How MEDIA and HR Groups purposely misinterpreted Ban Ki Moon’s Panel of Expert Report
Ban Ki Moon the UN Secretary General appointed an Advisory Panel to ADVISE HIM on the final phase of the war in Sri Lanka. That advisory panel was not an officially UN General Assembly or UN Security Council endorsed panel and that may explain why its report ended up being ‘leaked’ and thereafter becoming quoted and referred to as an officially sanction international UN document – which it is not. However, it has suddenly been projected as an officially sanctioned UN document when it is not.
The below examples showcases how the PoE’s conclusion that “there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths.” ended up with media and advocacy groups claiming that the GOSL and its troops KILLED, BUTCHERED 40,000 and more CIVILIANS while these same parties SUBSTITUTED the word ‘EVIDENCE’ when the PoE referred to “ALLEGATIONS”. With the current UN Human Rights sessions in progress under a New Human Rights head it is prudent that Governments, their envoys and other diplomats place the importance of how NGOs/HR organizations and Media have impeded reconciliation as well as being responsible for lies and distortions and some action needs to be taken against them.
HOW MEDIA DISTORTED AND ABUSED THE REFERENCE TO 40,000 CIVILIAN DEATHS
India Today | “Tens of thousands lost their lives from January to May 2009 …”
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/sri-lanka-in-denial-over-war-crimes/1/147691.html
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NDTV |
“Some United Nations national staff members and dependents were forcibly recruited, including a 16 year-old girl. UNICEF verified and documented 397 cases of child recruitment, including 147 girls, by the LTTE, between 1 January and 19 May 2009, but the actual number of forced recruitments going on during that period is presumed to be much higher.“ http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/documentary-24×7/sri-lanka-white-lies-and-brute-force/210479 |
PBS |
“Violations reported under SC Resolution 1612 indicated that 199 children were killed and 146 maimed from 1 January 2009 to 19 May 2009, although the “actual number of casualties is likely to be higher.” http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june11/srilanka1_06-15.html |
ABC (Australia) |
Sarah Drury – April 26, 2011 “The much-awaited release of the report contains the first UN’s estimate of the death toll. It says that 40,000 civilians were killed as they were trapped between the two sides and it blames government troops for most of those deaths.” |
ABC Four Corners – |
Kerry O’Brien – 27/06/2011 “… when 40,000 civilians were killed, as the 25 year civil war between the Government and the secessionist Tamil Tigers was coming to an end.” ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs concluded that Kerry O’Brien breached the ABC Code of Practice: “Audience and Consumer Affairs concluded that the statement by Kerry O’Brien was in breach of 2.2 of the ABC Code of Practice. A correction has been posted on the ABC online corrections page, which is available at the attached link; http://abc.net.au/news/corrections/” An explanation was added on the ABC website: “Four Corners, 27 June 2011 Summary published: Tuesday 02, August 2011 Complaint: A viewer complained that the presenter made an inaccurate statement at the end of the program when announcing the content of the following week’s program. Finding: Upheld against 2.1 ABC Editorial Policies (11 April 2011) Audience and Consumer Affairs response: The ABC acknowledged that reasonable efforts were not made to ensure that material facts were accurate. In commenting on the upcoming report ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’, the presenter stated that 40,000 civilians were killed as the 25 year civil war in Sri Lanka was coming to an end. The statement should have noted that the figure of 40,000 dead was an estimate from a UN panel report, not an established fact”. |
ABC Four Corners |
Kerry O’Brien – 04/07/2011 While introducing the Channel 4 documentary on 04/07/2011, Kerry O’Brien claims: “… but this time it relates to the brutal slaughter of humans, an estimated 40,000 of them.” |
ABC Asia Pacific Focus – 25/03/2012 |
“The UN estimates Sri Lanka’s civil war claimed between 80,000 and 100,000 lives*, with casualties soaring in the final months of the conflict. It’s believed that no fewer than 40,000 people died during the government’s final offensive against the Tamil Tigers. And that is now the focus of United Nations pressure on Sri Lanka to investigate alleged war crimes. South Asia correspondent, Richard Lindell, reports on Sri Lanka’s post war reconstruction. … But there’s deep suspicion that some of these areas must contain the bodies of 40,000 civilians the UN estimates were killed in the last months of the war.” |
BBC Sinhala |
Udani Wimalaratne – 06 July, 2011 “’40,000 civilians killed’ However, according to a report by the UN expert panel set up by the Secretary General, around 40,000 civilians were killed during the war in Sri Lanka.” |
BBC Hardtalk |
