They never checked source of fake tape:

Lankan conspiracy too:

Legal action if no apology from Channel 4 - Minister Samarasinghe

* Channel 4 had never checked the authenticity of the Journalists for Democracy before airing the video. * There may be people inside the Channel 4 who are involved in the campaign to tarnish the country’s image. * Experts have scientifically proved that the video was a fake. * Rally around the Government to defeat pro-LTTE elements. * Political solution in the pipeline to solve the national issue. * Government has a strong strategy to defeat ‘evils’ which damage the country’s image in future.

While stressing that Mahinda Rajapaksa Government would not allow any element to destabilise the country, Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said that the Government expects an apology from Channel 4 for their irresponsible telecast of the controversial video footage that degraded the image of the country and its Army, which successfully defeated Asia’s longest terrorist war.

Explaining the failed attempt by the alleged ‘team’ to produce a fake video clip, Minister Samarasinghe said that the Government had traced those Sri Lankans who had connections with the pro-LTTE groups and tried to hoodwink the international community to take the LTTE’s agenda forward.

Minister Samarasinghe who flew to Geneva yesterday to attend the Human Rights Council sessions said that if the Channel 4 failed to carry the correction based on scientific evidence, Sri Lanka would not be hesitant to resort to legal action against them.

“I don’t want to resort to legal action if they clarify it with the scientific evidence and accept the shortcomings in their side and ensure that these shortcomings are rectified. This is the ethical and right thing to do. If they don’t do this, we might have to resort to have some other avenues to make them compel to do so”, he warned.

by Shanika SRIYANANDA

Following are the excerpts of the interview:

Q: The video footage on the Channel 4 has become a controversy and what is your comment on the alleged human rights violations said to have happened in the last lap of the battle?

A: This is a very serious issue but a failed attempt as it is very apparent that the Channel 4 had never checked on the source which gave them this fake tape. We made a search for the organisation called Journalists for Democracy and found that they have established their blog only on August 1, 2009. The only thing that they have done before that was the press statement issued on July 22.

As this is a very serious accusation against the Sri Lankan Army, Channel 4 should have checked the information against the source in the first instance. It is obvious that they have not done it. Who would contact an organisation that has just mushroomed and accept such a tape unless there was a conspiracy behind the whole thing? There are so many other established human rights organisations in the world whom this organisation could have approached but why did Channel 4 approach only this particular one?

We have doubts as to why the Channel 4 did so and may be there are people inside Channel 4 who are part and parcel of the whole campaign of tarnishing the image of the country and our armed forces.

The gravity of broadcasting this nature of videos brings a devastating outcome and will take time to heal. Anyone who sees this video will be shocked to see how the people are being executed. In the manner they have shown it will affect you, make you emotional and make you to formulate an opinion about the Sri Lankan Army and the acts of human rights violations.

The initial impact is devastating for the country. We took this very seriously and knew this was another campaign to tarnish the image of the country because we have experienced similar accusations earlier too. The best example is how the LTTE had used the four doctors at the height of the military operations to accuse the government and Army for not sending medicine, shelling and firing in populated areas, attacking hospitals, killing civilians and so on. But finally the doctors publicly admitted that they were compelled to issue such statements due to pressure from the LTTE. But the damage was already done as some people would have believed them.

In this particular video clip telecast in the Channel 4 had created an impact initially in the minds of many people who would have believed that the Sri Lankan forces had behaved in this inhuman manner violating international humanitarian law.

There were people internationally ready to use this tape and take it to the Hague. So internationally a case would begin perhaps to charge for war crimes. These were the consequences of this telecast and we had to take it very seriously and we have now shown scientifically that this video was a fake.

Q: If their interest is to charge the government for war crimes, do you think that they can do so?

A: No. Certainly they can’t do anything because this is an absolutely fake video clip. The issue of war crimes does not come into this at all. I don’t want to comment any further.

But it is obvious that the whole thing was orchestrated to hoodwink the international community. It is now very clear this is a fake clip because we did a thorough investigation where four experts in this field have explained it is a take.

