Writing in the Independent, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields Director Callum Macrae has revealed some of the new evidence of summary executions that they have uncovered whilst making their follow up documentary, “War Crimes Unpunished”.

Extracts have been reproduced below. See the full piece here.

For more information on the upcoming documentary “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished”, see here. It will be broadcast on Channel 4 this Wednesday the 14th of March at 10.55pm.

“A 12-year-old boy lies on the ground. He is stripped to the waist and has five neat bullet holes in his chest. His name is Balachandran Prabakaran and he is the son of the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. He has been executed in cold blood. Beside him lie the bodies of five men, believed to be his bodyguards. There are strips of cloth on the ground indicating that they were tied and blindfolded before they were shot – further evidence suggesting that the Sri Lankan government forces had a systematic policy of executing many surrendering or captured LTTE fighters and leading figures, even if they were children.”

“In one incident, legally significant because it is well documented, two international UN workers leading the last UN overland food convoy became trapped near a temporary hospital in a village primary school in Uddiyakattu, in the first of the government's No Fire Zones.”

“With the help of other civilians they began to dig bunkers to provide some protection from incoming shellfire. As was standard practice, one of the UN workers, an Australian called Peter Mackay, took precise GPS co-ordinates of the site, and these were supplied to the government. But if that had any effect, it was certainly not the desired one. Over the next couple of days the camp was subjected to a massive, sustained barrage of incoming shellfire, much of it falling directly on or near to the UN bunker. Dozens were killed – and many more horrifically injured. It was all photographed by the UN workers.”

“In a sense, it was just one relatively small incident in the ongoing carnage of the war, but it is potentially significant because it provides specific evidence linking the Sri Lankan government's chain of command to knowledge of targeted attacks on civilians – attacks that appear to constitute war crimes.”

States debated the draft resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday, during an informal session chaired by the US ambassador, Eileen Donahoe.

Rejecting the consultation as a "farce", Sri Lankan officials refused to engage in any dialogue on it.

“allegations of perhaps the most serious war crimes and crimes against humanity committed this century.”

“The England players management, and the journalists following the team will find it difficult to talk openly about these subjects in the country, let alone report them; the country has one of the worst records in the world for press freedom and does not tolerate criticism.”

“This morning they seemed perturbed again when questioned by Jonathan Miller about the allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka.”

Writing  in the Indian Express, Maja Daruwala, director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, has called on India to assert leadership at the UN Human Rights Council and call for accountability in Sri Lanka.

Extracts have been reproduced below. See the full piece here.

"The time has come for India to be bolder and more confident on human rights at the international level. Its growing stature in international affairs demands this leadership position. The current session of the UN Human Rights Council presents India with an excellent opportunity to move towards a foreign policy that truly befits the world’s largest democracy. It should seize the opportunity and vote in favour of accountability in Sri Lanka."

"Unfortunately, the proposed resolution does not go far enough. It will not immediately call for direly needed international investigations — a bitter disappointment. In this context, the proposed resolution must not preclude future UNHRC efforts that demand justice, accountability and international investigations in Sri Lanka. The resolution should be voted on only as a first step in the right direction, and not as a final step to water down scrutiny or as a tactic to delay urgently needed justice in Sri Lanka."

"From India’s point of view, the resolution is saying nothing that India has not ostensibly been asking of Sri Lanka both publicly and privately — real accountability and soon. A stable, well-governed neighbour is in India’s interest as a regional power. Stability requires that alienated populations experience justice for the past and in the future. Denials, diplomatic spin and cosmetic efforts that paper over past misdeeds cannot achieve this. Today, only a negative peace exists in Sri Lanka."

In a joint statement published Wednesday, four leading Tamil diaspora groups working together in Geneva at the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council - British Tamils Forum (BTF), Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), Tamil Youth Organisation UK (TYO UK) and US Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC) - welcomed the draft resolution tabled on Sri Lanka as a "glimpse of hope". 

Full text reproduced below: 

Tamils Welcome the Proposed US Resolution on Sri Lanka

Joint Statement by British Tamils Forum (BTF), Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), Tamil Youth Organisation UK (TYO UK) and US Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC)
March 7th, 2012 - Geneva, Switzerland

We welcome the proposed resolution by the Government of the United States of America at the 19th Session of the UN Human Rights Council towards holding all parties to the conflict accountable during the last phases of the war in Sri Lanka. The resolution offers a glimpse of hope for those affected by the conflict and sets in motion appropriate steps that could assist in long term peace and reconciliation in post-war Sri Lanka.

Three years after the end of the bloody civil war, Sri Lanka has failed to establish the necessary preconditions for reconciliation to occur. While the government appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) has been held out as the cornerstone of Sri Lanka’s accountability and reconciliation strategy, it falls short in addressing critical issues of accountability. Sri Lanka has been given the appropriate time and space to offer a path towards peace and reconciliation, but has failed to do so.

Whilst we have serious concerns regarding the independence of the LLRC and its failure to address the credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the implementation of the LLRC’s constructive recommendations, as detailed within the tabled resolution and in accordance with the specified timelines, would be a step in the right direction.

The Sri Lankan government organised a series of Buddhist religious poojas across the country on Wednesday, in order to ward off a prospective resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, Deputy Finance Minister, said,

Sri Lanka has rejected a draft resolution tabled at the UN Human Rights Council.

Tamara Kunanayakam, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, criticised the move by the US.

Ms Kunanayakam said that Sri Lanka is working hard to convince the Human Rights Council to vote against the resolution.

As Sri Lanka struggles to fend off a critical resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission, international pressure on Sri Lanka is coalescing on three key demands.

International actors are demanding that Sri Lanka implements reforms to usher in good governance, credibly investigates and prosecutes those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity and finally meets Tamil demands for meaningful self government.

While the substance of these demands is entirely reasonable and plausible, the presumption that Sri Lanka might somehow meet these expectations is not.

For if Sri Lanka really was capable of such enlightened behaviour then why has its post independence history been one of relentlessly escalating ethnic antagonism and brutality, culminating in the bloodbath of May 2009? What explains the ongoing militarised repression of the Tamil speaking regions?

The very need for such overt international insistence on measures that are patently necessary reveals precisely why all such pressure is futile.

One of the parties of Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition has called for the prosecution of the Bishop of Mannar, Rayappu Joseph, and 30 other members of the clergy who have signed a letter critical of the government.