputation, the new FM is clearly someone with whom we can work.” the Embassy further informed.

A leaked US “CONFIDENTIAL” diplomatic cable, recounts details of a meeting the US Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead  has had with then Foreign Minister late Anura Bandaranaike on October 28, 2005. The Colombo Telegraph found the cable from WikiLeaks database. The cable was written on October 31, 2005 by the US Ambassador to Colombo Jeffrey J. Lunstead. Continue reading »

Read letter: PM writes to Karunanidhi about UN resolution against Sri Lanka

Full Story>>>

Sri Lanka issue: Oppn corners govt, asks it to clear stand

 New Delhi, March 13, 2012
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Tuesday afternoon amid uproar over India's stand on war crimes allegations during the closing stages of the war in Sri Lanka. Members of the DMK, a government ally, joined the opposition in asking the government to clarify its views on the US-backed resol ution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.

After the first adjournment, members of DMK and AIDMK trooped towards Chairman Hamid Ansari's podium demanding a statement from the government.

The government tried to pacify the agitated members and said a statement will be made by External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Wednesday, but this assurance did not bring peace.

The US and Western-backed resolution pulls up Sri Lanka over the alleged killings of innocents by the Sri Lankan military when it crushed the Tamil Tigers in 2009.

Earlier, AIADMK and DMK MPs shouted slogans.

V Maitreyan of AIADMK said the world was aware of the war crimes against Sri Lankan Tamils.

"The Tamil Nadu chief minister (J Jayalalithaa) has raised this issue with the Prime Minister. We want an answer from the prime minister... Will they (India) support the UN resolution?"

DMK MP Tiruchi Siva urged the government to back the resolution.

D Raja of the Communist Party of India (CPI) said India, as Sri Lanka's neighbour, should have moved the resolution, not the US.

Bharatiya Janata Party's M Venkaiah Naidu asked the government to come out with a statement.

"It is a sensitive issue and we cannot (close) our eyes and ears as atrocities are being committed," he said.

But the government remained non-committal.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said India's "meticulous adherence (to) and respect for human rights is respected the world over.

"I have got the views of members here and would not like to comment excepting that at this time we do not know what is the resolution before the council," he said.

The issue -- sparked by video recording that Sri Lankan soldiers shot dead LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran in cold blood in May 2009 -- triggered three noisy adjournments during the day.

When the house met after lunch, the Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned for the day.

The members demanded a statement from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was in the house.

Naidu later took a dig at the UPA government over its ally DMK disrupting functioning of the house.

"It is a sad commentary on functioning of UPA-II," he said.

Uproar in Rajya Sabha over Sri Lankan Tamil issue

 March 13, 2011
Vice President Hamid Ansari conducts the proceedings of the  Rajya Sabha   

DMK and AIADMK with support from Left today forced adjournment of Rajya Sabha till noon after creating uproar over the government’s stand on a resolution against Sri Lanka in UN Human Rights Commission.

As soon as the House met for the day, DMK members were on their feet displaying banners demanding that the government must support a resolution moved by U.S., France and Norway in the UNHRC against the alleged atrocities committed on Sri Lankan Tamils during the island nation’s civil war.

DMK was joined by members of its rival AIADMK and Left parties in seeking a response from the government on the stand India would take on the resolution.

Chairman Hamid Ansari initially disallowed them saying Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley has made a request for making a statement and he has given him permission to speak.

“No banners please... your turn will come,” he said.

