This is BBC calling-Now click on to Channel-4
Posted on November 16th, 2013
By: Gomin Dayasri
On Air, BBC answers to a London Call for Aunty Beeb. Her Randy Niece is Channel 4.Both live off portions of state licensing revenues while Aunty is the recipient of government grants; Aunty and Niece have to street walk to collect funds to survive – sources being predominantly fat cat corporations. Diaspora are lavish on pleasing the media. The young lass is an easier and cheaper prey to solicit than the aged relative. They live on the pride of a self proclaimed holy trinity of -objectivity, impartiality and balance- in a reality show, cause for mirth! It’s like a call to a nun in a convent and hear a bar girl at a pub, speak.
Editor of Daily Mirror Piers Morgan published photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused by British soldiers. The military labelled them as fakes and editor was sacked instantly by the proprietor on a demand by their American shareholders. In stepped, BBC in News Night (BBC2 May 14,2004), where Melanie Phillips called editor’s conduct “treachery against the interest of the country and a lie which puts our troops in such an appalling light is unforgivable”. BBC 2 (14.May 2004) reported “It’s time the ego of one editor is measured against the life of a soldier”.
In House of Lords the question was asked “what action including criminal charges, does the government anticipate will be taken against the editor?” The scene is reminiscent of Sri Lanka. BBC/Channel 4 finds us guilty on material provided by hostile parties without placing the charge before the accused. Not so, in a case where their men are in uniform -they are summarily exonerated. Brits stand up for the cross of St.George in the ‘cotton fields’ of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya where civilians are slaughtered like lambs by flying objects.
Later it was established that the photographs were indeed fabricated. With those reminiscences, why did the UK Minister Alistair Burt (“shocked by horrific scenes”-soothing balm on Diaspora voters) mindful of the issues raised by experts on the authenticity of the video clips in Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, rush to judgment? Sri Lankan press barons do not treat their editorial material as disposable syringes or our tongue loose Ministers do not insult friendly commonwealth countries – certainly not until a fact is proved. If a newspaper office here, did the same, editors guilds around the globe would have raised cain.
Red Cross reported from Iraq (Guardian May14,2004)”Following the arrest, men were made to kneel, face and hand against the ground, as if in a prayer position. The soldiers stamped on the back of the necks of those raising head”. Later (Media Lens, 19 May 2004) they were moved to the office of the secret police of Saddam Hussein and were severely beaten resulting in deaths. Is Channel 4 short of footage to produce a documentary on exploits where US and UK soldiers kill civilians as a daily routine in their playing fields of war? Probably to them it is ‘just cricket’ played according to the rules of the MCC. Is that the ‘neutral’ and ‘dispassionate’ reporting, which they boast of?
Esteemed British medical journal Lancet on research by Colombia University, New York (2003) reported 100000 more Iraqi civilians died due to the invasion:84 percent of deaths were the acts of the Coalition Forces, 95 per cent of which were due to air artillery attacks. Mostly, they were women and children.
Channel 4 in a patriotic module questioned Lancet’s 100000 civilian deaths in Channel 4 News (October 29,2004) “without bodies can we trust the body count?… Given the worsening security situation it’ll be a long time before we have an accurate picture for civilian losses, if ever….Definition of a civilian is not clear” is diametrically opposite the stand on Sri Lanka’s alleged 40000 civilian deaths projected by them. Forked tongues do wag.
On the Iraq body check by Lancet, Channel 4 science reporter Tom Clarke defended the British Government by declaring “But the study’s main weakness, and the one highlighted by Downing Street in dismissing today’s figures, is that it multiplies a small sample across the whole of Iraq.A country at war, where people are aggrieved and displaced from their homes, makes household based surveys far less accurate” Fancy that, on 40000 civilian deaths in Sri Lanka, Channel 4 proclaims it without any basis, a pure hallucination number provided by the Diaspora and their foreign press legion , reflected in the Darusman Report. Where is the standard set for Iraq…”without bodies can we trust the body count”?. Interpretation is your pleasure and prerogative.
New Statesman (November 15,2004) reviewed Channel 4 body count to comment: “The BBC framed the report in terms of the government’s ‘doubts’ and Channel 4 delivered a hatchet job, based on Downing Street briefing”. Indeed, their master’s voice on her majesty’s service.
