Alston refutes ‘impartial’ investigation into footage

Sri Lanka’s purported investigation into the footage of soldiers shooting unarmed, naked men is neither impartial nor reliable, a UN representative has said.

The footage, showing the purported execution of naked, blindfolded civilians by troops in Sri Lankan Army uniform, was first shown on Channel 4 news in Britain after being smuggled out of Sri Lanka by a group called Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan government denied the authenticity of the video and conducted four ‘independent investigations’, which it says prove the video is fake.

But Professor Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, rebuffed the investigation, saying they were not ‘impartial’. He has called for fresh new independent and impartial investigations.

“Two of these individuals are full-time Government employees, one has previously acted on behalf of the Government, and the basis on which the fourth was identified and selected as an expert remains unclear,” Alston said.

He concludes that “on the basis of the information made available by the Government, that the investigations undertaken cannot be characterized as "impartial".”

The official statement from Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council is as follows:

“The legal obligation incumbent upon a Government in a situation such as this is to undertake a ‘thorough, prompt and impartial investigation’,” he said.

Nothing that he could “attest to the fact that the investigation has been "prompt" since it was completed within two weeks of the information becoming available,” he nevertheless challenged whether it was thorough or impartial.

“I am not, however, in a position to conclude that it was "thorough." I have not seen the original version of three of the four expert investigations. The fourth of the investigations seems to have originated as an Opinion piece in The Island newspaper, and was subsequently elaborated upon. It is not clear whether or not this was at the Government's request. The statement provided by the Minister summarizes "observations" made by the remaining three experts in presentations made at a meeting convened by the Government for this purpose. I would welcome the publication of the full text of the analyses undertaken and reports presented by each of the four experts,” he said.

“The third and most important question is whether the "four separate investigations" meet the criteria of impartiality. I would note that two of the experts are members of the Sri Lankan Army, the body whose actions have been called into question. A third report is by Dr. Chathura De Silva, BSc Eng Hons (Moratuwa), MEng (NTU), PhD (NUS), Senior Lecturer, Dept of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa, who has advised the Government in relation to a number of other similar issues in the past. And the fourth is by Siri Hewawitharana, a broadcast media specialist based in Australia, who is said to be the former head of Cisco's global broadcast and digital video practice. No other information has been provided by the government on Mr Hewawitharana, but it would appear that he is a member of a network of Sri Lankan Professionals. I would welcome more information on how he was identified and selected by the government as an independent expert,” he said.

“Based on the limited information available to me, it is impossible to conclude that these four individuals, given their relationship to the Government, meet the criteria for impartiality in this context. When the actions of a Government are called into question in a matter of this gravity, what is required is to undertake an investigation by demonstrated experts who can be shown to be fully independent of the Government concerned. Two of these individuals are full-time Government employees, one has previously acted on behalf of the Government, and the basis on which the fourth was identified and selected as an expert remains unclear. I must conclude therefore, on the basis of the information made available by the Government, that the investigations undertaken cannot be characterized as "impartial",” he said.

“The final question that remains is whether the information provided by the Government raises significant doubts as to the authenticity of the video. On this question, my conclusion is that the views expressed do indeed raise several issues which warrant further investigation before it could reasonably be concluded that the video is authentic. The only way to do this is for an independent and impartial investigation to take place. This is all that I have called for. Such an investigation might well conclude that the position adopted by the Government is fully warranted. I would welcome that outcome very warmly, and I hope that the Government would do likewise,” Alston concluded.