Q: How qualified are the local experts to say that this is a false video clip?

A: There are not only local experts but there is an international expert whom we have sourced. He is an Australian citizen and has an international recognition. The expert from the University of Moratuwe Dr. Chathura de Silva is an authority in this area. Additionally, the Army too has done their investigations and all four have come to the same conclusion - that the video clip was a bogus documentary.

Q: Two of the experts who gave their views are from the Forces, so could you call it impartial?

A: We have a professional Army and our Army does not concoct situations in investigations of this nature because the reputation of the Army will be at stake. What they have done was they concocted this to achieve their political agenda so that it would bring disrepute to the entire army. That is why we got two other independent experts and finally all came to a similar conclusion based on scientific evidence.

Q: Early this week, the government explained the issue to the diplomatic corps in Colombo. What was their response?

A: The response to the invitation to participate in the briefing was excellent. Almost all the Heads of Missions participated and there were quite a number of Ambassadors and High Commissioners. They listened to us and many of them said that it was a very professional presentation to explain the situation. They saw that we have proved beyond doubt that the video footage was concocted and fake. It was not only we showed the pictorial evidence but we also proved to them scientifically why this was a fake. For example, the sound was measured in scientific terms, the audio dubbing was proven in scientific terms. The pictorial evidence showed very clearly that some of the ‘dead bodies’ lifted their legs when the gun shots were fired. This can’t be observed when you look at the video on normal speed. But when you reduce the speed by 50 percent, it is clear that the dead man’s foot was rising and coming back to the same point. The so-called soldier is wearing a white T-shirt with the uniform but our soldiers don’t wear as such as they will be exposed to be a target. His haircut is different.

Q: What do you think of the interest of the so-called party to telecast this video clip?

A: That is what we are also interested in finding out. Obviously this is an inside job. It is now incumbent on the Channel 4 to have an inquiry and find out how this happened if they are a professional television station. Channel 4 is a television station which is widely patronised and it is not a fly by night and not mushroomed in the recent times. There is a wider viewership that they can boast about and I hope their reputation is very important and look at the evidence that we are sharing with them. Now they need to take steps to ensure that disciplinary action is taken against the people who have compromised the reputation of the Channel 4. This is what they should basically do. We are asking them to prove us wrong or accept what we have given them and make a public apology so their viewers can see that.

Q: No doubt the image of the country and acclaimed credit of ending terrorism by the government have been damaged badly due to this serious allegation. How do you plan to reverse these claims?

A: It is very difficult to erase that from the minds of the people who watched it. But, I have written to the Channel 4 and have also sent them our findings through the High Commissioner in London. He is planning to meet their top people and explain to them the extreme damage done to the reputation of this country. Hope now they should take a stand.

Q: But if they don’t react, is there any possibility to sue them?

A: If they don’t do so, I don’t think we have any other option but to look at other avenues.

Q: What are the other options to reverse this damage?

A: It could be legal avenues or it could be a complaint to be lodged with the Press Complaint Commission UK. So that they can look at independently and take action against this kind of behaviour. We also want to ensure either legally or through goodwill and dialogue, a protocol to ensure their responsibility when this kind of information is received because this has happened too frequently. There seems to be a patten, where when the Channel 4 airing this, then the Times newspaper in London publishing it and then the BBC, CNN and Al-Jazeera picking it up and giving unnecessary publicity to the news. This chain of publicity has created a considerable damage to the country.

It went to the extent of UN Secretary General to take this matter with me when I met him in Geneva 10 days ago. He was very concerned about this. Now, we are in a much better position to say that this is a fake clip but the initial damage caused due to this kind of issue is not totally repairable. Once this is gone into the minds of the people, they will not just let it go. We don’t know to what extent the Channel 4 will give publicity for our version.

Let’s see depending on what they do, we will have to map out a strategy for the future. I don’t want to resort to legal action if they clarify it with the scientific evidence and accept the shortcomings on their side and ensure that these shortcomings are rectified.

This will enhance the reputation of the Channel 4 in the eyes of their viewership. This is the ethical and right thing to do. If they don’t do this, we might have to resort to some other avenues to make them compel to do so.

