Major General Jagath Dias assigned to investigate into JDS organization

(September 24, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Diplomatic sources said the Defence Ministry has assigned Major General Jagath Dias to investigate into the organization called Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) that is said to have given the controversial video footage showing Army soldiers killing several Tamil civilians to Channel 4.

Major General Jagath Dias assumed duties as the deputy ambassador of the Sri Lankan embassy in Germany last week. The first duty assigned to him by Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapkase is to investigate into the people connected to the JDS organization and report back.

A story published in the Lakbima newspaper on the 23rd under the headline “Assistance from German Police sought to investigate into journalists who manufactured the Channel 4 video,” states the Defence Ministry has requested for help from the German Police to investigate into members of JDS, which is said to have given the video showing Army soldiers shooting at several Tamil civilians to Britain’s Channel 4.

The news report further states that Human Rights and Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe has said that the security units have already identified several journalists who have fled to Germany and are active members of the organization.

The Minister had also said that UN Human Rights Commission Head, Navai Pillai had admitted to him during a discussion that the video footage shown on Channel 4 and subsequently on BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera was a fake.

Samarasinghe had further said that while Channel 4 had not yet tendered an apology or expressed its regret over telecasting the fake video, Attorney General Mohan Peiris has left for London to discuss with several law firms the legal steps to be instituted against the media institution.

-Sri Lanka Guardian