BALACHANDRAN PRABHAKARAN’S EXECUTION VIDEO RATTLES COLOMBO

BALACHANDRAN PRABHAKARAN’S EXECUTION VIDEO RATTLES COLOMBO

The tragic pictures in the latest release of Cha­n­nel-4 expose of Sri Lan­ka’s ‘Killing Fields’ sho­w­ing  chief Velup­illai Prabha­kar­a­n’s son being fed with snacks and executed in a brutal manner shortly after by the Sri Lankan forces has shaken the conscie­n­ce of civilised society. This further raises the decibel levels in the de­m­­and that President Ma­hinda Rajapaksa and his aides be tried for war crimes. In this case, the crime is more brutal than anything witnessed in that end stage of the Eelam war since this victim, Balachandran, was a child barely 11 years old and it was obvious he was in the custody of the military when he was killed. The two pictures of his mun­ch­ing a snack and the one later showing him dead with five bullet wo­u­nds on his ch­est we­re taken with the same camera, obviously by someone wis­hing to keep it as a war trophy, the channel said. 

The Rajap­a­ksa government is worried that this new blot on its controversial human rights record might jeopardise the Common­we­alth Hea­ds of Govern­m­ent Mee­ting (CHOGM) it is hosting in November. Already, the foreign aff­airs panel of the UK House of Commons had appealed to Prime Mini­s­ter David Came­r­on to skip the meet to protest  Lanka’s hu­man rights record. Can­ada too had threatened boycott the session unless Colombo impr­ov­es its rights rec­ord. Now pictures of Balachan­dr­a­n’s execution could ma­ke matters worse for Rajapaksa.The Tamil diaspora is both sad and glad — sad at seeing these gruesome visuals of the young kid’s execution in cold blood and glad that the pictures could help sha­ke the conscience of a few regimes that continue to take sides with Col­ombo and even help it to handle the pressure in international forums, such as UNHCR. 

Mr Suren Surendiran of Global Tamil Forum, London said these news photos and video evid­e­nce and the documentary, No Fire Zone, “co­u­l­dn’t have come at a mo­re perfect time”. The documentary would be previewed for the first time ever at the Global Tamil Forum’s 3rd anni­ve­rsary conference at the UK Parliament on February 27, he said.The video is also being screened during the UN­HCR session in March. The Indian delegation might find it tougher than last year when it was forced to support the US-backed resolution pulling up Colombo on the human rights issue — it was later reported that Prime Mi­n­ister Manmohan Singh almost apologised to  Rajapaksa writi­ng a letter saying India was compelled to take su­ch a stand at the UNHCR but then his team managed to soften the prose in the resolution.   Tamil leaders seek Rajapaksa prosecution“This is genocide. He was a child and killing him in such fascist manner is among the worst crimes seen in recent human history,” said senior Marxist leader R. Nallakannu, reacting to the Channel 4 pictures showing LTTE leader Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son Balachandran shot dead by the Sri Lankan forces during the final stages of the Eelam war in May 2009. “What is the punishment that this civilised world is going to pronounce against Rajapaksa for killing a child in such brutal manner? They must proclaim he is a war criminal and initiate appropriate act­ion”, Nallakannu said. 

Almost all the Tamil pol­it­­ical leaders and rights activists reacted in anger at the visuals of Balac­ha­ndran’s execution. A pictu­re of the dead kid, shot five times in the chest from close range, had already come out several months ago but what created this fresh bout of disgust were the two additional pictures that showed him munching a snack shortly before being shot dead. The Lan­k­an government has been maintaining that the boy was killed in the crossfire during the war but these two pictures made it clear th­at he was in army custo­dy before his end.“What Colombo did was planned elimination of the Tamil race in the island, just as Hitler had done killing over 50 lakh Jews”, said MDMK general secretary Vaiko. And India must be blamed for the Tamil massacre in Sri Lanka as it not only failed to stop the killings but also helped Colombo carry out its planned genocide, he added. Tamil nationalist leader Pazha Nedumaran and CPI (M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan were among the several leaders who slammed Colombo for the brutal killing of Balachandran and demanding that Delhi lead an international trial of the Lankan war crimes. “There are still thousands of Tamil people who are living in camps and under the trees, away from their homes. The UN forces should be sent to protect them from military harassment”, said Nedumaran. 

The brutal execution of Balachandran Prabhakaran, 12 yearold son of Velupillai Prabhakaran , incustody exposes the Sri Lankan army's cold blooded acts during the fial stages of the war with the LTTE. It   is obvious now that Colombo violated not only international norms but also principles of humanity during the war. Since there is no strong agency to implement international  laws. The killing of innocent people continues. The need of the hour is a strict enforeable agency, not laws. The innocent face of Prabhakaran's son exemplifies the Sinhalese cruely. It was utterly shocking to see the young boy held captive for merciless execution,that too for documentation. 

                                       Prof. John Kurakar