Visa refusal disappoints film maker
The refusal of a visa by the Indian government to British documentary maker and writer Callum Macrae not only impinges on the rights of Indians to a free flow of ideas and information but, in Macrae’s opinion, is also an indication that “India is not liking what I am saying.”
Macrae had applied for the visa eight months ago because he wanted to be present in India for the premiere of his revelatory documentary ‘No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka’.
He hinted the denial of the visa was an appeasement of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime and that India was possibly complicit with Sri Lanka’s actions against the Tamil population during the operations against the LTTE in 2009.
Addressing audiences at Mumbai’s Press Club on November 8 and responding to questions through Skype, Macrae said that the challenge of producing hard evidence of atrocities and war crimes by Sri Lanka was very difficult before 2011 because so many witnesses had been thrown out and were living in exile. Many had been killed or effectively silenced by threats.
Subsequently, there was a slow trickling in of video and mobile footage which Macrae was asked to assemble and put together as a document of record of the last 138 days of the war and which could be placed before a court as an argument for an international independent inquiry.
(Ed. Note: As part of the media pack for journalists covering CHOGM, the Sri Lankan government released a 222-page document ‘Corrupted journalism’, promoting a response from Channel 4).
Macrae, who has made several films including one on Iraq and whose team was nominated for the Nobel prize last year, said he had never shot in Lanka and that his area of expertise was Africa but this was an advantage. “It meant I had come in with no agenda. I have covered wars before and seen many awful things but I was so shocked with the scale of things in Sri Lanka. Few things could have prepared me for this footage.”
How ‘No fire Zone’ was made
The film makes use of two sets of evidences to bolster its charge of war crimes. First there is footage from within the no-fire zone - the small strip of area where the government asked 400,000 unarmed Tamil civilians to gather under the false promise that they would be safe. Instead they were subjected to incessant shelling causing the deaths of perhaps 70,000 people according to a UN panel of experts. Even makeshift hospitals with many young children were not spared. Much of this footage comes from ordinary people, doctors and those who had been asked to record events by the Tamil Tigers for propaganda purposes but who ended up filming the misery of the people.
The second set of evidence shows a very disturbing footage of LTTE soldiers including women, being tortured or summarily executed and includes the one depicting the 12-year-old son of LTTE chief, Prabhakaran, being fed a snack before he was killed at close range by a volley of bullets.
This is actually trophy footage and was shot by Lankan soldiers and then circulated among themselves. There was perhaps the singular soldier who felt this was wrong and felt impelled to put it out in public spaces. Some were even sold but Macrae is emphatic that he would never consider buying such images. The Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka were able to procure much of this footage.
For Macrae, the next step was to ensure veracity. A number of forensic experts and an international forensic company systematically analysed frame by frame to vouch that none of the gory scenes had been manipulated. This is significant in light of the fact that Sri Lanka has consistently denied wrong doing and need for an inquiry.
Other important evidences in the film are provided by a few individual UN staffers like Benjamin Dix and Peter Mckay who publicly articulate their feelings of shame and guilt at having pulled out and leaving the Tamils to their fate. In response to a question from audiences, Macrae said the UN had failed dreadfully.
The policy of wanting to be seen as a guest of the Sri Lankan government and thereby not taking the risk in speaking out meant that in practice, they merely helped provide a cover-up for the massacres.
Judicious use of Wikipedia diplomatic tapes and the narratives of a Sri Lankan woman (now living in UK) help to re-construct events and demonstrate how Sri Lanka decimated the Tamil population through incessant shelling and denial of food and medical supplies in flagrant violation of international laws. After the LTTE was wiped out, the surviving civilian population in the so called no-fire zone were herded into camps where conditions were terrible and several atrocities continue to be inflicted on them.
The film is also an indictment of the international community that did not raise its voice even when the Tamils were shouting out. This silence, Macrae says, was because of many reasons. The LTTE were isolated because of their crimes like recruiting child soldiers, terror tactics and suicide bombers. “And Rajapakshe made clever use of the rhetoric of war on terror that the west had used post 9/11.”
Macrae also admitted that the media too failed. “During that time there was outrage over the bombing of Gaza but even as some 70,000 Tamils were being killed there was very little said. The Tamils were screaming out but no one was looking.”
For many viewers, the stark images remain seared in memory. Tamil girls screaming out from the bunkers as they watch their mother receiving a hit whilst others prevent them from running out because of the continuous shelling. A father continually patting the body of his dead child bemoaning that he had not been able to save him.
Today the army runs luxury resorts in the north, the navy takes people whale watching and Sri Lanka continues to deny its war crimes. But No Fire Zone is a record which says terrible things happened. And Sri Lanka must own up to that.
Such articles are only possible because of your support. Help the Hoot. The Hoot is an independent initiative of the Media Foundation and requires funds for independent media monitoring. Please support us. Every rupee helps.