Photos Allege Sri Lanka Massacre

by Al Jazeera, November 10, 2010

Photographs obtained by Al Jazeera appear to show massacre of Tamils during final stages of Sri Lanka's civil war.

Al Jazeera has obtained photographs that appear to show Sri Lankan army soldiers abusing Tamil civilians in the final days of the Sri Lankan civil war.

The pictures show various graphic scenes, with dead bodies blindfolded and hands bound, shot through the head and mounds of bodies on the back of a farmer's trailer.

It is claimed that the photos were taken in the closing months of the country’s long-running conflict that ended 18 months ago.

One of the photos shows a line of bodies, including what is believed to be the body of the son of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the rebel group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers, that was defeated in the civil war.

Another photo shows the naked body of a young woman and the body of a boy, perhaps in his early teens.

Authenticity unverified

It is not possible to verify the authenticity of the images that were obtained by Al Jazeera from Tamil contacts who said the photos were handed over by someone from the Sri Lankan military. It is unclear why it has taken so long from them to surface.

The photos come to light as Gamini Lakshman Peiris, the Sri Lankan minister of external affairs, is in London to deliver as speech at the International Institute of Strategic Studies. Ethnic Tamil groups have vowed to protest outside the venue.

The Sri Lankan government has always denied allegations of war crimes and promised to take action if it finds evidence of atrocities.

Rajiva Wijesinha, a Sri Lankan MP who is also a former secretary of the country's human rights ministry, told Al Jazeera that the country has launched an "independent" inquiry into the photos of the alleged massacre.

"We have always said that any allegation will be investigated. We believe that our inquiry going on is perfectly independent."

But Dr. Sam Pari, a spokeswoman for the Australian Tamil Congress, says there has to foreign pressure on the Sri Lankan government to allow an international independent investigation into the atrocity.

"The responsibility of pressuring Sri Lanka to allow an international independent investigation falls upon the international governments that currently deal with Sri Lanka in the form of trade, tourism etc," she told Al Jazeera in an interview.

"So if these governments start placing trade sanctions and travel bans on Sri Lanka, then Sri Lanka will be forced to allow an international investigation into war crimes."

In May, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan president, said that his government will not punish the Sri Lankan army for "defeating terrorism".

"[…] If the international community wants to punish Sri Lanka for defeating terrorism, I'm not for that," Rajapaksa said.

Sri Lanka has repeatedly rejected international calls for an independent inquiry into the war against the Tamil Tigers, in which the UN estimates at least 7,000 Tamil civilians were killed.

Other estimates suggest the figure could be as high as 20,000 and the inference is that many were killed by government shelling.

'Whitewash'

Sri Lanka has instead set up its own inquiry called the "Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission" (LLRC), which critics say is a whitewash.

Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have refused to participate in the inquiry, stating that it does not meet international standards for independent and impartial inquiries.

The human rights organisations say that the new photographic evidence warrants an independent investigation.

Some of the scenery in the photos is similar to that in video material leaked to the international media which seems to show the execution of Tamil Tiger fighters by Sri Lankan soldiers.

Again the Sri Lankan government denied the military carried out the executions, however, after detailed examination, professor Philip Alston, the UN’s former special rapporteur to Sri Lanka, said he believes the video is genuine.

Since the end of the war in May last year, no one from the military has been charged with any offence and no evidence has emerged from the government inquiries. Critics say the Sri Lankan government is writing its own history.

For more than 25 years, the Tamil Tigers waged a secessionist campaign in Sri Lanka that led to it being designated a terrorist organisation by 32 countries.

At one stage in the conflict 300,000 displaced Tamil civilians languished in makeshift camps.

According to the latest figures there are some 35,000 Tamils left on the island. Emergency powers are still in force; there is a heavy military presence in Tamil areas and more and more Tamils are leaving the country.