Eyewitnesses interviewed during a week-long undercover investigation for Channel 4 News told of thousands of civilian deaths as government forces advanced on the Tigers’ final stronghold.
The deaths, they said, were the result of government shelling. The Sri Lankan president and senior government ministers have repeatedly denied causing a single civilian death in what the government had desginated a “no-fire zone.”
International aid agencies believe as many as 100,000 civilians may have been trapped inside, under a fierce bombardment.
“I think every day a thousand people were killed,” one of the very last to escape the tiny enclave told us. He was referring to the final two weeks of the conflict, during which the Sri Lankan government claimed not to have used heavy artillery.
“There were continuous shelling attacks,” said the eyewitness. We have verified his identity as a man in a position of authority, but we are unable to reveal it.
Members of Sri Lanka’s ethnic Sinhalese majority also expressed deep misgivings about the fate of the island’s Tamil minority now that the Tamil Tigers have been so decisively defeated. Despite severe restrictions on access to camps for displaced civilians, evidence is emerging of maltreatment, despite a promise made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his “victory speech” to Sri Lanka’s parliament.
Speaking in the Tamil language, the president promised equal rights for Tamils and took “personal responsibility” for protecting them.
“Our heroic forces,” he said, “have sacrificed their lives to protect Tamil civilians.” A senior Roman Catholic priest, who has worked with the displaced in the heavily militarised northern town of Vavuniya, said the triumphalism of Sinhalese was “very sad” to witness.
“There is no one to represent the aspirations of the Tamil community,” he said. “They have a very uncertain future. It means they will live as a subjugated community, like under a foreign ruler.”
One of the few senior members of the Tamil Tigers to have survived, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, its head of international relations, said yesterday that the rebels’ struggle for a separate Tamil homeland would now continue from exile.
“The legitimate campaign of the Tamils to realise their right to self-determination has been brutally crushed through military aggression,” said a statement, released from an unspecified location. Sri Lankans expressing concerns about the welfare and treatment of Tamil civilians – or questioning the army’s version of its final assault on the Tamil Tigers – are branded unpatriotic, even traitorous.
Dr Wickramabahu Karunarathne, a left-wing politician and one of the few dissident voices in the Sinhalese community said: “The state media, every day, radio, papers, they classify us as traitors and they are rousing people against us.”
Dr Karunaratne was the only interviewee prepared to talk openly on camera without having his face obscured and voice changed. One prominent Sinhalese journalist, Podala Jayantha, who had campaigned for greater media freedom, was abducted and severely beaten by unknown assailants, two weeks ago.
Amnesty International says that since 2006, 16 Sri Lankan journalists have been murdered, 26 assaulted, and many more detained. Foreign journalists have had their movements severely restricted and last month, our own accredited Asia Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh was deported.
Journalists and all independent observers were banned from the no-fire zone, during and after the fighting, so no independent assessments have been made of government claims not to have killed civilians. It has blamed any deaths on the rebels.
Journalists have also been unable to enter the hospital in Vavuniya, where thousands of wounded civilians are being treated. Channel 4 News successfully smuggled a small camera into Vavuniya and interviewed a Tamil doctor there.
“It is most sure that the numbers without limbs are over 20,000. Most of the injuries causing loss of limbs were from shelling,” he said. The doctor alleged that conditions in the camps for displaced people around Vavuniya, are poor and that malnutrition and disease are rife.
“We were all gathered together recently by the government and we were told that if we told the figures of the sick and why people are dying to the foreign NGOs that we will be killed for doing this.”
Commentsoldest first
Well said…
There is no one to care about the tamils who lost limbs and family members.
Is this the future of the tamils in Sri lanka?
This is Sri Lanka.
See the conflict in other parts of the world where civilians are relocated orderly. Ambulances and aid groups are kept ready to assist.
Sri Lankan agenda is different. You could still see the blackout and intimidation to peace envoys.
UN is mellow after their Colombo office was threatned with attacks.
Mr. Ban is requesting politely to ‘resettle, allow aid’ please think civilians’
God save tamils.
Over 20,000 civilians were allowed to die on ground in last 3 days.
When Times’ reported, the bodies were not even covered.
Colombo needs not to worry about allowing ICRC-they cannot testify war crimes.
