By Robert Stevens

After a long period of silence Philip Alston has returned to us armed with the questionable (read: forged) Channel 4 video provided by JDS (Journalists for Democracy). Unfortunately Mr.Alston has proven to be a wrongly motivated and at times incompetent individual who was put into silence when this forged video first came out and the Government of Sri Lanka offered a powerful and unquestionable rebuttal to it.

The detailed technical analysis that was made widely available and conducted by Siri Hewa a foremost expert in communication, video technology and media proved the video was filmed not with a mobile (as claimed by Channel 4, JDS and Alston) but with a proper video camera then uploaded in mobile phone format. The sound was not in sync which means it was dubbed in; both factors involved in production of the video explain away the presence of the other flaws.

Furthermore the basis of this video being real (as in the Sri Lanka Army) was that the shooters are wearing what looks like Army uniforms (which anyone can purchase) and are speaking Sinhala (if you listen to the Sinhala spoken it is completely nonsensical barely audible garbage). The logic is equivalent to some Tamil getting stabbed or run over and a Sinhalese happening to be in the vicinity jogging in grey/green tracksuit automatically being responsible.

In AlstonƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s recent media conference following his re-emergence he pretends that the expert technical analysis carried out by Siri Hew did not happen. Yet in his “rebuttal” he has got his “experts” to counter these aspects of the technical analysis used in the Government response while ignoring that significant and primary part of the Government reply when trying to ridicule the Government to further contribute to the impression the video is authentic. (See AlstonƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s statements here: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/08/content_12773261.htm)

Accordingly he is not interested in who filmed the video and justifies this in the context of the time stamps being out of place. The time stamps indicate the video was produced in July 2009 while JDS who provided the video claim it took place in January 2009. July 2009 is the same time JDS suddenly appeared in Germany. Now does this not question the integrity of JDS itself? The main reasoning behind the video being from Sri Lanka and genuine is entirely based on JDS claim that it is from Sri Lanka, taken from a mobile phone “smuggled” out of Sri Lanka from a soldier and the shooters are wearing Sri Lanka Army uniforms and speaking Sinhala. Not only are these extremely weak foundations of “evidence” (as highlighted above, anyone can dress in Army uniforms and speak Sinhala), Siri HewaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s technical analysis proved that the sounds (the Sinhala and wind) has been dubbed in.

Origins and Regulations:

What really takes the icing is that they will not ask JDS for the original video and JDS has not provided it, nor has JDS identified the source (to Alston, Channel 4 and friends) to then inform Sri Lanka. Where did it come from, who provided it to JDS, who filmed it and where (most probably it was filmed by JDS itself in corroboration with the LTTE going by the fact that Sunandra Deshapriya, the head of JDS is a well known money hungry LTTE sympathiser, a crook and cheat who was fired from his own Western funded NGO the “Free Media Movement” for theft of funds who then fled the country to avoid being jailed for tax evasion) would defiantly accelerate identifying who the shooters.

Of course that is not the purpose of this video, it is ambiguous on purpose because it is not there to bring anyone to justice or identify any human rights violation.

The entire purpose behind this fraudulent exercise is to attack Sri Lanka to justify intervention, sanctions then regime change.

It also explains why Alston keeps flouting regulations and common courtesy with regards to matters like this. When this forged video first came out he sends one message to Sri Lanka then appears in front of Western media (no less) with a completely different message contradicting the one he gave Sri Lanka. When disproved the first time (as he will again be disproved) he did not run as fast he did to the media to hold another loud mouth press conference. Instead he said the Governments investigation was “not independent” because it was carried out by Sri Lankans.

Amazing don’t you think? And racist too.

First they make false accusations and demand Sri Lanka to investigate (if Sri Lanka does not then Sri Lanka is “hiding” something) when Sri Lanka does investigate it is “not independent”. So based on this twisted logic they deem it necessary for their “external” team to come here (and provide more concocted claims and stories). It all points to the one obvious conclusion and that is intellectual frauds like Alston, his organisation the UN and its bosses are not genuine in their “crusades” (the rest of the world is amply aware of the nature of the UN). And of course Alston and friends (AI, HRW) were stunned by Sri Lanka’s first rebuttal (which still stands credible) and the reality is Sri Lanka cannot bring anyone to be arrested/charged for these so called “war crimes” and “human rights abuses” because for the former there is no proof and latter are extremely trivial (like: “bad words used”, “they did not ring the door bell” and the suicide bomber who blew himself up trying to assassinate the Defence Secretary was declared “abducted, tortured and disappeared” by his mother). The “claims” are either exaggerated or are false (along with the “evidence” which is also fabricated and baseless -built more on repeating the same old lies/”anonymous witnesses statements”). Even more twisted is the manner in which they use this lie (non-existent “war crimes”) to make another lie (that Sri Lanka is “not investigating war crimes”) to fulfil/justify their pre-set agenda of intervention/saving the LTTE etc.

Certain Western countries are deeply frustrated with the current Sri Lankan Government because it refused to listen to their bids to save the LTTE (Sri Lanka gave a diplomatic “get out” to Miliband and Kouchner when they came here personally to stop the war, failing that, demanding safe passage for the LTTE leadership at least, which got the same response). It also ignored their “requests” that Sri Lanka stop strengthening ties with China, which was one of the first things it did when it came to power ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…”obviously a big no no. Clearly they really miss their “alternative power” in Sri Lanka (Western media was weeping when the war was declared over) and want to collapse the current pro-Lankan Government to keep Sri Lanka forever politically unstable, economically depressed and socially broken.

