LTTE chief's 12 year-old son was 'executed', footage claims

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Slain Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son Balachandran's body is shown stripped to the waist and with five bullet holes to the chest.

Britain's Channel 4's shocking new video could expose Sri Lanka's alleged war crimes even as the country's foreign minister valiantly fights off a US resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva - demanding an immediate probe into atrocities by Lankan soldiers.

Embarrassment for India too

The explicit footage from May 18, 2009 is being screened at the FIFDH film festival in Geneva and will be aired by Channel 4 on Wednesday at 10.55 pm (04.25 IST Thursday). It could not only embarrass the Sri Lankan delegation at the UNHRC session, but will also make Team India hugely uncomfortable, considering that foreign minister S.M. Krishna and his officials have dropped enough hints in recent days to suggest Delhi 'would do its best to bail out Colombo'.

The footage is believed to be a 'trophy video' shot by Sri Lankan troops present during the cold-blooded execution of the Prabhakaran family, towards the end of the Eelam war.

Reporting on the video, Independent of UK said the boy was shot from close range and there were also bodies of five men, perhaps his bodyguards — with shreds of clothing lying nearby suggesting they were blindfolded and executed. The paper quoted forensic pathologist Professor Derrick Pounder saying it was 'possible the boy was made to watch the execution of his bound and blindfolded guards before the gun was turned on him'.

He might have 'reached out before being shot'

The professor also had another shocking claim.

"There is a speckling from propellant tattooing, indicating that the distance of the muzzle of the weapon to this boy’s chest was two to three feet or less. He could have reached out with his hand and touched the gun that killed him," the Independent quoted Prof. Pounder saying.

Another frame shows two international UN workers leading the last United Nations food convoy as they got trapped within a 'No Fire Zone'. With help from civilians, they dug bunkers for protection against constant shelling and one of them, Australian Peter Mackay even conveyed the location through precise GPS coordinates, to the Lankan government. Despite the call for help, the shelling continued - killing dozens.

"It was all photographed by the UN workers," Independent said.

Anger and hope

Global Tamil Forum spokesperson Suren Surendiran has said the latest Channel 4 expose 'is further evidence to prove that the Sri Lankan government including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and the highest ranking military officials are complicit in committing war crimes and crimes against humanity'. He has also expressed hope India 'will do the right thing by supporting the US resolution at UNHCR'.

Meanwhile, the Lankan High commission in London has dubbed the latest footage as 'highly spurious and uncorroborated allegations' and said the film had 'chosen to ignore the many positive post-conflict developments now taking place in the country'.