Full Story>>>

Even before 24 hours had elapsed after the regime released the white Van murderers, another abduction committed by them

 Tuesday 13 of march 2012
(Lanka-e-News-12.March.2012, 11.45PM) The MaRa regime indulged in a most self degrading and disgraceful unlawful operation yesterday; when it should on the contrary set an example in discipline and lawfulness to the subjects ,after being elected democratically by the people to conduct itself as a law abiding Democratic Govt. and not to imitate the barbaric dictator Idi Amin’s despotic reign- the Idi Mahin’s regime released the infamous white Van suspects involved in the attempted murder to kill its own duly people elected Mayor of the Kolonnawa UC by illicitly and illegally ordering the Wellampitiya police in whose custody they were after being arrested . These criminals were caught red handed by the people and handed over to the police a day ago . As though ‘Idi Mahin’ wants to prove that there is rhyme and reason to call him Idi Amin , the former Uganda ruthless killer dictator , not even before 24 hours had elapsed since the last murder attempt was made on the Kolonnawa UC Mayor, Idi Mahin’s criminal white van had taken toll of another victim, a civilian. Today at about 7.00 in the morning, the white van had abducted an individual called ‘Malu Priyantha’ residing at garden 34 , Borella. A complaint has been made to the Borella police . This action of the Govt. is a clear demonstration that it cares two hoots for the laws or the citizens of the country and will even stoop the level of an underworld criminal and liquidate anybody who crosses its violent lawless path it is taking. 

Meanwhile the Wellampitiya police station OIC , S A R Samaranayake who was given a transfer out because he acted duly and lawfully arresting the white van criminals in the attempted murder episode , is in fear of his safety and life , reports say. The senior DIG Anura Senanayake had furiously berated the OIC, suspecting that the latter had given out the information to the media. It is learnt that no entries were made in the police registers of the murderous criminals following instructions of the DIG.
The Kolonnawa UC Mayor is also in grave fear of his life , owing to the climate of outrageous lawlessness prevailing under ‘Idi Mahin’s’ regime . The Mayor is a father of two children, and his brother was abducted by this same white Van some time ago about whom there is no news of his whereabouts still. The Mayor’s fears are heightened because , despite the suspects associated with the criminal white van being caught red handed and given to police custody when he was himself about to fall victim to its murder operations , they had been released even without any entry regarding the crime being recorded at the Wellampitiya police . 

India’s Sri Lanka Policy Under Fire

 March 13, 2012,

By Tom Wright

Allegations in a British documentary that Sri Lankan forces summarily executed Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his 12-year-old son at the end of the country’s 26-year civil war in 2009 are testing India’s policy of neutrality toward its neighbor.

Associated Press

Sri Lankan soldiers carried the body of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, May 19, 2009.

The documentary, which is set to air Wednesday on Britain’s Channel 4, purports to contain video footage showing multiple bullet wounds in the bodies of the deceased, suggesting execution at close range.

India’s media carried stills of the dead boy and the issue disrupted Parliament on Tuesday as Indian lawmakers from the south, which has a large Tamil population, criticized New Delhi’s failure to pressure Sri Lanka to investigate war crimes as part of a reconciliation process.

Full Story>>>

Reconciliation is not happening in Sri Lanka, and the problem isn't a question of time

 Sivakami Rajamanoharan, 12 March 2012
The Tamil call for independent statehood stemmed from a very basic need for security against genocide. For many, including the next generation of Tamil youth activists, the events of 2009 consolidated this need. 

About the author

Dr Sivakami Rajamanoharan is an activist within the Tamil Youth Organisation UK, campaigning for the rights of Eelam Tamils.

Three years since the armed conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended, the Tamil speaking areas remain gripped by repression, ethnic tension and widespread suffering, rather than emergent reconciliation and peace - and the problem is not a question of time.

The war itself ended in a cataclysm of violence in which, according to a UN expert panel’s report ^↑ , over 40,000 Tamil civilians were massacred, largely by government shelling of safe zones and hospitals ^↑ . The period after the war’s end in May 2009 saw the internment of hundreds of thousands of shell-shocked civilian survivors in squalid camps ^↑ (run by Sri Lanka’s ethnically pure Sinhala military), from which reports of deprivation, abductions, torture and rape were persistently emerging. Although after intense international pressure the camps were eventually closed, large numbers of Tamils are still prevented from resettling.   Full Story>>>

Relief, renewal and growth in Sri Lanka GDP soars after end of war unlocks dormant economy

MarketWatch     March 12, 2012, 8:00

William Spain/MarketWatch

The view from the Sri Lanka Air Force-owned Marble Beach near Trincomalee.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (MarketWatch) — From the floor of the stock exchange to the former security checkpoints now plastered with advertising posters to the bustling energy of this South Asian capital’s streets, the signs of renewal are plain.

