Some comments on ‘Execution Video’

By Col R. Hariharan

(August 27, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) A highly disturbing video showing the mafia style execution of a naked man said to be a Tamil prisoner, with his hands tied behind his back, by a soldier was shown on Headlines Today TV today. Yesterday British audience saw it on Channel 4. The video footage claimed to have been shot with a mobile phone camera by a Sri Lankan soldier sometime in January 2009 was sent to the media by the Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, a group of Sinhala and Tamil journalists living in exile.

[The comments given below were made on specific issues raised by the Headlines Today TV and as mentioned in the TV broadcast do not minimise the gravity of the accusation made in the video.]

Genuineness of the video

The Sri Lanka authorities were quick to dismiss the video as a doctored one “to defame the Sri Lankan government and armed forces.” Sri Lankan argument cannot be dismissed off hand as the LTTE has mastered the psychological warfare techniques. And Sri Lanka had made a special effort during the course of the three-year old Eelam War IV to counter the LTTE propaganda with its own psychological warfare ploys. Doctored videos have figured in the past as part of the warfare.

Regardless of public perception, the Sri Lanka government has to make an effort to establish it as a fake one because the video has planted a seed of doubt in public mind. To this extent the purpose of those who produced the video and disseminated it to the media has probably been achieved. .

Under the circumstances, the genuineness of the video will probably be never known unless it undergoes a forensic examination. This has to be done by a neutral agency as the Sri Lanka authorities have already dismissed it as a fake. And in the current environment in Sri Lanka, the government is unlikely to entrust the task of authentication to a neutral agency

Is such action possible?

There had been a number of complaints of human rights violations in the past in Sri Lanka in which perpetrators of killings and abductions have not been identified or brought to book. As a result among sections of public doubts continue to linger about the sincerity of authorities in investigating and prosecuting such cases. Commissions of inquiry appointed to inquire into them have not enjoyed the freedom or autonomy to do their jobs satisfactorily. Their conduct had not been transparent or above board. Witnesses have been intimidated, and the media freedom to probe such incidents has been curtailed due to fear of retaliation.

This is not related merely to the Eelam War or the Tamil issue but to the larger attitude of the authorities to the rule of law. Some of the ministers have been a law unto themselves and their conduct in a few instances has lowered the dignity of their office. This has been a cause of concern to President Mahinda Rajapaksa also. Increasing instances of police lawlessness has been repeatedly figuring in news reports during this month. Unless there is a genuine effort to clean up of the way the government and administration conducts itself both in private and public, peoples the confidence in the rulers is likely to deteriorate.

And Sri Lanka is not the only nation where such human rights violations, including custodial killings, have been reported. Indian and Pakistani media have been splashing the news of similar instances in their countries. However in Sri Lanka the damage done by such reports is much more as the nation is already facing a problem in reconciling the fractured trust between Sinhala and Tamil communities. So any report that affects the process of reconciliation has to be attended to. Unfortunately this is not happening. And the tragedy is that the feeling insecurity among Tamils is not helped by videos depicting cold blooded killing of unarmed men by soldiers.

On international perceptions

Sri Lanka’s poor human rights record has repeatedly figured in UN forums including the UN Security Council. Whether the video is genuine or not, it adds yet another foil to the human rights activists to take it up in international forums. We can expect this to happen in the coming months. How much it will improve the human rights in Sri Lanka is a question that can be answered by its government only.

(Col. R Hariharan, a retired Military Intelligence specialist on South Asia, served as the head of intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka 1987-90.He is associated with the South Asia Analysis Group and the Chennai Centre for China Studies. Blog: www.colhariharan.org E-mail: colhari@yahoo.com )

-Sri Lanka Guardian