http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2012/03/18/fea08.asp

Channel 4 video : a figment of imagination:
Balachandran, marketable product
Why was Channel 4 silent when hundreds of children were
butchered by the LTTE?:
by a Special Correspondent
The Aranthalawa
Massacre
A death of a child, no doubt is a reason to mourn. Especially when he or she
is brutally killed, it is a grave crime which has to be dealt with severely. The
disturbing image of a bullet-ridden body of a boy telecast in the latest
controversial Channel 4 video has caused a certain amount of anxiety to many.
In the video - Sri Lanka's killing fields: war crimes unpunished - a
12-year-old boy with five bullet holes in his chest can be seen and the
presenter, Jon Snow says that the boy is Balachandran Prabhakaran, youngest son
of LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. The director is Callum Macrae, a former
reporter at Channel 4, now turned director.
For many, who have viewed Channel 4's previous videos, this is heart-rending
as a body of a teenage boy is shown. The video 'accuses' the Security Forces of
executing the boy with five others, who were identified as 'bodyguards' of the
teenager.
It is good to highlight the killing of a child in a video, but 'Channel 4'
has a 'reputation' of releasing concocted videos and has well and truly missed
incidents where thousands of little children including new-born babies were
killed in cold blood. The video shows that the so-called investigators of
Channel 4 have not done their homework and are not aware of the ground realities
in the North.
The history of the ruthless LTTE is full of such gruesome killings where
children, despite their ethnicity were chopped, smashed and bombed. This article
is an attempt not to justify the story of the boy shown in the video, but to
remind Channel 4 that thousands of Sri Lankan children, who perished even before
they blossomed into their teens, are waiting for justice from Channel 4 to air
similar videos of their stories which also need to be heard.
The LTTE massacre of innocent Sinhala villagers to ethnically cleanse the
North started way back in 1984 with the attack of two farming villages at Kent
Farm and Dollar Farm in Mullaitivu.
LTTE terrorists made a killing field of these two villages and armed LTTE
terrorists chopped, gunned down and smashed 33 villagers, the majority of whome
were children and women at these two farms.
It was the LTTE's second attack on a Sinhala village - Kent Farm, where there
killed 29 civilians, including women and children.
On August 3, 1990, the LTTE killed over 147 Muslim men and boys out of a
crowd of over 300 people who were prostrating for 'Isha' prayers in the Meer
Jumma, Husseinia, Majid-Jul-Noor and Fowzie Mosques in Kattankudi, a Muslim town
140 miles east of Colombo, in Batticaloa.
According to an eye-witness account quoted in the New York Times,
heavily-armed terrorists didn't spare small boys who were kneeling down and
praying and the firing lasted for over 15 minutes.
The Kebethigollawa
Massacre
Mohammed Arif, a 17-year-old student who survived the massacre said: "Before
I escaped from a side door and scaled a wall, I saw a Tiger rebel put a gun into
the mouth of a small Muslim boy and pull the trigger."
It was June 15, 2006 that the LTTE killed 64 innocent civilians including 15
children in twin claymore mines bus attack in a jam-packed bus plying to
Kebithigollewa. The victims, who were from the Sinhala villages of Yakawewa,
Halmillewa, Kanugahawewa, Thalgahawewa and Nikawewa, most of them were attending
the Kebithigollewa Hospital children's clinic.
The Aranthalawa Massacre, where 33 Buddhist Monks, most of them young novice
monks, were gunned down and is considered one of the most gruesome killings
committed by the LTTE. The massacre took place on June 2, 1987, when a bus
carrying Buddhist monks and a few unarmed civilians, were on a pilgrimage from
their temple in Mahavapi to the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara. The terrorists
ordered the driver to get the bus into the nearby Aranthalawa jungle. After the
bus stopped, the LTTE cadres went on a rampage, attacking the monks with guns
and swords and also shooting some of them with machine guns.
Among the dead were 30 young novice monks and their mentor, the Chief Priest
of the Vidyananda Maha Pirivena, Hegoda Sri Indrasara Thera.
The Anuradhapura massacre in 1985 was the largest massacre, where LTTE cadres
opened fire indiscriminately with automatic weapons killing and wounding many
civilians who were waiting for public transport. LTTE cadres then drove to the
Buddhist Sri Maha Bodhi shrine and gunned down nuns, monks and civilians as they
prayed inside the Buddhist shrine. Before they withdrew, the LTTE strike force
entered the national park of Wilpattu and killed 18 Sinhalese in the forest
reserve. The LTTE cadres massacred 146 Sinhalese men, women and children in
Anuradhapura.
