New video - more confusion

 

By Namini Wijedasa                           Sunday 10 July 2011

Diverse government positions on footage of an alleged summary battlefield execution have befuddled even devout followers of this continuing saga.
Officials had insisted for months that the video clip first aired in August 2009 by UK’s Channel 4 was ‘fake.’ But they now say they are in possession of the ‘original’ clip which might be a genuine depiction of the Tigers killing Sri Lanka Army soldiers.
The film purports to show the execution of nine prisoners (some of whom are already dead) by men in uniform. It first surfaced in 2009 when Channel 4 ran a story around it. The broadcaster said the video - reportedly shot by a soldier on a mobile phone and obtained from Journalists for Democracy - was validated by experts.
Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, also concluded that the extracts were genuine. His successor, Christof Heyns, recently echoed his opinion. Both were backed by independent experts. Full Story>>>
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The Indians play their shots

By Rajpal Abeynayake in New Delhi

India’s political compulsions with regard to Tamilnadu were made clear this week by the Secretary External Affairs Ministry Nirupama Rao, when she met Sri Lankan newspaper editors and senior journalists in New Delhi. She was incredibly frank about Tamilnadu pressure and India’s sensitivity to political compulsions in that state.
On the other hand, what was not said was easy to discern from the background that editors were privy to, not via Nirupama Rao but other sources. What she didn’t say for obvious reasons was the fact that the Indians cannot obviously say openly that they are supporting Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Commission for instance — in the eventuality — for the simple reason that the TN political leaders want Sri Lanka to be held to account for war crimes.
Saying that India will be behind Sri Lanka in any UN Human Rights Council resolution that targets Sri Lanka upsets TN sensitivities; however, appeasing Tamilnadu sentiment by making public any censure of Sri Lanka and her human rights record is also not viable, as that would endanger Indo Sri Lankan relations  which have most probably been better than during the tenure of any previous Sri Lankan regime. The studied policy therefore is to keep a silence on the question - ‘is India backing Sri Lanka in the eventuality of a UN resolution against Sri Lanka?’  Full Story>>>