NATO Forces in Serbia bombed 33 hospitals,344 schools,144 major industrial plants in addition to churches,mosques, hotels, museums, libraries, theatres,farms including a passing passenger train and the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 78 days of continuous bombing.(www.lancet.com). Civilian deaths are irrelevant and military targets are immaterial, where NATO Forces operate. The death of the first US soldier in Afghanistan, Nathan Campbell received more media space than the aggregate deaths of all civilians. Concerns of the West can be measured by the reading shown on a foot-ruler beside the news print. If a single American dies it is front page news; if scores of Afghan civilians die due to cluster bombs-it is not worth a mention.
Government sources quote, Channel 4 has published 30 reports on Sri Lanka’s war against terrorism in addition to 4 video clips predominantly highlighting atrocities allegedly committed by the Security Forces.In its 27 year existence Channel 4 has failed to give similar prominence to any of the long list of war crimes committed by the LTTE though deemed a terrorist organization by 33 countries. Asking why is as benign as begging Transparency International to do an audit?
Did they ever report that all 595 child combatants were handed back to their parents after rehabilitation and of the 11598 LTTE senior combatants that surrendered 6130 are back home after being reconditioned to enter the mainstream of the society? More facts in favour are downstream. Naturally, hostility prevails after three of Channel 4 journalists were deported, found fixing a falsely concocted documentary film on the situation in Sri Lanka in April 2009.
In Fallujah in Iraq in 2004, US troops attacked its main hospital,shot the medical staff and patients, hit travelling ambulances, prevented the safe passage of emergency blood and medical supplies.Doctors narrated the killing of women and children carrying white flags. BBC reported none of it (John Pilger in his foreword to “Guardians of Power”) that made critics call BBC….B)ush and B(lair) Corporation. Security Forces engaged in the world’s largest hostage rescue operation on the banks of the Nandikadal lagoon were accused of attacking unmarked temporary LTTE medical centers and Aunty Beeb rushed to call for an international inquiry. NATO’s 33 bombed hospitals in Serbia seemed to have faded into BBC’s disturbed Alzheimer mindset.
The list is too long on BBC/Channel 4 misdemeanor, one writing is insufficient.
Are we on the brink of making a blunder too long by giving space to the LLRC -the all purpose vehicle- to report in mid November after the Human Rights Council gathers in mid September with the guillotine in hand to commit us to inquiry? Though respected, it’s another over 60 elders club, inclined towards slumber time. A speedy interim report recommending a detailed domestic mechanism must be placed before the Government and implemented forthwith. LLRC has to cure the Government’s lack of intellectual gravy; more interested in collecting flysmile bonus points doing their homework. Sri Lankans both at home and abroad do more to improve the image for the love of the country than our embassy staff.
At war, fight was against the LTTE; on war crimes we are pitted against the might that supported the LTTE silently from the sidelines,
November 16th, 2013 at 10:04 am
Can Sri Lanka expedite a motion at the UNHRC against Navi Pillai in good time to be relieved of dealing with matters pertaining to Sri Lanka on the grounds of “Conflict of Inerests” ?
November 16th, 2013 at 10:46 am
It is no secrete that we got trapped into a well laid out conspiracy by the LTTE rump and the Diaspora at International Level. If our External Affairs and the Diplomacy were vigilant and capable of smelling the rat in advance, we would never have allowed this so called “International Investigation” into the “Last Days (90 days)” of the war of eradication of the “Terrorist Outfit” and giving us the FREEDOM. We know who our DIPLOMATS” are and it is a shame to see that this all important service has been overburdened with mostly the proselytes over a long period of time. Excepting a few like Ms.Kunanayagam, we did not have “capable and skilled” persons to face the threat forced on us by the Diaspora and the other well looked after international operatives. I made reference to Ms. Kunanyagam,because she was the only one to expose the Canadian attempt made at a dinner party to bring in the Dhrusman Report through the back door and gave good attack on the Secretariat in yet another secret e-mail circulation. But in the end what happened to her.? It was another successful coupe organized by our own people and that is how our “Diplomacy” works. This weakness in this all important service is well exposed and exploited by the enemies of the country both within and outside. So no wonder we pay a high price.
