Sri Lankan state-produced documentary about the Sri Lankan Civil War
Lies Agreed Upon is a documentary produced by Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence in response to a documentary aired by Channel 4, named "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields", about the final weeks of the Sri Lankan Civil War. The documentary gives the Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence response to war crimes accusations and rebuts points made by the producers of the Channel 4 documentary, who presented it as "a forensic investigation into the final weeks of the quarter-century-long civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the secessionist rebels, the Tamil Tigers." "Lies Agreed Upon" was first aired at an official function held at Hilton Colombo on 1 August 2011, one and half months after the broadcasting of "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields". Ministry of Defence released another report named "Humanitarian Operation – Factual Analysis : July 2006 – May 2009" on the same day.
The documentary shows a number of interviews given by ex-LTTE cadres, ex-IDPs, residents of Vanni area, government doctors who worked inside the LTTE held territory during the period etc. It also includes criticism of the eyewitnesses produced by the Channel 4 video and the alleged "trophy videos" by Sri Lankan soldiers. International Crisis Group reacted to the documentary stating, government’s challenge to Channel 4′s reporting is far from the successful refutation, and raises more questions than it answers. In November 2013 Channel 4 showed "No Fire Zone", a further documentary examining the last 138 days of the war which challenged the government narrative and which included further evidence of the Sri Lankan government's brutality. Though the government barred independent journalists from the "No Fire Zone"s during the endgame of the conflict, mobile phones, used by both victims and perpetrators, captured the story.
Background.
In June 2011, Channel 4 broadcast the documentary named "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields", produced and directed by Callum Macrae which made a number of allegations about the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War. It had a negative impact on the reputation of the Sri Lankan government and the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. The documentary Channel 4 claimed that the government was responsible for targeted shelling of civilians, extrajudicial executions of prisoners and rape, sexual assault and murder of female LTTE fighters. The presenter Jon Snow claimed that the government was responsible for the deaths of as many as 40,000 civilians towards the end of the war. He went so far as to claim that "[o]nce or twice in a reporting lifetime, a journalist is allowed by events to participate in a project that can affect history. The film...is a painful and complex team achievement...which...pieced together an account of what happened in the closing weeks of Sri Lanka’s civil war." The resulting backlash prompted the Sri Lankan government to produce its own documentary, highlighting the alleged inaccuracies and the facts that may have been potentially missed or concealed by the producers of the Channel 4 documentary.
Special screenings.
A special screening of the documentary "Lies Agreed Upon" was held at the United States Congress, at a gathering hosted by the Congressional Caucus on Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan Americans on 2 November 2011. The screening included a panel discussion of Sri Lanka's 26-year conflict. The event was attended by a representative gathering including congressional representatives, NGOs, human rights groups, congressional staff members, professionals and members of the Sri Lankan community.
The documentary "Lies Agreed Upon" was also screened at the Attlee Suite, Portcullis House of the British parliament on 12 October 2011. The event was organized by the Sri Lanka High Commission in London. It was followed by a dialogue with Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, and Sir Peter Heap, Chairman, Friends of Sri Lanka group in the European Parliament. The audience consisted of British parliamentarians, representatives from academia, some media representatives including from Channel 4, and a cross-section of the Sri Lankan Diaspora.
Another screening was held at the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium of United Nations Headquarters, at the invitation of the president of the United Nations Correspondents Association, on 6 September 2011.
The documentary "Lies Agreed Upon" was screened at the Parliament of New Zealand (Beehive) on 28 September 2011. The session was organized by the United Sri Lanka Association in New Zealand.
It was also screened at a side event titled "Sri Lanka - Humanitarian Operation: A Factual Analysis", organized on the margins of the 18th session of United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva by the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva. The President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed speaking at the event urged the international community to support the reconciliation process being implemented in Sri Lanka. A cross section of member countries of the Human Rights Council, INGOs and civil society organizations participated in this event.
Content.
Rebuttal of "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields".
The documentary offered counter arguments for a number of allegations made by the Channel 4 documentary.
Introduction.
The documentary "Lies Agreed Upon" claimed that the title used by Channel 4, "Killing Fields", was specifically drawn up to evoke memories of the Khmer Rouge regime, which controlled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. In addition, Channel 4 did not claim ownership of any of the footage, facts, figures, faces or names that it broadcast. According to "Lies Agreed Upon" the presenter of the "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" constantly referred to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the defeated party of the Sri Lankan Civil War, as "army", whereas it did not have any legitimate authority over the territory it controlled and was proscribed as a terrorist organization by 32 countries.
United Nations office demonstration.
At the very beginning of the Channel 4 documentary, it was shown that a footage of a protest in front of the United Nations office in Kilinochchi. The presenter claimed "News that the UN international staff leaving, spread quickly, and crowds of frightened Tamil civilians besieged the UN base..". "Lies Agreed Upon" refuted the claim providing with interviews of Tamil civilians who actually took part in the demonstration. Those civilians described that the demonstration was not at all spontaneous, but was organized by the LTTE. One person claimed that Kalaiyvan, the LTTE leader of Kilinochchi, summoned the heads of all 16 trade associations in the district and instructed them to stage the protest at the 150th milestone at Arasankatty, where the UN office was located. Another person claimed that people had no say about such matters when the area was under LTTE control. "We must do as told. If they ask, we have to open, if they ask to close we must close. If we do not obey we will have to stop doing our business..".