Among the list of attacks by the LTTE the last incident, before its
annihilation, took place on April, 12, 2009, two days before the Sinhala and
Hindu New Year. LTTE terrorists stormed into village at around 7.30 pm and
killed nine Sinhalese including a one-and-a-half-year-old infant and an
11-year-old boy.
Eye-witness accounts in the video - Ruthless - released by the Government is
a fine forum where people willingly gave their first-hand accounts on atrocities
committed by the ruthless LTTE against humanity.
Unaware of the fate which would befall them within the next few minutes,
several dozens of wounded Tigers, including forcibly conscripted children,
brought from a makeshift medical facility in a Rosa bus, were helplessly gasping
for life. Another group of Tigers, who were guarding another bus load of wounded
youth a few metres away, was impatiently waiting for the final nod from their
superior, to finish off their task. Their intention was to get rid of the
'burden' and also not to leave any room for the wounded to be interrogated in
the event of their capture.
While those who fought unwillingly to make the dream of their megalomaniac
leader a reality, were struggling to breathe, the Tigers hurriedly strapped
explosives around the buses. In the next minute, everything disappeared under
heavy black smoke, triggered by the thundering explosion.
The two badly damaged buses lay between Vellamullivaikkal and Wadduvakkal, a
grim reminder of the gravity of the final battle fought against the LTTE in May,
2009.
Thiruchelvam Vardarasa from Wattappalai was an eye-witness to a mass murder
that had been intended to remain hidden forever. "The LTTE brought a bus full of
wounded boys, girls and elders who had been forcibly thrown into battlefronts.
Then the bus was exploded with the people inside under the instructions of
leader Nedumaran. I witnessed this with my own eyes", Vardarasa, who was
temporarily accommodated 200 metres away from the location, said.
It was on May 17, 2009, in the wee hours, that the above described mass
murder took place while the soldiers were pushing the terrorists into their last
tiny patch of land on the edge of Mullaitivu. Two days before the LTTE's
annihilation in the waters of the Nandikadal Lagoon, the LTTE leader instructed
his subordinates to destroy their battle casualties, who had been ill-trained
and conscripted to fight the advancing military might. Ruthless LTTE cadres
loaded disabled and wounded cadres into a bus from the makeshift hospital and
exploded the buses, not leaving a trace!
Child conscription
Three victims of child conscription narrated the incident at the church where
the LTTE forcefully took them away. Nimalan: "My parents used to hide me in a
bunker which was well concealed inside the house. Fearing my abduction, my
father sent me to the church and he said the LTTE would not abduct children from
the church. But I was there only a day, the LTTE stormed the place and abducted
the children. Girls and boys ran hither and thither inside the church while the
LTTE started shooting us. Pieces of roof fell on the ground. The LTTE left only
one door open and they pulled out the children - one by one. A woman was shot at
as she was obstructing the LTTE from taking her child away. I too was thrown
into the vehicle".
Vignesh: "We went to the church that day, but I could go only 50 metres and I
started running home as I heard the LTTE firing inside the church. I hid myself
and later heard that the LTTE had taken all the children away. When I went to
the church later, I only saw women crying and cursing the LTTE for abducting
their children".
Bala was another child who was snatched away by the LTTE while he was at the
church along with many other children. "We were confident that the LTTE would
not enter the church and that they would listen to the priest. But it didn't
quite happen that way. They abducted many children and I was among them. The
LTTE took me to Mullivaikkal to fight".
Channel 4 which brought up the issue of a death of the 12-year-old boy is now
saddle with a bigger responsibility - to produce videos to show the gruesome
killings of thousands of children like 'Balachandran' by the LTTE terrorists.
How can Channel 4, which boast of engaging in responsible journalism, miss
the heinous crimes committed by the LTTE? and what is the cover-up Channel4 has
for those innocent Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim children who were executed by the
LTTE for over three decades?
The video in question shows the images of those dressed in combat uniform and
wearing slippers at the scene, where 'Balachandran' and four elderly people were
gunned down. In this video clip where the faces of the soldiers were not shown,
Channel 4 concludes that the execution was carried out by Sri Lankan soldiers.
The forensic pathologist, Professor Derrick Pounder, identifies the gunshot
injuries on the boy's body being a result of close-range shooting.
Channel 4, which claims that 'Balachandran' was executed after interrogating
him about his father's whereabout, lacks the knowledge of ground realities in
the North during the final months of the battle. It is unaware of the hatreds of
Northern civilians, who struggled against conscripting their small children,
with the LTTE and its leadership. According to ex-LTTE cadres, the LTTE leaders
had to hide their children from the public as civilians protested against them
for safeguarding their children while the LTTE leaders ordering to conscript
innocent children to fight.