Mr. Alston and the 3 Experts:

The best part of Alston’s much delayed, long waited and interestingly timed response is that when the Channel 4 forgery first came out he stated enthusiastically “its real!, its real!” barely minutes after Channel 4 aired it.

When Sri Lanka provided its technical evaluation over the video first he was stunned, then he still proclaimed “its real!, its real! IƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢m sure!” with the added gem: “your investigation into the video was not independent because it was done by Sri Lankans!” (Well such racial prejudice is to be expected; more so from Mr. Alston, he is after all a White Australian).

Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s response was “disprove the technical evaluation (you fraud)”.

A much embarrassed Alston was silenced and disappeared with a dangerous silent anger mixed with frustration growling with in him over what was a very public humiliation. Then coinciding with Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s upcoming Presidential Election he suddenly reappears with his “powerful experts” months later to do exactly what Sri Lanka ordered him to do, disprove the technical evaluation. And that is what he has attempted.

All his “experts” say is that the discrepancies in the video which prove it to be a forgery are “within acceptable parameters”, “realistic movements” and that “none of it shows there to be manipulation” even though there is plenty of it, in fact there should be no obvious and noticeable discrepancies and technical flaws in the video in the first place if it is genuine.

And that is all they do. They take point by point Siri HewaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s rebuttal (which Alston previously behaved as if was non-existent) and say “its real! its real!”.

See here: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/executions/index.htm,

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Lanka-execution-video-authentic-says-UN/articleshow/5422023.cms

Whats the best part is this:

“He added that there are a small number of characteristics of the video which the experts were unable to explain, including the movement of certain victims in the video, 17 frames at the end of the video, and the date of 17 July 2009 encoded in the video (the conflict was officially declared over in May 2009).”

Well why can the “experts” not explain that? Which Siri Hewa’s technical analysis did? Simply because the footage has been edited heavily, dubbed to add the Sinhala (extremely flawed Sinhala at that) then the wind sound, then corrupted by the manner in which the video was converted from video camera format into mobile phone format.

Most of the other allegations against Sri Lanka which have been rolling out as fast as the LTTE started to retreat from Mavil Oya are all the same as this one: baseless and fraudulent, but repeated plenty of times they turn from a “free flow” into “fact”. UN, HRW, AI and Western countries which have screamed non-stop about “war crimes/human rights” to justify intervention and halting the war (out of a desire to perpetuate and exasperate conflict than prevent it) have struggled to give a shred of proof for any of their allegations. And still fail miserably.

Presidential Elections and the second coming of Mr. Alston:

The timing of this all is intriguing. With up coming Presidential Elections in Sri Lanka with two contenders, pro-Western and (surprisingly) anti-Lankan Sarath Fonseka against pro-Lankan Mahinda Rajapakshe it is clear a covert message is being sent to the people in Sri Lanka that if they do not vote for the “right” candidate there will be consequences. It is part of a bid to set up a base of operations to interfere in Sri Lanka and fully “internationalise” the country and sanction it if it does not play ball. The overall goal is to “tame” Sri Lanka through shame and force it to fall in line with West and punish the nation at the same time for defiance, all due to the crime of the incumbent Government trying to ensure peace, security and human rights for ALL of Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s communities and crucially ending a war that has only benefited fraudsters and foreigners.

Returning to Alston and the video what is most striking and needs to be reiteratedƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ is that JDS, the group who provided this video, who’s founder is a well known NGO fraudster, thief and LTTE sympathiser (in it for the money) who is extremely unethical in his own conduct in his original job as a “media rights activist” (also did that for money) has not given Alston the original video, nor has Alston asked for it. They could easily identify the source for Alston, or the source can tell where he got it from and keep going from there until they get to who the men are, or narrow it down. Then Alston can pass the information onto Sri Lanka. But the fact is they are not interested in that. There is such ambiguity behind the video; you cannot tell who the shooters are in the video, you cannot tell who the people being shot are, you cannot tell where the location where the video was filmed, so how on earth is Sri Lanka supposed to arrest or charge anyone? What kind of investigation can Sri Lanka hold to find out who did it? The reality is those championing “war crimes” against Sri Lanka are not bothered either. The whole point in this video is to attack Sri Lanka.

The only basis for the video being “real” is that the shooters are wearing what looks like Sri Lanka Army uniforms and are speaking Sinhala (the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-uniformsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ have no insignia markings and the faces of shooters cannot be seen properly either).

Anyone can get his or her hands on what looks like an Army uniform.

The Sinhala spoken in the video is nonsensical and barely audible. What can be heard is absolute rubbish with not a single coherent sentence (Alston and JDS are not interested in provided a full translation of what is said either). Yet this is how Alston and the UN is charging Sri Lanka for crime it did not commit and truthfully the UN nor Alston is actually interested whether it is authentic. There lack of genuineness is face smacking and obvious. The Channel 4/JDS video has authenticated one thing and that is the nakedness of todayƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s human rights crusaders who very much wear with pride the same caps as yesterdays imperialists and occupiers who excelled in human slaughter, abuse and exploitation.