PANORAMA:BRITAIN IN THE DOCK. Transmitted on Monday 27th September 2010.
OUTSIDER E-VISION. Meet us at the Frankfurt Book Fair from the 6th to the 10th October.
Hall 8 Stand P908
BBC Panorama “On who’s Orders” Read more about the programme here
New inquiry into British army abuse in Iraq vindicates Panorama here
MoD must open up on deaths in custody. Read the Guardian article here
“America’s New Frontline”. Read more about the programmes here
Read the guardian review of “The Loss of the Marchioness” here
Read Uganda article from the Observer by Callum Macrae here
“Gypsy Child Brides” read the BBC article here
“Our bodies, Our business” read the guardian review here
“Iraq’s Missing billions” read guardian article here
Captured on mobile phones, both by Tamils under attack and government soldiers as
war trophies, the disturbing footage shows: the extra-judicial executions of prisoners;
the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian camps and dead female Tamil fighters
who appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused and murdered.
The film airs as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon faces growing criticism for refusing
to launch an investigation into, "credible allegations," that Sri Lankan forces committed
war crimes during the closing weeks of the bloody conflict with the Tamil Tigers.
Last month, Ban Ki-moon published a report by a UN-appointed panel of experts which
concluded that as many as forty thousand people were killed in the final weeks of
the decades-long war between the Tamil Tigers and government forces. It called for
the creation of an international mechanism to investigate alleged violations of international
humanitarian law and international human rights law committed by government forces
and the Tamil Tigers during that time.
This film provides powerful evidence which will lends new urgency to the panel's
call for an international inquiry to be mounted - including harrowing interviews
with eye-witnesses, new photographic stills, official Sri Lankan army video footage
and satellite imagery. Also examined in the film are some of the horrific atrocities
carried out by the Tamil Tigers who used civilians as human shields. The film includes
footage of the aftermath of a suicide bombing in government centre for the displaced.
Experts on human rights law are interviewed in the film including former UN spokesperson
in Sri Lanka Gordon Weiss, Amnesty International's International Advocacy Director
Steve Crawshaw and international Human Rights Professor William Schabas. They say
they believe this evidence represents a compelling case for war crimes investigation
and prosecution.
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields includes full-length videos of naked and bound Tiger prisoners
kneeling whilst they are shot in the back of their heads by men in army uniforms.
When extracts of some of these videos were first shown on Channel 4 News the Sri
Lankan government denounced them as fake - and have refused to accept they are real
- despite being authenticated by UN specialists. In new footage, a Tiger prisoner
is shown tied to a coconut tree. The same prisoner is captured in a series of photos
- at first alive, threatened with a knife and then dead and covered with blood.
Further videos show evidence of systemic murder, abuse and sexual violence - women's
bodies stripped of their clothes being dumped into trucks by soldiers. The film includes
an interview with a woman who, with a group of civilians, handed herself and daughter
over to government forces. She claims they were both raped; she witnessed others
being raped, she heard screaming and shots and never saw them again.
The film reveals how the Sri Lankan government sought a war without witness, pressurising
UN representatives to leave before it launched its major offensive designed to crush
the Tigers and their fight for an independent state.
But in this film, people who bore witness to the terrible events tell their stories.
A British Sri Lankan woman visiting relatives found herself caught up with hundreds
of thousands of displaced people seeking shelter in a government-designated ‘no fire'
zone. She helped assist in makeshift hospitals which should have been off limits
from military attack. She believes it was deliberately shelled and she detailed how
the attacks were relentless - each time the hospital was moved to a new position
they came under fire from heavy artillery. Her claims are vindicated by the UN report.
She describes the death and terror wreaked by these attacks and the rudimentary conditions
in the encampments. She describes helping a doctor amputate a six-year -old boy's
leg with no anaesthetic in a bid to save his life.
Videos shot from inside the ‘no fire' zones show the raids, the horrific devastation
of the shelling and are testament to the starvation and horrific conditions endured
in the civilian camps during that time. Whilst other interviewees describe attacks
on civilian convoys - one man describes watching his 14-year-old son die after his
lorry was hit.
