News: witnesses

Accusations of fakery and political bias have been Sri Lanka’s stock in trade in the face of allegations of serious war crimes. When The Times reported the estimated civilian death toll of 20,000, based on unofficial United Nations figures, the Government responded by claiming that not one non-combatant had perished. When The Times published aerial photographs that had been analysed by defence experts depicting how civilians were caught in government shelling, Colombo dismissed those images too as fakes. The photographs were taken by a Times reporter and other journalists on Sri Lankan military helicopters flying the UN Secretary-General across the battle zone. Sri Lanka’s campaign to wage a “war without witnesses” has meant that much of what has emerged about what happened has come from photographs, video and documents, as well as testimony from those trapped there.