A young woman has been identifi ed by the UK’s Channel 4 News as one of the victims in a video which purportedly shows Sri Lankan soldiers summarily executing members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the closing stages of the 29-year civil war, which ended in 2009.
One of the victims in the video, which has been authenticated by the United Nations, has been named by a close friend and colleague as Isapriya, a television presenter, dancer and singer who was also a high profi le member of the LTTE’s press and communication wing.
A leading British war crimes lawyer Julian Knowles has said that the video was “astonishing evidence” of a type he had only seen “a handful of times” showing the mass killing of civilians or unarmed combatants, amounting to a serious war crime. The Sri Lankan High Commission in London has denied the government had carried out atrocities against the Tamil community and a Sri Lankan army spokesman has called the video a “fake”.
Both government troops and the LTTE are accused of targeting civilians and committing war crimes during the fi nal weeks of the civil war. A UN panel is considering whether there should be an international inquiry into events in Sri Lanka.