At least now for the first time, I hear the President saying at the CHOGM : “Why only the last days of the war and why not the three decades (30 years) of our suffering”? Should not we have raised our voice and cry for JUSTICE for the human suffering that all of us (Sinhala, Tamil, Moor) underwent for thirty (30) years?. If these self styled “International Jurors” did not listen, we should have forthwith “withdrawn” in keeping with the example set by Israel. But unfortunately, we have not been brought up that way by our colonial masters. We were trained to be “under dogs” and always go on bended knees. Has that got into our “genes”?
November 16th, 2013 at 11:06 am
Well said, Douglas!
November 16th, 2013 at 11:59 am
And so it BEGINS … the NEXT round of the Water Torture of Sri Lanka ….. whose PRIMARY CRIME was that it Liberated Itself from Foreign Inspired and Supported TERRORISM through its OWN HERCULEAN EFFORTS, at great cost in blood and treasure, without ANY SIGNIFICANT HELP from the globally bungling pontificating pundits of the West!
Now ,WE AGAIN SEE the MONUMENTAL FOLLY of hosting the CHOGM, paying the price of empowering the Eelamist Separatists in the Northern Province, and FAILING TO REPEAL the 13th Amendment, and DISMANTLE the Provincial Council System for Good!
At least NOW, the GOSL should take these steps … better to be tarred and feathered for doing something to protect Sri Lanka, than for empowering separatists committed to destroying our Resplendent Motherland!
The CHOGM has GAINED Sri Lanka NOTHING … No Gratitude from Sri Lankan Tamils we liberated from clutches of terrorrism and No Support from the West for active cooperation in the global war on terror; Only more THREATS hurled, and MORE CUDGELS shaken, in our face!
It appears that Heroic Deeds and National Defence are RESERVED for these Abominable Imperialist Racists of the West waging genocidal wars across the globe with Impunity without any accountability exercised by the UN or the ICC.
Such Heroic Deeds are not for LITTLE BROWN MEN of Sri Lanka however smart, however skilled, however courageous, however cooperative, or however tolerant; they are the SOLE PRESERVE of the malignant West!
HYPOCRITES INCARNATE ALL geeting away with DOUBLE STANDARDS! Just tell them all TO GO TO HELL by the shortest route!
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Sri Lanka says confident to face any challenge before UNHRC, rejects UK PM’s ultimatum
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Nov 16, Colombo: Dismissing a deadline set by the British Prime Minister David Cameron, the Sri Lankan government today said it is confident of facing any challenge before the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
Addressing media, the Leader of the House, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said there is no justification for a predestined international inquiry and the government is confident to go before the UNHRC and face any challenge.
De Silva’s statement was in response to British Prime Minister David Cameron at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) where he issued a deadline to the Sri Lankan government to probe alleged war crimes and human rights violations by March 2014 or face an international probe.
The Minister asserted that Sri Lanka would resist any international inquiry as a policy.
He explained that there was no need for an international inquiry within such a short span of time and that the government has done well in the reconciliation process, a fact Cameron himself has admitted.
The UK leader said in his media brief this morning that the process of recovery and reconciliation after the three-decades of brutal conflict cannot take place in a few months or even in a few years.
According to Minister de Silva, the Sri Lankan government has been under pressure by the international community on previous occasions as well and it could not force the government to do wrong by the people.
November 16th, 2013 at 1:51 pm
After debacle of CHOGM (from Sri Lanka’s point) it is time for all of us to resolve to deal with all these matters with very much greater professional manner and immediately begin to attend to all the outstanding matters – We MUST hit out forcefullly at all the double standards and hypocrisy
November 16th, 2013 at 4:22 pm
Cameron is just REPEATING what that Tamilian woman PEE-ILLEY was saying. She set the March 2014 deadline.
Only 4 months to go. What investigation in 4 months!
November 16th, 2013 at 5:12 pm
The best way to fight propaganda is by the truth. Sri Lanka should have a station dedicated to the civil war and it’s aftermath that with video documentation show the role India played in creating and supporting the Tamil Tigers, what the Tamil Tigers did and who won the war and after the end of the war the rapidly spreading lies by the Tamil diaspora.
