User:Astronomyinertia/SLWork

Astronomyinertia/SLWork
Genre	Documentary
Presented by	Minoli Ratnayake
Narrated by	Minoli Ratnayake
Country of origin	Sri Lanka
Original languages	English, Tamil
No. of episodes	1
Production
Producer	Ministry of Defence, Sri Lanka
Production location	Sri Lanka
Running time	58 minutes
Original release
Release	August 1, 2011 (2011-08-01)

Lies Agreed Upon is a documentary produced by Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence in response of a doucumentary aired by Channel 4, named Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, about the final weeks of the Sri Lankan Civil War. The documentary points out a number of facts potentially concealed by the producers of the Channel 4 documentary, who presented it as "a forensic investigation into the final weeks of the quarter-century-long civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the secessionist rebels, the Tamil Tigers." The government documentary was first aired at an official function held at Hilton Hotel, Colombo on 1 August 2011. Ministry of Defence released another report named Humanitarian Operation – Factual Analysis : July 2006 – May 2009 on the same day.

The documentary shows a number of interviews given by ex-LTTE cardres, ex-IDPs, residents of Vanni area, government doctors who worked inside the LTTE held territory during the period etc. It also includes scathing criticism of the eye-witnesses produced by the Channel 4 video and the alleged "trophy videos" by Sri Lankan soldiers.

Background

In June 2011, Channel 4 broadcasted the documentary named Sri Lanka's Killing Fields which made a number of allegations about the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War. It had a devastating impact on the reputation of the Sri Lankan government and the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. The documentary claimed that the government was responsible for targeted shelling of civilians, extrajudicial executions of prisoners and rape, sexual assault and murder of female LTTE fighters. The presenter Jon Snow claimed that the government was responsible for the deaths of as many as 40,000 civilians towards the end of the war. He went so far as to claim that "[o]nce or twice in a reporting lifetime, a journalist is allowed by events to participate in a project that can affect history. The film...is a painful and complex team achievement...which...pieced together an account of what happened in the closing weeks of Sri Lanka’s civil war." The resulting backlash prompted the Sri Lankan government to produce its own documentary, highlighting the factual inaccuracies and the facts may have been concealed by the producers of the Channel 4 documentary.

Special screenings

A special screening of the documentary was held at the United States Congress, at a gathering hosted by the Congressional Caucus on Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan Americans on 2 November 2011. The screening included a panel discussion of Sri Lanka's 26-year conflict.

The documentary was also screened at the Attlee Suite, Portcullis House of the British parliament on 13 October 2011. The event was organized by the Sri Lanka High Commission in London. It was followed by a dialogue with Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, and Sir Peter Heap, Chairman, Friends of Sri Lanka group in the European Parliament.

Another screening was held at the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium of United Nations Headquarters, at the invitation of the president of the United Nations Correspondents Association, on 6 September 2011.