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The Government will check on the documentary titled “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” aired by Britain’s Channel 4 on Tuesday night.
“We will revisit this documentary carefully and have our own forensic experts and foreign experts to look at the footage and respond accordingly,” government spokesman and Media Minister Kheliya Rambukwella told Daily Mirror today.
He said it was premature to comment on the contents of the video or how the government would respond.
The minister said a similar video was telecast by channel 4 in 2009 and these were proved to be false.
“We had forensic experts look into it at the time and video footage was proved to be fabricated. Therefore the authenticity of this documentary and footage is also in doubt,” he said and added that in six months time further fabricated information could be presented and the government would have to keep responding to these allegations as well.
The documentary is described as being “a powerful case for bringing those responsible to justice.” The minister responded to these lines as being “one single agenda that is working for its own ends. All this will be revisited and then the government will respond to it accordingly.”
Meanwhile the Media Centre for National Security maintained that it had already proved the video to be manipulated. “We have maintained that these images are false and have been collected over a period of one year and three months to disgrace the Sri Lankan image,” Director General of the MCNS Lakshman Hulugalle said.
He further added that the documentary, even if viewed by locals, would not diminish the morale or image of the military because within the country it was a forgone-conclusion that the footage was manipulated. However he admitted that the video would hurt Sri Lanka’s international image. “It is definitely going to look bad for Sri Lanka internationally. Yet it has been internationally recognized that the Sri Lankan forces are one of the most disciplined forces in the world, especially during the humanitarian operation,” he said. (Dianne Silva)