Shocking Video Footage from Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan government is facing renewed calls for an investigation into human rights abuses after a graphic video was released showing extra-judicial killings.
Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, which obtained the material, said this video was filmed in January – when the international media were prevented by the Sri Lankan government from covering the conflict zone.
The video shows a uniformed soldier shooting a naked man in the head. Eight dead bodies can be seen in the video as well.
Although Amnesty International is not able to verify the footage on this video, it raises important questions about violations committed during the recent conflict.
And the reaction to the video underscores the precarious situation in Sri Lanka, where tensions remain high. In response to the video, the International Secretariat of Amnesty International repeated its call for “an international, independent and credible investigation into what took place during the final days of the conflict.”
The Sri Lankan governmnet has decried the video as “absolutely false”, suggesting that those who put forth the video of supporters of the LTTE.
What remains to be seen is if the video is used–by all parties–to further divisions or to create an important discussion about the violations during the recent conflict.
WARNING: The footage is very graphic.
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Tags: human rights, LTTE, Sri Lanka, sri lanka video, tamil tigers, video
August 28th, 2009 at 8:04 am
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August 28th, 2009 at 9:25 am
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August 28th, 2009 at 10:01 am
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August 31st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/56BD66A1DDB017AEC1257623002A48A7?opendocument
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September 1st, 2009 at 2:49 pm
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01488204.htm
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September 8th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
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September 11th, 2009 at 2:09 am
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September 11th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
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September 18th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Really shcoking. man this gov is worse then sudan I guess. I was thinking that it was a terrorism issue all along. Now I realise…, hope our governments realise it and take quick actions against these barbaric govrnments.
i came across another video too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zajlIT3oqPk
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September 25th, 2009 at 7:54 am
The AIADMK(India) threatened to launch a mass agitation along with like-minded parties if the Union ( Indian) government failed to press the international community to force the Sri Lankan government to put an end to the (Human) rights violations against Tamils on its land.
In a statement here, party general secretary J Jayalalithaa said that the AIADMK and people of Tamil Nadu expect the Centre to raise its voice against the human rights violations in the refugee camps in Sri Lanka.
If the Centre does not act immediately, “the AIADMK, along with like-minded political parties, will be forced to launch a mass agitation to focus world vision on the brutal civil liberties violations in Sri Lanka.”
The former chief minister said “The gruesome footage, reportedly filmed by a soldier on a mobile phone camera, reinforces my earlier claim that civil liberties are non-existent in Sri Lanka and that the Tamil population there is subject to barbaric atrocities at the hands of the Sri Lankan Army.”
“Sri Lanka claims to be a democratic country, where the rule of law prevails. No democracy sanctions this sort of summary mass execution, where human dignity is wantonly trampled upon,” she added.
“Even assuming that the persons being shot dead in the footage telecast were LTTE activists, executing them summarily without a trial is barbaric, inhuman and contrary to civilized norms. It also violates international law relating to treatment of prisoners of war.”
Slamming the DMK government, she said “As such, the AIADMK does not expect the DMK government to even make a whimper of protest against the atrocities being perpetrated upon the Tamil people.”
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Jaya+threatens+massive+agitation&artid=ux2vdQtiHc4=&SectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&MainSectionID=wIcBMLGbUJI=&SectionName=EL7znOtxBM3qzgMyXZKtxw==&SEO=AIADMK+general+secretary+J+Jayalalithaa
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October 9th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Comments for this post have been turned off. Please see our most recent entries on this issue: http://blog.amnestyusa.org/tag/sri-lanka/
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October 27th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
[...] and Ms. Mushataq is the news editor. The threats relate to coverage by the paper of a video which allegedly showed Sri Lankan soldiers executing Tamil [...]
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