The government documentary also alleged that the Channel 4 documentary tried to imply, the residents of Vanni were left with no refuge by the abandoning of the UN office. Benjamin Dix, a British UN worker, quite emotionally stated that "It was their greatest hour of need. They had an army sitting on the doorstep...and we drove out. That was ...a real sense of abandonment of these people". But according to the government version of the sequence of events, UN staff of about 200 and their families continued to serve in the area until the end. "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" also failed to mention that the Tamil UN staffers and their families had been held hostage by the LTTE. As the battle came closer to the end, 9 UN staffers were forcibly recruited by the LTTE for their auxiliary forces, the government documentary added.
Casualty figures.
According to the Channel 4 documentary, "..the deaths of as many as 40,000 people..possibly far more.." could have occurred by the end of the war. Refuting this claim, "Lies Agreed Upon" stated that Gordon Weiss, the former UN spokesman based on Colombo, who commented on high casualty rates, was asked to leave by the Government of Sri Lanka on 12 May 2009. By this time, the UN had an official estimate of about 7,000 casualties during the final 4 months of war. One year after his resignation, Weiss came up with a figure of 10,000 to 40,000 casualties, at a time when he was involved in promoting his upcoming book, The Cage. But the UN, which treated Weiss as a junior official, specifically disassociated itself from the comment.
The documentary "Lies Agreed Upon" also claimed that all the reports of deaths during the final stages of the war had come from either the LTTE media, or the 4 government doctors who were held hostage by the LTTE.
Credibility of Vany Kumar.
"Lies Agreed Upon" also raised questions about the credibility of Vany Kumar, the central witness of the Channel 4 documentary. Jon Snow of Channel 4 introduced herself as "a young English Tamil woman, who had left London to spend 6 months with [her] relatives in Sri Lanka". She appeared on 10 separate occasions in the program, and was presented as an "independent witness" who had firsthand experience of the final days of war. But refuting the Channel 4 claims, the government documentary asserted that she had worked as a full-time and active member of an LTTE terrorist cell in London. Government investigations had revealed that Vany Kumar, who had gone by at least 4 different names including Dr. Tamilvani, Damilvany Kumar and Damilvany Gananakumar, arrived in Sri Lanka on 28 February 2008. She had worked as the woman coordinator of the UK Tamil Youth Organization (TYO), an LTTE front organization. Documentary "Lies Agreed Upon" claimed, citing one of her former colleagues, Navaratnam Prabhakaran "alias" Sendramalar, that after Kumar's arrival in Vanni, she underwent one month of weapons training and was enlisted under Sothiya regiment of LTTE. She had also possessed a dog tag with a cardre number issued by the Sothiya regiment, and a cyanide capsule. She had also worked for the Castro branch of the LTTE international wing. According to the government documentary, by April 2009, when the LTTE was rapidly losing ground to the Sri Lankan Army she joined the medical facility under Dr. Shanmugaraja, a government doctor worked inside LTTE held area, and served there until 15 May 2009.
Shells fallen on medical facilities.
Another key interviewee of the Channel 4 documentary, Gordon Weiss, who appeared on eight separate video clips of the program, alleged that there had been 65 instances of shelling on hospitals and makeshift medical facilities. According to the documentary "Lies Agreed Upon", refuting these claims, Dr. Shanmugaraja said that he could only remember four instances of shelling; one on Vallipuram hospital, one on Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital, one on Mullivaikkal West makeshift hospital and one on Mullivaikkal East makeshift hospital. The doctor strongly denied and condemned Weiss's claim that he requested the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) not to provide GPS coordinates of the medical facilities to the Sri Lankan Army. Giving an interview to the "Lies Agreed Upon", Dr. Sivapalan, medical officer of Chavakacheri and former medical officer - Vanni, claimed that LTTE had its commanding centres from within 100 metres of Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital, in which 2 artillery shells had fallen in February 2009. He also asserted that LTTE used heavy artillery as close as possible to the hospitals.
Corpse of Isaipriya.
In one of the alleged "trophy videos" aired by Channel 4, the dead body of an LTTE female cadre named Isaipriya was shown. Narrator described her an LTTE non-combatant who sang songs glorifying suicide bombing. But refuting the Channel 4 assertion, the government documentary claimed that she was a high-profile LTTE cardre, tasked to handle the motivation of suicide Black Tigers. According to the government, disrobing dead LTTE militants was a part of the standard operating procedure adopted by Sri Lankan military, as well as many armies fighting terrorism, since it is necessary for searching hidden weapons, suicide jackets and documents. The documentary "Lies Agreed Upon" cited Death of Osama bin Laden as an instance for the use of this practice.
Corpse of Ramesh.
"Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" also showed the corpse of T. Thurairajasingham "alias" Col. Ramesh, a senior leader of LTTE, and the overall military commander of Eastern province, suggesting that he had been killed after being captured. The documentary "Lies Agreed Upon" contained a brief description of the massacres they accused him of giving leadership to, including the Kattankudy mosque massacre, which left 147 Muslim civilians who had knelt for prayer, killed on the spot, Habarana bus massacre which left 127