UN Envoy claims Sri Lankan execution video authentic, depicts “war crimes”
01 Jun 2011, 7:56 PM
Video footage purportedly showing Sri Lankan troops executing bound and naked Tamil dissidents in the closing days of the country’s civil war has been described as authentic by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Christof Heyns.
The video was obtained in 2009 by the UK’s Channel 4 news network and aired in August that year. Heyns’ predecessor Philip Alston declared in January 2010 that “extracts” were genuine.
Heyns obtained and analysed a longer version of the video in consultation with a forensic pathologist, firearms expert and two forensic video analysts, and this week concluded that the footage was authentic.
The Sri Lankan government has maintained that the video is fake.
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