Q: Can we take legal action against the Channel 4 team, who did their job, as you said, in an unprofessional manner?

A: Yes, definitely. There are British legal firms that we have already contacted. The other thing is we can use those legal firms to send them a letter of demand. As I said earlier let’s see what are the other apperatus available in the UK.

Q: If any Sri Lankans have a hand in this issue how best the Sri Lanka can take legal action against them?

A: We have to look at this also and if they have been the source for the issue, we will have to see how best we can perceive from an action to ensure that they are also held accountable for giving a bogus video. We must get into the bottom of it finally to find out who had recorded, what is their motive and need to ensure that they are held accountable because this kind of things will happen again. We want to prevent them from happening again.

What we have done so far is taking action on damage control but I am sure there are people who still believe what they have seen initially was correct.

Q: What was the response from the UN so far for this issue?

A: The UN, as I said earlier, the Secretary General raised this matter with me and he is concerned about it. Now I believe after we shared real information about the issue, he will be very much satisfied. There was a statement made by Prof. Philip Alston the special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings. We have also sent our findings to him and he has issued a statement welcoming the investigations that we have conducted. I think the UN should be satisfied in the manner we have conducted the investigations into the issue of Channel 4. There were several statements made by the international personalities and we are going to share these information with them too.

Q: Amidst this serious allegations on human rights violations, what do you have to say about the present situation with regard to steps taken to protect human rights in Sri Lanka?

A: The general situation with regard to human rights is that it is not as bad as people are trying to make it out today. We also have our problems but we are addressing those problems. We are not violators of human rights the way that people are trying to make it out. What the doctors said and tried to show, we have now proved those are very extreme allegations, which have been concocted. We should respect the fact that, we are a democratic and not a totalitarian regime. We have the rule of law and independent institutions in this country. All citizens should work with the government, without taking side of people who are trying to distort what is really happening in this country. We all need to defeat them.

We have just come out of a 30-year-old conflict. This government has been able to put in place the political and economic stability and want to develop this country. Now investors are coming and tourism is booming.

One thing is certain that the government is not going to let any one to destabilise the situation. We have come out from the conflict under very difficult circumstances. Now we have to consolidate our services for all ethnic groups in the country. We all are Sri Lankans and this country belongs to every one. That is what President Mahinda Rajapaksa is trying to do.

The government is now in the process of finding solutions in the form of a political process. The military part of the story is over and now we are looking at the political side and trying to address political, economic and social problems through a political process.

Q: Do you think that this is an organized attempt by the pro-LTTE groups, who had failed to discredit the government at the recent UN Human Rights Council in Geneva?

A: Yes, we can expect this nature of issues even in future because there still are pro-LTTE groups. There are people in the Tamil diaspora, who are getting an income from the resources that the LTTE has established. They have access to the large amount of money that the LTTE hierarchy has collected and we have to expect them to use these financial resources to continue to sling mud on Sri Lanka to destroy the image of this country with the interest of destabilising the nation. Some of them are trying to do so hoping that they would be able to take forward what the LTTE wanted to do. Some will think to destabilise Sri Lanka further so they will get more chances to continue to live in these European countries. They may be worried that they will be asked to go back. All kinds of vested interest are happening to tarnish the image. We must act together to mitigate this sort of issues.

Q: How do you plan to defeat this kind of ‘evils’ in future?

A: The government has a strong strategy and I do not want to make them public. We have addressed these issues in a collective manner. Number of us are working together to tackle these issues and working towards one direction to defeat them all to save the country.

Q: The UNP has said that Sri Lanka is a developing nation and warned not to meddle with powerful nations as they will impose certain embagoes. What do you have to say?

A: We may be a small country but we are an independent country. We are proud of our heritage and did lots of compromise for the sovereignty and the independence of this nation. The government has alliances and friendship with all countries despite their size and we want to build up relationships with the world in a more effective manner.

This is a ridiculous statement because these countries are helping us in our efforts in economic development and reconstruction.