Stewart

Watters

The Diplomat speaks with Callum Macrae, director of ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields,’ about his documentary film and the controversy surrounding it.





• EU Pushing Sri Lanka Toward China

• Revisiting the Killing Fields

• Sri Lanka – The New Great Game

• Reflections on the Tigers

• The Road to Normalcy

In May, the UN Panel of Experts set up to investigate allegations of war crimes during the final weeks of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009 reported ‘credible allegations, which if proven, indicate that a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international rights law was committed both by the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE.’

Last month, British TV station Channel 4, aired the documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’, which included graphic footage of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. The British Foreign Office Minister expressed shock at the film’s content, but the Sri Lankan High Commission in London stated that the film was ‘driven by a political agenda against Sri Lanka.’ The Diplomat’s Stewart Watters speaks with the documentary’s director, Callum Macrae, to hear his take on the controversy.

What was your personal motivation to direct this film? Why Sri Lanka, and why now?

Channel 4 has been reporting on this throughout the past two years and the documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields represents the culmination of all that. Although the release comes not long after the Panel of Experts’ report was published, that was a coincidence and we were clearly researching at the same time. However, I think it’s significant that we both reached virtually identical conclusions.

Interestingly enough this does tie directly into one of the complaints that have been made against the film. It’s been portrayed in Sri Lanka as a kind of strange Western agenda against this developing country. The reality is that I’ve made quite a few films which relate to extrajudicial executions and torture and in fact the last two major films I made dealt with allegations against British troops in Iraq. So the idea that this film is pursuing a Western agenda is wrong. My job is to investigate the facts and get to the truth of what happened and tell the story, whether or not those crimes were committed by the Sri Lankan government, the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) or the United Kingdom.

Mobile phone footage by soldiers, LTTE guerrillas and civilians forms a critical element of the film. What is the significance of this ability to visually document the final chaotic days of a conflict?

Well the irony of this war is that the Sri Lankan government went to such efforts to ensure no-one from outside witnessed or was able to report on the final part of the conflict. The United Nations and international observers were left with little option but to get out when the Sri Lankan government claimed they could no longer guarantee their safety.

International media was forbidden entry, and in Sri Lanka itself the domestic media was brutally suppressed. Sri Lanka is, by some measures, the fourth most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist and it’s certainly true that anti-government critics have found themselves expelled, forced into exile or murdered by forces unknown. So I believe the hope was that this war could be fought in secret and it has effectively taken two years for this information to come out.

Photo Credit: Trokilinochchi

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LTTE, Sri Lanka, Tamils, United Nations

COMMENTS

24 LEAVE A COMMENT

1. John Vargees

   July 11, 2011 at 11:21 pm

   /when and who gave UK that power to say something about SL?/
   When sl massacred the innocent people with the arms sold by UK during the so called peace-talk time, I think UK not only has the power, but it itself also be prone for the investigation from the international community to be investigated for ethics

   Reply

2. Muthamizh

   July 11, 2011 at 11:19 pm

   Japan Should stop their help to Genocide Srilankan Government.

   Reply

3. eureka

   July 11, 2011 at 10:40 pm

   Who should/can speak for the oppressed around the world:

   http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/08/outline_of_submission_made_to.html
   Jayantha Dhanapala’s written submission to Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation
   Commission(LLRC), 30 August 2010: ‘’Each and every Government which held office from 1948 till the present bear culpability for the failure to achieve good governance, national unity and a framework of peace, stability and economic development in which all ethnic, religious and other groups could live in security and equality.
   http://www.llrc.lk/images/stories/docs/August2010/LLRC-JD-Transcript.pdf
   Oral submission, Jayantha Dhanapala to LLRC: Our inability to manage our own internal affairs has led to foreign intervention but more seriously has led to the taking of arms by a desperate group of our citizens.’’
   (Dhanapala was formerly UN Under-Secretary General for Disarmament and a candidate for UNSG in 2006)

   Reply

4. aj

   July 11, 2011 at 10:20 pm

   Thanks Mac for TRUE !!

   Reply

5. Birchmount

   July 11, 2011 at 10:16 pm

   An insightful interview with Mr. Macrae who has extensive experience covering rogue states.

   The denial and intimidation are the main tools for any rogue state, the Sri Lankans have mastered the skill of hoodwinking the global community with thier successful unwitnessed war. Sri Lanka also sets precedent to Myanmar for its leadership to come out with similar statements on the ethnic minority uprisals.

   In Sri Lanka, there is still 146,000 missing. There are no counts on deaths, widows, orphans or maimed. This is the history of violent past in the island.

   Barbara O’Brien, a spiritual Buddhist author wrote in her ‘Buddhist Nationalism in Sri Lanka’ about the damaging deceptions of Buddhist military kingdoms in Sri Lanka. She quotes ‘the history of Sri Lanka has made the Sinhalese “a demographic majority with a dangerous minority complex of persecution.”

   Reply

6. Ray

   July 11, 2011 at 9:34 pm

   A country like Srilanka has no moral values and ethical conduct. Therefore, human rights and media freedom has to be enforced upon Srilanka by others. UK is in a better position to make Srilanka return back to democracy.

   Reply

7. migara

   July 11, 2011 at 8:59 pm

   “UK has said that it will look to alternative international measures”, when and who gave UK that power to say something about SL? I think UK still live in past, face it UK, now u have no power,ur streets are now filed with rubbish n jobless people under heavy debt, u still think international community means u n usa,wake up

   Reply

   • aruna

     July 11, 2011 at 9:50 pm

     Killing field is real. there in no doubt. But after all this suffer those poor tamil people. They should get their demand of freedom. As a sinhalese person i feel shame. It has ruin the image of me as a srilankan. All the big bosses ( I mean the Ministers )earned big profit in this war and made the country in shit. They all got foreign investments and thir childrens all are in abroad with foregin life styles. Only They all up to making money profit. But Not thinking of country and future . Please take the president to the War Crime and save the country and all citizens.

     Reply

     • Cyber

       July 12, 2011 at 5:03 am

       To: Aruna, You’re an honest Sinhalese w/ righteous moral. I hope you don’t open your mouth back home. You may see the same fate as rest of the Sinhalese journalist and individuals whom tried to speak righteousness in that country.

       Reply

     • mandy

       July 12, 2011 at 6:54 am

       Hello, You are absolutely right.

       Reply

     • DEMALA HUTHTHA

       July 12, 2011 at 11:10 am

       Killing fields is absolutely fake. Where the hell was Channel 4 when LTTE terrorists killed over 1,000,000 innocent Sinhalese by blowing up suicide bombs daily in Colombo? It was LTTE TERRORIST GENOCIDE OF SINHALESE FOR THE PAST 60 YEARS! Killing LTTE terrorists is not a crime at all!

       Reply

   • Jason

     July 11, 2011 at 10:43 pm

     we have something called freedom of speech in UK.

     Reply

   • Mike

     July 12, 2011 at 1:44 am

     British when they left the island gave Sinhalese the power to rule the island in the first place.

     Anyway who gave Sinhalese the power to rule Tamils and tell them how to live their lives?

     Sinhalese and Army killed 100000 tamils,who expect the world to be silent??

     Reply

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