Thank you very much Mr.Jonathan Miller and channel 4. Truth always prevails. Tamils lives in Srilanka is worser than animals. Once so called humanshield Tamils in Vanni is now in barbed wired concentration camps. They do not like to live there. They want to go to their house and die there. Srilankan government is systematically anihilate Tamils with international support especially India and China. Tamils are now voiceless. No country raises their voice to protect Tamils right. Tamils in foreign countries were shouting, crying and requesting the international communities to save Tamils from Srilankan armed forces 2 months before they were slaughtered by Srilankan armed forces. But noone hear them. If Srilankan forces did not mass murdered Tamils, why don’t they still allow media to see the war zone? Plase do not believe Srilankan government statements. They never ever says truth. Bring the truth to the world. Tamils are not terrorist. They want to live in peace in their own land without Srilankan armed forces presence.
Once again, thank you for bringing a part of the truth. Continue your mighty duty that enable to bring the Srilankan government on court for its war crimes and inhuman activities. Thank you.
Kathiron
why isnt anyone talking about the muslims and sinhalese who has died…..why only tamils? this clearly shows that some people are just tryinh to justify the actions of LTTE! Channel 4 will not stop this nonsense and just waste there time listening to a bunch of freaks……nothing will be achieved……srilanka is a strong country and wont listen to your nonsense….so write as much as you like……all these LTTE supporters who are voicing there opinions in UK, why did they not come to srilanka and fight the war for the so called EELAM FREEDOM…..guess channel 4 is just taking revenge…. and the LTTE freaks are loving it…..ha ha what a joke….yeah….shout shout who cares….you voice your so called opinions and open your mouths and wait for the whole world to give you justice…… lets see what will happen to you’ll……oh and we are waiting for you in sri-lanka……..WE ARE CLOSING ON ALL OF YOU LTTE SUPPORTERS…JUST REMEMBER THAT
You have question why no one is worry about the Muslims and Sinhalese. Please note there are MUslims among Tamils. And the Sinhalese who died int he last war are arms forces and not civilians. We the civilians and the world media have always condemed any attack against civilions be it Tamils or Sinhalese.
Please don’t close your ears and eyes and justify what has happened in the North east. Be open and see for yourself , those images and report provided are not made up. The whole world condemed what happened in Gaza, what happened in North East of Sri Lanka is no different, if not worse.
PLease note none of the world media has anythink to gain by filing false reports of a insignificant country like Sri lanka.
if i provide the images and vedios of how LTTE killed our people, when they were lying on the groung they LTTE shot them mercilessly then will you shut up? you lot are freaks…….. im open and i am talking behalf of all the citizens in sri-lanka not only about tamils……
Hello Bro
Sinhale killed our brothers and tamils. They wanted to wipe all tamil speaking people from srilankan. When LTTE lost their ablity ;there tamils and muslims problem started again by Srilankan army. If you live in Jaffna, kathankudi and puthalam then only you can understang. Dont say LTTE is bad. There were there to save tamil people.
Hi There,
I am writing this email form Canada, I wanted Jonathan Miller contact in Sri Lanka.
I do have one eye witness who escaped from last battle in no fire zone, she is a foreign national living outside of Intermitent camps(hiding) and will be boarding form Sri Lanka soon to her destination.
If Jonathan Miller is still in Sri Lanka I can arrange for a telephone interview, she can speak in English.
I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people… now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion… the more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhalese people will be here… Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhalese people will be happy.
J.R.Jayawardene, Former President of Sri Lanka – London Daily Telegraph, 11th July 1983
It is a systematic genocide going in Sri lanka, we cannot tolerate it or we cannot be a silence spectator.
Indra Gandhi Former Prime Minister of India in July 1983.
Tamils have been done systematic injustice since independence to this day. When they tried reconciliation pacts with the party in power the opposition always opposed. When they tried peaceful means they were crushed and militarisation of Northeast began in the 60s. The message was: Tamils, you can’t agitate for justice. When the youth began armed violence: draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act was enacted and arrests and disappearances have been going on to this day. No genuine investigations except a few ‘eyewash’ investigations go on for so long that many Tamils don’t even bother to file cases and in cases ”tried” none will be prosecuted:
UN and Amnisty International archives will prove it.
Violence of LTTE is wrong. But the structural violence of successive governments is worse (systematic and slow genocide).
