The British Channel 4 documentary titled Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields aired last Tuesday has brought on a fresh onslaught of international wrath on the alleged war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan army during its last and victorious offensive against the LTTE, the Khaleej Times online said in an article titled 'Of war crimes and double standards' published on June 17 2011.

Three decades of war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, proscribed as a terrorist faction by most countries and organisations, including the UN, the UK and the US, shredded the country’s economy and growth by the end of the war in 2009, the article acced.

The documentary is disturbing enough. For those who have little or no background knowledge of one of the worst guerrilla onslaughts on a country for 27 years, the film would leave them siding with politicians asking for a war crime trial for the country’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow uses subtle and persuasive journalism tools and phrases like “unequal war” and “oppressive president” to leave an indelible final impression of the Sri Lankan army and its government as the bad guys.

There is just a little bit of film on the Tigers, who “cannot be distinguished from the civilians”, according to Snow, using Tamil civilians as human shields. But that’s about it.

To think that anything would be fair in war is a fallacy. If the film were factual, killing civilians is wrong. Raping and molesting women cadres is wrong. Shooting at a naked and bound terrorist is wrong. Even if it is done by soldiers who have reached the end and have seen their men mutilated, shot and hacked to death, POWs tortured, women and children raped and decapitated by terrorists, it is still wrong.

Read the full text of the article at: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2011/June/international_June662.xml&section=international&col=