Sri Lanka’s economic recovery from its long and brutal civil war has been astonishingly fast, though perhaps not so swift as the sudden, blood-soaked final chapter of that 25-year-old conflict in early 2009.

Nor has it been so decisively concluded.

While GDP growth, estimated at north of 8% last year, is among the most robust in the world, and the stock market’s three-year return would make Warren Buffett’s eyes bug out, a rising debt load, widening trade imbalance and soaring fuel prices could endanger or even derail much of the recent progress.

Still, the once-feared Tamil Tigers, who at their peak ruled a third of the nation’s land area, are dead, dying or scattered. Massive sums are being plowed into new roads, bridges, port facilities and other infrastructure.

‘M’sia should support resolution on Sri Lanka’

Failure to do would be an embarrassment to the nation and the Tamil community in particular, say 51 Indian-based NGOs

KUALA LUMPUR: It will be an embarrassment for Malaysia and particularly the Tamil community if Malaysia does not support a resolution on war crimes committed by Sri Lankan security forces in 2009.

K Arumugam, co-ordinator of the Group of Concerned Citizens (GCC), representing 51 Indian-based NGOs, said sources in the Malaysian delegation to the at 19th Human Rights Council (UNHCR) in Geneva, had indicated that the government might vote against the resolution.

Initiated by United States and several other Western countries, copies of the resolution  was handed to the delegates yesterday evening and they are scheduled to vote on it next week.

Arumugam said the GCC submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak on March 2 urging Malaysia not to make same shocking decision where it supported a resolution initiated by Sri Lanka on its “military solution” to the ethnic conflict in 2009.

He said this resulted in Sri Lanka being protected from facing an international inquiry into war crimes its security forces committed which resulted in the massacre of thousands of Tamils towards end of the 26-year conflict.

Arumugam said a copy of the memorandum was also sent to Minister in the Prime Minister’s department G Palanivel to urging him persuade Najib to support the resolution initiated.

Why the double standard?

He contended that Malaysian government has been very consistent when it came issues related to human right violation in Bosnia, Palestine, Southern Thailand and Philippines.

“But why the double standard in our foreign policy when it came to Sri Lankan Tamils?” asked Arumugam.

He added that Palanivel should raise the matter at the cabinet meeting and also spell out MIC’s position on the issue.

“If Malaysia votes against the resolution, it’ll be tantamount to supporting the brutal killings and the sexual abuse and rapes committed by Sri Lankan security forces,” said Arumugam.

He said Wisma Putra should look into the reports of a three-member panel which was set up immediately after a visit by UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon.

The panel confirmed that the massive and widespread shelling by Sri Lankan forces caused the deaths of thousands of civilians.

Arumugam urged the Malaysian delegation to view ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’, a documentary produced by Channel 4 to get a grip on the atrocities committed by Sri Lanka’s armed forces.

The TV channel had provided corroborative visual evidence  in the form of eyewitness accounts, amateur film footage, photographs and mobile phone videos.

INDIA: GHE fear at New Delhi

March 9, 2012
Reading the proposeddraft resolutionmooted at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) concerning human rights in Sri Lanka, one cannot help wonder why Indiadid not propose such a resolution before? Today by delaying in arriving at a decision, whether to support theresolution or not, Indiahas once again proved that it lacks leadership, courage and political wisdom expected of it to lead theworld on issues concerning human rights and democracy. Not supporting the resolutionwould earn India a unique position to be shared with some of its clouded neighbours for pushing the island nation further deep into chaos that would result in further loss of lives and freedom from which there would be no easy return.
 Read More…