There must be a mechanism whereby when states ill-treat their ethnic minorities, it can be arrested in early stages.
In the last three years the whole of the heavily militarised Northeast has been cut off from the rest of the country and abduction-murders have run into thousands and no investigations!! Journalist after journalist was killed whenever they tried to question the government.
This is an island and there has been no mass exodus into neighbouring countries which would have attracted more attention much earlier – unfortunate oppressed and fortunate oppressor.
Who will come forward to resolve this most vicious Sri Lankan intrastate crisis?
I think most of the people knew the true about lies
Where are all the educated Sinhalese barring Wickremabahu K and Brian S? Their silence is deafening, inspite of the atrocities committed by the Government of Sri Lanka. I have no answer.
This is a systematic Genocide, more than 52,000 civilians dead, 13,130 people disappeared and 20,000 lost limbs. More than 25% of war zone Tamils dead. What a big war crime? ONLY INDEPENDENT STATE WILL BRING PEACE TO TAMILS.
The world tested all its weapons on tamils through GOSL, 200 billions dollars on war, 3000 times air strike, cluster bombs, chemical bombs, 5000-6000 shelled daily, No security council meeting held, but when North korea tested one bomb underground, immediate meeting held. Why? can ban ki or akashi or any other leaders have answer?
The War Criminals
http://www.thewarcriminals.org/
Tamils are dieing in the concentration camps(or Death camps) due to stavation, ill treatment, no-care, don’t care…, instead of sending food, medicine…, Why south korea sending arms now? Is it arranged by ban ki? S Korean ships arrive in Lanka with arms, computer sets
http://www.zeenews.com/news539449.html
Thanks for the coverage channel 4 team. Not just Sri Lanka, why is UN ‘funding’ internment camps? Aren’t they complicit in these “atrocities” now. Please interview UN and also for another broadcast.
Gothapaya Rajapakse, Mahinda Rajapakse, Sarath Fonseka are all war criminals and who abetted the mass killing of Tamils like Sonja Ghandi, Vijay Nambiar, Ban Ki Moon must be brought to JUSTICE.
55.000 killed Tamils are not just a collateral damage as always said by the International Community and the by the UN. IT WAS GENOCIDE and it is still being carried out by the srilankan government.
Who stop the bloody nonsense!
Hats off to Jonathan Millar. It was about time the truth was said. But I do feel more coverage needs to be given by the media to this issue. Only then it will give political pressure for UN and the western world to take some action to save Tamils.
I am a tamil. I think If I have a Life next time in the world then I will born som a animal in the western country!
sincere thanks jonathon miller and Channel 4! At least there are some people out there other than Tamils themselves who understand the plight of the innocent who are held in internment camps by the genocidal SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT and the SRI LANKAN ARMY!!! history has never seen an inhumane government as the Rajapakse Brothers’ Government. life without LTTE is life in hell for Sri Lankan Tamils. TAMIL EELAM is the only solution. Thanks Again!
Dear Channel 4 News room,
We Tamils living all over the world are very thankful to your team for bring out the truth which was hidden until now. Sri Lankan govenment is still continuing its ethinic cleansing of Tamils. Every day many young Tamils are being taken away from the concentration camps and killed. Please bring this to the world attention ASAP in order to save many more thousands of lives.
Well done Channel4 team.
Anton Mithran
Thank you Jonathan bringing the GENOCIDE again again to the open. Until all the genociders are punished for the crime against humanity we can’t rest.
Dear Jonathan,
Thank you, for your balanced report, for caring enough to take the risk and get the facts and reporting it.
God bless you!
Thank you Channel4 news. We need more courages reporters like Jonnathan Miller.
Thanks to channel, johnathan and ITN. A mass protest with min 100000 prtestesters is expected on the 20june at 1pm starting from hyde park. Protest against sri lankan nazi camps.
thankyou very much. all the world leaders must read this artical.in srilank only tamils are kild by srilankan army.but LTTE did not kill any singhalies. if any one read this artical they will know who are right and wrong.
UN officials like Ban Ki Moon and Vijay Nambiar have conflicing interest in Sri Lankan matters. They could have stopped these disasters, but they didn’t because of their countries’ interest. South Korea and India supply ammunition to the genocide war. Both are not qualified to hold their position. UN senior officials must take full responsibility for all the killing, disaster and war crimes in Sri Lanka and resign from their position.