One must include that the reason the Sri Lankan Tamils are trying to find a home base in Australia is to do what they are doing in the UK. The LITE movement is far from over and the Tamil diaspora played a key role in financing them and with more illegal entries by Tamils the LITE will get new funding.
In such a situation the war footing of Sri Lanka has to keep in step. I would even suggest that both the northern and eastern provinces be further divided with areas with predominantly Sinhalese areas forming new provinces. Stand firm on the land and police powers no matter how much that cow Jayalalithaa screams human rights and turn the tables on her state to point to all the human rights violations Sri Lanka should take to the UN
No doubt the UN will do nothing about it. But once the evidence is placed then Colombo can demand that those charges of human rights incorporated in the Caste system, to slavery, to other issues have to be dealt first before demanding anything from Sri Lanka. Time to put India on the hot seat for once.
November 16th, 2013 at 11:46 pm
David Cameron may PANDER to his Tamil subjects by DEMONIZING and THREATENING Sri Lanka, but Australia RECOGNIZES a GOOD NEIGHBOR when it sees one and helps Sri Lanka curb sumggling of FAKE REFUGEES in Australia’s National Interest!
Jayawewa!
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Australia to give Sri Lanka two patrol boats to curb human smuggling
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Nov 17, Colombo: Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott has confirmed that Australia would give two patrol boats to Sri Lanka to curb human smuggling, an ABC report said.
The Prime Minister who is in Sri Lanka to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting has told the media in Colombo that two Bay class patrol boats will be given to Sri Lanka to boost the efforts by the island’s Navy to prevent people smuggling in the Indian Ocean.
The patrol boats that will be gifted to Sri Lanka under a memorandum of understanding are to be used for humanitarian purposes. Australia will also provide training to Sri Lanka Navy along with the boats.
The Australian Customs is in the process of upgrading its fleet and no longer needs the Bay class vessels, according to the Prime Minister.
The boats will be delivered to Sri Lanka Navy by mid-next year, the Prime Minister has said.
Last year former Australian Foreign Minister Senator Bob Carr announced a four-point plan to boost Sri Lanka’s capabilities to fight against people smuggling on boats from the island nation to Australia across the seas.
Under the plan, Australia will assist to strengthen the Sri Lankan navy’s on-water disruption capacity including through talks to identify materiel and equipment constraints and supply the island nation’s Navy with search and rescue equipment to help recovery of passengers from intercepted and unseaworthy vessels.
“It is important that Sri Lanka has an enhanced search-and-rescue capacity, an enhanced interdiction capacity and that’s what these two Bay class patrol boats will offer the Sri Lankan navy,” the Prime Minister has told the reporters.
The Australian PM and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on met on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Meeting on Saturday and the deal has reportedly been finalized during the meeting.
November 17th, 2013 at 1:44 am
Can’t Sri Lanka bring a no confidence motion against இல்லை சிறுநீர் (PeeEilley) woman ?
November 17th, 2013 at 2:22 am
CHOGM-
It was an own goal scored by Mahinda Rajapakse for Sri Lanka!
Instead of showcasing the incredible development and the beauty of the Island nation had to offer including investment potential, we were stuck with the “negatives” beamed across the world.
Not sure who advised the President to hold such a conference at this point in time at such enormous cost to us the tax payers.
The Jury is out awaiting verdict- My view would be a unmitigated PR disaster with a few positives.
Battle lines have clearly been drawn with the unrelenting HR issues (unfairly). The next 4 months is crucial for the President to address the issues in a professional and rational manner to gain the confidence and the support required from our friends at Geneva.
November 17th, 2013 at 12:55 pm
Australia to give Sri Lanka two patrol boats to curb human smuggling
Excellent!
The BEST OUTCOME of CHOGM. This is the only thing worthwhile in CHOGM.
SL spent $3 million and gained back $3 million so the net loss is $0!!
November 17th, 2013 at 12:57 pm
Can you see the REAL ENEMIES of SL in this CHOGM? Tamil homeland believers.
WHATEVER the problem SL faces, Tamils are the problem creators. The CANCER affecting SL.
November 17th, 2013 at 2:24 pm
Simplest solution is Tamil language shall be wiped out completely from Sri Lanka.
End of the story ! All will be Sinhalese, then only enemy would be the Saudis.