LLRC will only legitimise Sinhala occupation of Tamil homeland: British Academic

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 March 2012, 13:29 GMT]
Even as some diaspora groups who went to Geneva have unwittingly welcomed the US resolution and ‘constructive recommendations’ of the fundamentally flawed LLRC set-up to cover the protracted genocide of the Eezham Tamils, Dr. Andrew Higginbottom strongly affirmed that the LLRC will only entrench Sinhala state rule over Tamil territories and provide it a fraudulent legitimacy to do so. Speaking at Geneva last Monday, Dr. Higginbottam, lecturer in Politics and Human Rights at Kingston University, London, criticized the injustice of the powers that are pro-LLRC. “The debate should not be whether the cup is half full or half empty, which is the debate taking place between the two blocs at the UN. The problem is that what is in the cup is poison, it really does not matter so much if it is a bit fuller or not,” he said, noting that what drives the US is not humanitarianism but power politics. 



Criticising the support given by countries like Cuba and Venezuela to Sri Lanka, he said that “The socialist tradition is to support the right of nations to self-determination and to see national liberation as a progressive force. The right of nations to self determination applies to peoples and their right to form an independent state, not to states as such,” and appealed to socialist countries to support the Eezham Tamils. 
 Full story >>

Tamils divided over UN resolution

12 March, 2012

'Presenting the LLRC report to the parliament the Govt pledged that it will implement it'

The main Tamil political party in Sri Lanka says it supports the US-backed resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), but other Tamil parties have expressed serious dissatisfaction over “watered down” resolution.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said it supports the US-led resolution whilst the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) said it is disappointed about the watered down text.

"Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva presenting the LLRC report to the parliament pledged that the government will implement it," TNA parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran told BBC Sandeshaya.

The United States has submitted a resolution to the UN rights body in Geneva calling for Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of the presidential war panel, Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

'Treacherous agenda'

In a resolution titled “Promoting Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka,” the US has also called on UN High Commissioner of Human Rights to provide “advice and technical assistance” on implementing the LLRC recommendations.

	Mr Ponnambalam says US-backed resolution was based on 'fundamentally flawed' LLRC report

Meanwhile, addressing a public rally on Monday a senior leader of the Jathika Hela Urumara, Power and Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka accused the Western countries of trying to control countries in the Indian Ocean through the UNHRC session.

The minister also accused the TNA as a group working on a “treacherous agenda.”

However, Youth Affiars Minister Dullas Alahapperuma has earlier praised the TNA for its decision not to attend the Geneva session.

The TNA rejected the notion that supporting the US-backed resolution might be interpreted as being unpatriotic.

The TNPF, led by former MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has, meanwhile, rejected the UN resolution tabled by the US saying it was based on “fundamentally flawed” LLRC recommendations.

Addressing media in Jaffna, Mr Ponnambalam has said that the resolution envisages an accused in the violation of international humanitarian law to become the investigator of the crime adding that the UN resolution should have been based on the report of the expert panel appointed by UN Secretary General.

The UN expert panel said there are credible evidence that both the government forces and the LTTE committed war crimes.

Saying it welcomes the “positive recommendations” by the LLRC, the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), meanwhile, said the UNHRC session is a “great opportunity” to address the issues of accountability.

Sri Lanka goes all out against resolution in UNHRC

Firstpost

The Sri Lankan government held a series of protests on Monday against what it calls “international conspiracies against the government” even as it sent a monster 52-member delegation to Geneva for the 19th convention of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC).

Protests against the 'international conspiracies' against the Sri Lankan government on Monday. Reuters

At the core of this angst is a US-sponsored resolution that seeks to draw attention to Sri Lanka’s absence of accountability in the aftermath of the war against the LTTE.

The convention has inspired a whipping up of media frenzy and national outcry, with the government portraying the resolution as a Western ploy to interfere with the sovereignty of the country.

But Sri Lankan civil groups say that the resolution has just proved to be a handy means for the government to divert attention from growing discontent within the country.

Full Story>>>

Sri Lanka to censor news alerts about military, police

By Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO | Mon Mar 12, 2012 11:34am EDT

(Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Defense Ministry on Monday ordered news outlets to get prior approval before sending mobile phone alerts about the military or police, a move press freedom groups decried as another step towards greater censorship.

