Responding to Sri Lanka’s foreign minister acknowledging the authenticity of Channel 4 footage used in the No Fire Zone documentaries, the documentary director Callum Macrae, suggested that Sri Lanka state televisions to “broadcast the documentary as soon as possible” to aid the reconciliation process.
Callum Macrae announced the re-release of the Sinhalese version of the No Fire Zone documentary stating,
“I very much welcome Mangala Samaraweera’s acknowledgement of the authenticity of the Channel 4 footage - and I hope that it will encourage people to watch the Sinhalese version of No Fire Zone, which once again we are making available free on our website, NoFireZone.org. But more than that I hope it will now be shown on Sri Lankan television and I call on Sri Lankan TV stations to broadcast it as soon as possible. The fact is that the truth can only help reconciliation. Only the guilty fear it."
Adding that it was in the interests of all communities in Sri Lanka for state impunity to be addressed, Mr Macrae, said,
"It should also not be forgotten that the first footage - the chilling mobile phone footage of the execution of naked bound prisoners - originally came from Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, an organisation consisting of mostly exiled journalists, both Sinhala and Tamil. Since then the evidence has grown - and every denial by the government (sadly including some members of the current government) has subsequently been exposed by yet further evidence. But many are increasingly accepting that the truth must now be confronted if peace, justice and political solutions are to be found. The fact is that all communities in Sri Lanka have experienced the terrible consequences of state impunity - and it is in the interests of all the communities of Sri Lanka that state impunity is now confronted. I hope that our film, No Fire Zone, can play a part in that process”
Mangala Samaraweera acknowledged the authenticity of the No Fire Zone documentary evidence, in a recent open letter to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Mangala Samaraweera accepts legitimacy of No Fire Zone documentary evidence (18 May 2016)
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