Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields.
A Considered Perspective
Hosted by: AIIA NSW
The event will start on: Tuesday, 19 July 2011 6:00 PM
And will end on: Tuesday, 19 July 2011 7:45 PM
At The Glover Cottages, Sydney
Posted by: nsw
ABC’s 4 Corners programme has recently screened the acclaimed documentary, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields from Channel 4 in Britain.
The program forensically investigates allegations that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed as Sri Lankan Government forces moved in to destroy the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers). The program provides evidence that while the 'Tigers' used civilians as human shields, the Government forces repeatedly shelled civilians who had been offered sanctuary in "no fire zones". The Government of Sri Lanka denies this, questioning the numbers killed and the authenticity of the visual evidence.
The program contains disturbing descriptions and footage of executions, atrocities and the shelling of civilians. It includes devastating new video evidence of war crimes. Some of this material was shot on video cameras; other scenes are taken from mobile phones used by Sri Lankan soldiers as trophy vision. Put together it creates one of the most confronting stories of war and conflict ever seen on Australian television.
The film goes to air as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon faces growing criticism for refusing to launch a full independent investigation into "credible allegations" of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In June 2010, the UN chief asked a panel of experts to advise him on the evidence available relating to the conduct by both sides in the closing months of the war. In a report published in April this year, the panel of experts concluded that there was credible evidence that up to 40,000 people were killed in the final months of the civil war between the Tamil Tigers and Government forces.
The report called for the creation of an international mechanism to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian and international human rights laws committed by Sri Lankan Government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
This film provides powerful evidence that will lend new urgency to the panel's call for an international inquiry, including harrowing interviews with eye-witnesses, new photographic stills, official Sri Lankan Army video footage, and satellite imagery.
While the program clearly shows the brutality of Government forces, the film's producers also detail the horrific atrocities carried out by the Tamil Tigers, who used civilians as human shields. In one case, a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber detonates an explosive charge while standing in the middle of a "safe haven" area for other Tamils.
As one international legal expert explains, the behaviour of the 'Tigers' cannot be ignored:
"Crimes by one side do not begin to give a kind of carte blanche to the other side to break the rules as well."
However, in the end "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" presents a damning account of the actions of Sri Lankan Government forces, in a war that the Government still insists was conducted with a policy of "Zero Civilian Casualties".
To discuss these latest revelations and the programme we will be joined by Gordon Weiss, who features in the programme. He is a former UN spokesperson in Colombo during the last months of fighting in early 2009, Niromi de Soyza a former Tamil Tiger guerrilla, Dr Monomohan a cardiologist who has worked in Sri Lanka and Shanaka Jayasekara from the Centere for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism at Macquarie University.
Gordon Weiss, a veteran journalist and United Nations official for two decades, was firmly entrenched in the conflict as spokesperson for the UN in Colombo. He has recently published The Cage, which unravels the compelling the history which lead up to Sri Lankan civil war in 2009. The Cage offers a rare glimpse into the reality behind the daily headlines: the inner workings of media manipulation, and the plight of international aid workers struggling to provide humanitarian assistance to those caught in the crossfire of a deadly civil conflict: http://www.gordonweissauthor.com
Niromi de Soyza has just published a book Tamil Tigress about her story as a child soldier in Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war. In 1987, 17-year old Niromi de Soyza shocked her middle-class Sri Lankan family by joining the Tamil Tigers. Equipped with a rifle and cyanide capsule she was one of the rebels' first female soldiers. Now married and living in suburban Sydney, Tamil Tigress is her story of her time as a guerrilla: http://bit.ly/mT6V4D
Dr Vairamuttu Monomohan is Sydney-based Consultant Cardiologist. He is the founding Chairman of the Australian Medical Aid Foundation and also chairs the Australian Tamil Electoral Lobby. He previously was a lecturer in medicine in Sri Lanka and was the consultant cardiologist to His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei. During the peace accords in Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2006, both he and his wife provided medical aid to civilians, conducted cardiology clinics, taught and trained doctors in Echocardiography.
Shanak Jayasekara is a Lecturer at The Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism at Macquarie University.
Shanaka served as an Advisor to the Sri Lanka government delegation conducting peace negotiations with an armed group from 2002-2006. He has gained firsthand experience in negotiating with an armed group and researched the behavioural patterns, group dynamics and international networks that contribute and support the group. Shanaka has written on terrorist fundraising, weapons procurement and support networks. Prior to that, he worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in relief and rehabilitation projects.Shanaka Jayasekara holds a M.Litt in International Security Studies from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, and a B.Com with a double major in International Relations and Politics/Public Policy from Griffith University in Brisbane. He received the British Chevening Scholarship awarded by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 2004-05.Sri Lanka’s Killing Field’s can be seen online at the Channel 4 website: http://bit.ly/j4sIzC or it can be seen on ABC iView.
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