In a letter hand-delivered to news outlets including Reuters, Media Center for National Security (MCNS) Director-General Lakshman Hulugalle said the new order was effective immediately.

"I have been instructed to inform you that any news related to national security, security forces, and the police should get prior approval from the MCNS before dissemination," Hulugalle said in the letter, dated last Friday.

That was the same day local news outlets reported a murder-suicide that left three soldiers dead of gunshot wounds. It also came after reports of a police officer's arrest for soliciting a large bribe, and a botched abduction attempt blamed on soldiers.

The MCNS comes under the defense ministry, and handles the public affairs function for the military and police.

Contacted by Reuters, Hulugalle denied there were any restrictions on what could be reported.

"But we want to know what's going to be disseminated before it is being disseminated," he said.

The new directive is the latest control imposed on news and information websites. The government is increasingly intolerant of criticism, and Sri Lanka has in recent years headed further down lists measuring international press freedom rankings.

"This is the first step in going for wider censorship," said Sunil Jayasekara, the head of Sri Lanka's Free Media Movement.

In November, the government required news websites to register with the Media Ministry, a month after it blocked some sites critical of the government.

The Indian Ocean island nation's government first blocked some websites linked to the Tamil Tiger separatists during the final phase of a 25-year civil war, arguing the ban was acceptable in a time of war, but the bans have grown since the end of the war in 2009.Full Story>>>

Sri Lanka threatens to join anti-America allies

2012-03-12 

COLOMBO, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka threatens to join international allies against the United States if it tries to force the country to extremes, a minister said on Monday.

Minister of Power and Energy Patali Champika Ranawaka said Sri Lanka would have to join the enemies of the United States if it continues to pressurize the country.

"There are friends as well as enemies of the United States. We are ready to join the anti-U.S. allies if it is for forcing us to extremes," Ranawaka said.

The minister said whatever economic sanctions imposed, the country would not give up the pride of the people and the army which won the three decades long war.

Ranawaka made the remarks referring to the ongoing 19th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva where a U.S. backed draft resolution is presented against Sri Lanka.

In the resolution, the United States has demanded Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of its war commission report and take measures to initiate a credible and independent investigation into its findings.

Sri Lanka's delegation including a number of ministers and senior administrative officials were in Geneva lobbying the international community on the country's position on the resolution.

Sri Lanka's potential oil reserves spark global interest

12 March 2012

The Mannar Basin is believed to hold vast reserves of oil that many companies are keen tap into

By Charles Haviland

As hopes grow in Sri Lanka that viable reserves of oil are about to be discovered in its seawaters, commentators are speculating about the intentions of India, China and Russia in prospecting for it.

Recent Indian media reports suggested that India does not want countries other than itself and Sri Lanka to get involved in oil exploration in the Palk Strait between the two countries. But these have not been confirmed.

Meanwhile the Sri Lankan government says it is "confident" that traces of petroleum in its waters will have commercial value.

And it wants a variety of companies and countries to prospect for it.

Full Story>>>

Boy, 12, was 'executed by Sri Lankan government soldiers during civil war by Tamil Tigers'

11 March 2012
Fresh claims of atrocities to be aired in TV documentary
By CLAUDIA JOSEPH

A 12-year-old boy lies on the ground, stripped to his waist and with five bullet holes in his chest. 

His name is Balachandran Prabakaran and he is the son of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the secessionist rebels of the Tamil Tigers, the LTTE. 

The shocking footage of the executed boy is contained in a new documentary, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished, which will be screened this week. 

A year after screening Jon Snow’s award-winning documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields about the dying days of the civil war – Channel 4 have returned to the island to uncover more evidence of alleged abuse.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

Derrick Pounder points out one of the five bullet wounds in the body of 12-year-old Balakandran Prabakharan

Derrick Pounder points out one of the five bullet wounds in the body of 12-year-old Balakandran Prabakharan

In the documentary, Mr Snow examines four instances of alleged war crimes using contemporaneous documents, eye witness accounts, photographic stills and trophy footage to determine how events unfolded in the final days of the war and investigate who was responsible for the carnage.

