‘LTTE chief’s son photos morphed’
In the firing line for the alleged cold-blooded killing of Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son, the Sri Lanka high commissioner in India, Prasad Kariyawasam, has questioned the “timing” of the photographs released by Britain’s Channel 4 to publicise a new documentary on Sri Lanka.
Speaking to this newspaper on Wednesday, the Lankan envoy, when asked about the charges against the Lankan Army of killing the child Balachandran Prabhakaran in 2009, said: “We see nothing new (in the charge) as it was levelled a year ago too on the eve of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting in Geneva.”
The envoy also said that the timing of the release of the documentary “is timed to create an uproar in Tamil Nadu on the eve of the UNHRC meeting in Geneva for politically motivated purposes”.
As for last year’s UNHRC resolution pulling up Colombo over widespread rights abuses during the war and seeking reconciliation measures, Mr Kariyawasam remarked, “We don’t welcome international intervention in our own affairs.” India had backed this resolution, much to Colombo’s unhappiness.
Denying the allegations of murder in cold-blood, Mr Kariyawasam maintained: “These photographs appear to be morphed for motivated and political purposes.” He also claimed that the Lankan Army rescued and 2,92,000 civilians from the clutches of the LTTE during the final stages of the war,” adding that “this proves that the Sri Lankan Army is not in the habit of killing civilians.”
The Lankan envoy’s defence of his country and the Army over the death of Balachandran has come in the wake of the widespread criticism and opprobrium both have earned for the death of the 12-year-old, allegedly at the hands of the Lankan Army.
The allegations have come after Channel 4 released photographs claiming that Balachand-ran was executed by the Lankan Army. To bolster its contention, it has released two photographs. The first shows the child having a snack in what seems to be a bunker, guarded by what appears to be a soldier — he is partially visible. The second photograph shows the child lying dead on the ground with bullet wounds and wearing the same clothes as in the first picture.
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