The Sri-Lankan government is involved in state terrorism.
The Rajapaksa brothers are trying to cover up the truth, because they are afraid of war crime charges that could be brought against them. This is the reason access to civilians in the internment camps and the war-zone is restricted.
It is a well-known fact that the SL Govt is one of the worst violators of human rights in the world. It is on par with Burma, North Korea and Sudan.
The British government and the EU should not allow the Rajapaksa brothers and their cronies to enter the UK or Europe. These are war criminals and they should be brought to book.
If this isn´t genocide,then what is?The SL govt. successfully eliminated tamils voices and anyone who is against it is persecuted.What future do these innocent civilians in the Nazi styled camp have than to be tortured,humiliated,raped and murdered by the army. The death of tigers have the same moral significance to the non existence of tamils. Thanks to the int community for its ever lasting silence no matter how many tamils are killed in the past and present.We need more media attention givien the death figures and I would like to congratulate channel 4 news team to continously bringing out the truth to the world.
What is this Jonathan talking about?Tigers are the worst terrorist in the world. Six or seven years ago lot of my friends died. Because of Tamil suscide bombers. Please do not forget these people can be easily brain washed by silly politicans.
Be thankful Sri Lankan Governement managet to win this war once and for all. US and UK should learn from this and get rid of other illegal gangs.
Sinahalese and Tamils used to live in peace in Sri Lanka. If you have skills and talent you could have a good life in Sri Lanka your nationality is not relevant.
You should help our country to bring back the good old days. We used to go to Jaffna and Trinco for our holidays. Our Tamil friends used to give a good time to us. Hope very soon anybody could go to these beautiful areas and have a good time and bring work to these people.
Reporters what you should do is ask other investers to come and develop the country.
Please do not broadcast useless information like the one Jonathan broadcast on Ch4.. Now the war is over. It came to a good end. If you love reporting, report on what big companies or big investers to come and help to develop the country.They could do lot of help to the country. Please do some usefull reporting to help my country and help the world as well.
Thanks
JOnathan wasn’t talking about LTTE. His report highlighted the plight of Tamil. LTTE was formed by Tamils, but please remember all Tamils are not LTTE.
Majority of the tamils who are demonstrating in London and other western world are not LTTE, they are normal humans who are shocked by whats going on.
Why do you think none of the Tamil in Sri Lanka are protesting, because they are scared. The day Tamils can openly express their views in Sri lanka and not be scared by the consequences will be the day Sri Lanka becomes a democratic counrty
Sinhales and Tamils NEVER lived in peace. I’m not sure if your’e a Sri Lankan or not, but don’t say false things like that.
“This issue traces its roots way back to 1948 when the British colonial government handed over the power to the Sinhalese majority at the time of independence.
Tamils suffered abuses. They were discriminated in education and employment. Thus they were side-lined by several governments, which sparked political violence in the 1970s and a full-scale war in 1983. Tamils were suffocating and suffering because of humiliation and ill-treatment,
The Tamils by and large want to live peacefully. Their presence in Sri Lanka dates back to times immemorial. The majority of Tamil population are worshippers of Lord Parameshwara. India and Sri Lanka have relationship from the time of the Ramayana. The saints of Tamil Nadu described Kedarnath in the Himalayas and Kedheechara in Sri Lanka as the symbols of cultural unity among Hindus. The abode of Shiva in Kedarnath near Badrinath is the same as Kedheechara, which is situated in the heart of Sri Lanka. Kandi and Kadirkama are famous for the worship of Lord Kartikeya and Mariamman, for Goddess Durga.” -Organiser
TAMILS and SINHALESE HAVE NEVER or CAN NEVER IN THE FUTURE LIVE PEACEFULLY WITH THE MAJORITY SINHALESE. IT’S PRETTY CLEAR TO THE WORLD NOW. THERE’S NOTHING TO HIDE.