One of the most horrific scenes shows the bullet-riddled body of 12-year-old Balachandran Prabhakaran, son of the Tiger leader Velupillai.

Professor Derrick Pounder, a forensic pathologist at Dundee University, confirmed the boy was shot five times rather than killed in combat duty.

He said: ‘There is a speckling from propellant tattooing, indicating that the distance of the muzzle of the weapon to this boy’s chest was two to three feet or less.

'So he could have reached out with his hand and touched the gun that killed him. After receiving this wound he would have fallen backwards and it’s then that he is likely to have received these two wounds.

'It’s likely that the shooter was standing over him while he was lying flat on the ground after the first shot. So this is a murder. There’s no doubt about it.’

The programme has also obtained unofficial footage, which suggests that his father Velupillai sustained a massive head wound – when his body was shown on television his head was covered by a rag. Separate stills see him first in uniform, then stripped naked and finally smeared in mud.

Again Professor Pounder believes he was executed. ‘This would be very typical of a high velocity gun shot wound to the head,’ he said. 

‘A single gun shot wound to the head is a little unusual in terms of an armed conflict - it would suggest it is a targeted shot at a subject who wasn’t moving.’

Scenes of destruction at the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka

More images of the aftermath captured by Channel 4 film Sri Lanka's Killing Fields

The programme comes in the wake of this week’s United States resolution to the UN Human Rights Council censuring Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa and his brother, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaska, for ‘not adequately addressing serious allegations of violations of international law during the war in Sri Lanka'.

‘This forensic investigation reveals damning new evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Sri Lankan government forces,’ said Mr Snow.  

‘But it also points directly to those who may bear culpability and command responsibility for this savagery - from the military leaders who led the bloody assaults that killed civilians - to the President and his brother, the Defence Secretary, who have yet to be properly investigated and held to account. 


‘It is our duty as journalists to report this evidence; it is up to the UN and the international community to initiate effective investigations and deliver justice for the thousands who lost their lives.

'At a time when we are seeing similar carnage in Syria - this is vital work.’

The death of Prabhakaran was confirmed after his body was shown on TV

According to programme makers, footage which shows the binding of hands, removal of clothing and shots to the back of the head, suggest a systematic policy of executing captured Tamils, which went to the highest echelons of the Government.Amnesty International Asia Programme Director Sam Zarifi said: ‘President Rajapaksa was the highest military official in the country.

'He was the Commander in Chief and that is how he portrayed himself. Defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa also proudly proclaimed how involved he was in the military strategy.  

TV presenter and journalist Jon Snow

'There is absolutely every reason to question those two as to specific incidents. There’s every reason to establish exactly what the chain of command was for events in the final stages - the few weeks of the war which were very bloody and predictably bloody.’

Mr Snow also uncovered a confidential internal UN report, which reveals that officials were convinced the government was deliberately shelling civilians and hospital patients in the ‘No Fire Zone.

An internal cable from the US Embassy in Colombo indicated the government had deliberately underestimated the numbers in the zone in order to starve hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians. 

Satellite imagery analysed by the UN also indicates that civilians were deliberately targeted.

Last night the High Commission in Sri Lanka told Channel 4 they ‘categorically rejected the malicious allegations’ made by the programme. 

It accused Channel 4 of a ‘continuing hostile and biased editorial position’ with regard to its reporting on Sri Lanka, focussing attention on ‘a number of highly spurious and uncorroborated allegations’ and seeking, ‘entirely falsely’, to implicate members of the Sri Lanka government and senior military figures. 

The channel was also accused of ‘choosing to ignore the many positive post-conflict developments now taking place in the country’. The High Commission said their approach would ‘harm the ongoing and comprehensive reconciliation process’.

Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished is screened on Channel 4 at 10.55pm on Wednesday. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113459/Sri-Lankan-government-executed-civilians-war-Tamil-Tigers.html#ixzz1ouVb6Dj4