"The video and audio of the events depicted in the Video, were continuous without any evidence of start/stops, insertions, deletions, over recordings, editing or tampering of any kind," said the preliminary findings from a US-based forensic company that took nearly three weeks to analyze the Channel-4 broadcast video allegedly showing Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers extra-judicially executing Tamil captives stripped naked and hands tied behind their back.
The notarised report contained determinations on ten different critical issues on the characteristics of the video and audio portions of the 3gp format file distributed by the German-based Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) on 25th August.
The forensic firm used a firing range to conduct field experiments to arrive at some of the findings according to the report.
The key findings listed in the preliminary report include:
· No evidence of tampering or editing was discovered with either the video or audio portions of Video
· The blood pooled around the previous victim with the white shirt and with the victim of the 2nd shooting appears to be consistent with blood from the brain, which would contain high amounts of oxygen giving the blood its bright color. The fact that it is still bright in color appears to be consistent with it being very recent.
· The audio delay with respect to both gun shots’ audio compared with each corresponding rifle recoil is consistent for some, if not most, camera cell phones that are capable of video recording.
· Preliminary field test with a typical camera cell phone of similar audio qualities (per header information in Exhibit “A”), was able to record a MAK-90 (AK variant w/16” barrel) gun shot w/7.62x39mm ammo, with the camera cell phone being positioned in a similar camera field of view of the 2nd gun shot, or 12 feet away from the muzzle, without any distortion of the audio.
· The leg of an apparent previous shooting victim lying prone on the ground, down range and at the feet of the first victim, rises in the air when the first victim is shot, and then slowly drops to its former position. This reaction appears to be from the bullet that passed through the first victim and then striking the down range victim and would be consistent with a victim that was very recently shot that has not died yet.
TAG officials told TamilNet that the official copy of the preliminary findings will be released as soon as the draft for the final report is complete.
TAG also intends to issue a separate supporting document containing the background technical information necessary to understand the on-going dispute raised by the Government of Sri Lanka on the authenticity of the video.
Earlier, Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, dismissed
"The only way to do this [authenticate the video] is for an independent and impartial investigation to take place,'' Alston had said.