Tamils have rights to gaining a Nation to themselves – Tamil Eelam because a race has been in all different ways been subjugated to racial prejudice in Sri Lanka. According to this, we have every right to create a country for ourselves. We will fight for this as long as Tamil people reside on this planet. No ONE can stop us. We are fighting for something that is RIGHTFULLY ours. For those who wonder, why LTTE includes suicide bombers: that’s how much respect and love we have for our land that is righfully ours. WE WILL GIVE OUR LIVES IN ORDER TO ATTAIN IT. I, a member of the DIASPORA, if had the chance would give my life to fight for TAMIL EELAM. That’s how much I love it. I PROUDLY SAY: MY COUNTRY IS TAMIL EELAM. MY LEADER IS V.PIRAPAHARAN. That is all.
I can fully understand the feelings of the Sinhalese, LTTE was a threat and I can understand why you are rejoicing at the news the war is over. but please don’t shut your eyes and deny the injustice that has happened to the Tamils
Mr. Miller,
In your opinion your may have filed a balanced and fair report. But facts distorted and not reported is what makes you a journalist with a colonial agenda. You did a very clever job, but it is easy to see the fallacy of your reports.
1. Out of the 2 millions Tamils on Sri Lanka, only about 800,000 live in the North-East. The remaining 1.2 million live peacefully in the rest of the country, mostly in Sinhala majority areas.
2. You never mentioned that Tamil Tiger terrorists used civilians as a human shield. They hid behind them and fired over 100,000 shells in the last few months.
3. You did not mention that most of the funds for the Tiger terrorists to buy arms to terrorize Lanka came from Britain. You and your British compatriots supported the destruction of Lanka for the last 20 years by supporting this fund raising and giving free movement to these terrorists.
4. Lastly, MR. Miller, get over it. We are no more a colony of yours. You cannot dictate to us how to run our own country. We are a much smaller nation than yours, but that does not make us a slave to your colonial agenda. Britain failed to subjugate Sri Lanka using the tigers as a tool, and now they are trying to do the same using the media power (you) of the west. This will fail too.
Minorities in Sri Lanka have much more power than in Britain. There are millions of non-white minorities in Britain (10%), is 10% of British parliament non-white?
Hi Dharshana,
I understand what you exactly mean but listen to this as well please?
1. Don’t you think even if only 800,000 live in northeast, they should be protected as well as anyother? 1.2 millions live in peacefully – how sure are you? Why these 1.2 million were shipped to northeast in 1983? Does this make 800,000 so special?
2. Even if Tigers used tamils as human sheilds – would this give any rights to Srilankan soldiers to treat them like this?
3. would you ever come out of this racist mentality even for a second for god sake?
Who runs Srilanka? if you ever speak about equality or press freedom – you would be out of the country from your own government – you know that?
God bless Srilanka, who excutes it’s own citizens
MexDF.Independient.Press report:
A week ago, the very well known TV future teller was arrested by Colombo city sri lankan Police because he preticted the President of the Nation would be removed from the Government of Sri Lanka.
Without giving details of statements, the argentinian horoscope man also added in his homepage, wwww.zodiacguille.com, two URLs, one corresponding to Mr. Chandrasiri Bandara and, of course, the other: Sri Lanka President´s oficial site.
“Up to now, I couldn´t log in Chandrasiris´blog; it seems “stars” aren´t helping…” he joked. “but to President´s site is quite interesting and easy to contact His Excellecy …”
Many astrologers all over the world are on “esoteric” expectation about the Sri Lankan Government decision. To finish, Don Zodiac Guille said: “I would respectfully like to have a look on the Mundane Astral Chart already built by Mr. BANDARA because the Police want a logical explanation about those political predictions on President Mahinda Rajipakse´s destitution”.
Don Zodiac Guille ended saying :”Astrology is a millenary social practice…so we have to moderate our concepts when a Country Chart is going to be published specially if the land situation is difficult”
Congratulations to Jonathan Miller for landing his exclusive on-camera interview with the Tamil Tigers’ elusive “KP” Padmanathan (or Pathmanathan). I myself was trying to get an interview with KP for my blogging site, http://www.lankapeacewatch.com, but to no avail. So I commend Miller for pulling off this interview with a man who is very hard to find because he’s on the run. I am linking Miller’s exclusive for Channel 4 (UK) News to my site, and I invite Channel 4 viewers to check out my June 29 blog on KP. In it, I recall my 1996 brush with KP in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, during his previous incarnation as the Tigers’ international weapons smuggler and missile procurer. Imran Vittachi.
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