One such child who was given a strong protection ring was Prabhakaran's son -
Balachandran. This is evident even in the Channel 4 documentary where it shows
that the boy was killed with five of the LTTE bodyguards.
Even now, after rehabilitating over 11,600 ex-LTTE cadres the Government
faces the problem of reintegrating them into society as some families in the
Northern villages are not willing to welcome them as they had forcibly snatched
away their children, most of them breathed their last in deadly battlefields in
2009. The families of some of the LTTE leaders had to hide themselves while they
were in welfare centres in Vavuniya as civilians hated them and threatened to
kill them for the atrocities they had committed against their people in the
North.
Not only Northern civilians but also LTTE cadres selves criticised LTTE
leaders as sisters and brothers of LTTE cadres were conscripted during the final
months of the end battle.
They were up in arms against the LTTE for deviating from
its own policy, which only recruited one member from each family.
"As I need to save the lives of my brother and sister I joined the LTTE and
fought until I surrendered to the Army on May 1, but the LTTE police had taken
away my 13-year-old sister and without any weapons training she was sent to
fight with other cadres.
They have also taken my older brother and he died in the battlefield. My
small sister who had not hold a gun in her life was found dead later and I had
to bury her in Puthumathalan before my surrender.
Many families in my village lost their small children", said the ex-LTTE
cadre Raju.
He said they assaulted and killed one LTTE policeman who helped civilians,
whom they kept as hostages to flee the government controlled areas.
He said civilians whose lives were reduced to zero came to Government
controlled areas and cursed Prabhakaran and his family for destroying their
lives.
Channel 4 and the pro-LTTE fronts are still trying to give a fresh breathe of
life to the defunct LTTE and have forgotten how the Security Forces saved family
members of the leaders - Soosai and Thamilselvan and many other prominent LTTE
cadres facilitating their children to have their education in some of the
leading schools in Colombo, which is a distant dream for many.
In this scenario, what is the assurance that civilians, who sometime did not
spare ordinary LTTE cadres, would not kill the family of the LTTE leader, who
tainted their future with blood for over 30 long years.
Though the world is talking about this 12-year-old boy, how many boys and
girls of his age were killed on the orders of Prabhakaran.
The best example was the schoolgirl who was sent by the LTTE to blow herself
to prevent civilians flee the LTTE control. There are hundreds of such incidents
where the LTTE used small children in their crimes.
If the soldiers intended to kill family members of the LTTE hierarchy, why
did they bring families of Sea Tiger leader Soosai and leader of its Political
Wing S.P. Thamilselvan safely to Colombo and then the Government has even taken
steps to secure their future. How has Channel 4 slipped up on this positive
story in their videos?
How ethical is it for Channel 4 to throw allegations of killing Balachandran
on government forces which maintain hundred percent discipline throughout its
humanitarian operation and rescued over 300,000 Tamils from LTTE terror?
With no source to identify the boy as being LTTE leader Prabhakaran's son,
Channel 4 refers to the victim as Prabhakaran's son. Prabhakaran's son lived
comfortably.
It is true that it is heart-rending when a child is killed, whoever he might
be. Those who are aware of the reality on how the LTTE played with the lives of
innocent children whom they used as suicide bombers and also as ill-trained
fighters, accuse Channel 4 for weaving a story around a terrorist, forgetting
the thousands of small children who were butchered by the LTTE.
Yes, when they produce a video about Prabhakaran's son, there is a 'market
value' which the world will talk about. Here, Channel 4 has given market value
to 'Balachandran' to achieve their ulterior motives, roused by pro-LTTE fronts
to attack the Government at the UN Human Rights Sessions. Human Rights activists
will now clamour for action against the alleged execution shown in the video,
but in turn people will question about their silence over heaps of incidents
where innocent Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim children were butchered to death.It is
apparently a 'fine' initiative of Channel 4 to telecast images of body of
Balachandran.
The world would give their blessings to the TV team if they aired the stories
of thousands of other children who are in their graves waiting for justice - at
least an opportunity for them through Channel 4 to tell the world how brutally
they were hacked to death by the world's ruthless terrorists.
Unfortunately, Channel 4 has missed out on these sad stories as these
innocent children are not marketable like Prabhakaran's son but are the sons and
daughters of Sirisena or Murugesu or Hakeem, who are just ordinary civilians who
had many dreams for their children, any less important?