Stephen Sackur – 5 July 2011 “The UN panel setup by the Secretary-General reckons that there is credible evidence that 40,000 civilians were killed in that final phase of the war.” |
BBC |
Charles Haviland – 24 February 2012 “The death toll figure is consistent with an early United Nations estimate, but it’s much lower than the estimated 40,000 deaths given by a report commissioned by Ban Ki-Moon last year.” |
Channel 4 (UK) |
Channel 4 documentary “Killing Fields” The “Killing Fields” documentary confuses a “few weeks” for the “5 months” referred to in the Darusman report: “The United Nations panel has now concluded that as many as 40,000 people died in the final few weeks of the war.” |
Channel 4 News |
Foreign Editor, Ben De Pear – Saturday 10 March 2012 “The UN estimates at least 40,000 people, mostly civilians were killed in a matter of weeks.” Comprehension does not appear to be a prerequisite to be an editor at Channel 4. |
India Today / Headlines Today |
Priyamvatha and Rajesh Sundaram – August 10, 2011
India Today / Headlines Today incorrectly claims: “The UN says over 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed during the last stages of the 30-year civil war in Sri Lanka. NGOs put the figure at over a lakh and fifty thousand.” India Today / Headlines Today misunderstood “as many as” to mean “over”. You would expect a credible media organisation to name the NGOs that are claiming a death toll of 150,000 civilians. Ironically the article concludes with: “Truth, expectedly, is the biggest casualty in the 30-year conflict in Sri Lanka.” The opening paragraph of the article must have been intended as confirmation. |
NDTV |
Mohuya Chaudhuri, Divakar Mani, K Jaganathan – September 10, 2011
India’s NDTV:“Towards the end of the war, the UN says, around three and a half lakh Tamils were trapped in a narrow sliver of land, designated as safe zone by the Sri Lankan army, and over 40,000 were wiped out as the war reached its climax.” It appears NDTV has misunderstood “as many as” to mean “over”. |
PBS (USA) |
PBS News Hour – June 15, 2011
“The UN has reported that at least 40,000 civilians, more than half the toll for the entire war, died in the final months of the fighting in late 2008 and 2009.” PBS was first to present a unique take on the Darusman report, it seems to have misunderstood “as many as” to mean “at least”. |
Sydney Morning Herald |
Ben Doherty – May 14, 2011 The article claims: “It has always been sparsely populated, but in the aftermath of a war in which the UN estimates 40,000 civilians were killed and more than 300,000 displaced – out of a population of about 700,000 – a lack of people is now a very real problem.” The UN did not estimate 40,000 civilian deaths. |
Sydney Morning Herald |
Ben Doherty – August 3, 2011 The article claims: “The government’s Humanitarian Operation statement comes three months after a report by a panel of UN experts found that ’’tens of thousands’’ of civilians were killed in the final days and weeks of the war.” The Darusman Report is quite clear that it is referring to the final five months. |
Sydney Morning Herald |
Josephine Tovey, Dan Oakes – October 18, 2011 The article claims: “A UN report this year found up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the final weeks of the war against the separatist Tamil Tigers, and found government troops bombed no-fire zones, hospitals and food supply lines.” The Darusman Report is quite clear that it is referring to the final five months. |
Ten (Australia) |
Ben Doherty, Ten (Australia) – 17th October 2011 The 6:30 program anchored by George Negus claimed: “The United Nations believes 40,000 civilians were killed …” The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Investigation Report No. 2762 concluded: “Given that the statement failed to include the qualifying references to ‘as many as’ or ‘a range up to’, the ACMA considers that the licensee breached clause 4.3.1 of the Code in this instance.” Furthermore, the television channel did not respond to the complainant and hence also breached clause 7.11 of the Code: “TEN apologises to the complainant for not providing a substantive written response as required under clause 7.11. The complaint was passed on to a program staff member to respond directly to the complainant. Unfortunately, the person subsequently left TEN News after the cancellation of the program without a response being sent and other staff being unaware of the outstanding obligation.” The program has been canned. |
The Age |
Ben Doherty and Josephine Tovey – October 18, 2011 “A UN report this year found that up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the final weeks of the war, and found that government troops bombed hospitals and food supply lines.” The Darusman Report is quite clear that it is referring to the final five months. |
The Australian |
Catherine Philp – April 26, 2011 “UN report finds up to 40,000 people were killed by Government forces in final days of Sri Lanka’s civil war Catherine Philp From: The Times April 26, 2011 8:09AM … DELIBERATE shelling of civilians by government forces may have killed as many as 40,000 people in the closing stages of Sri Lanka’s civil war, a leaked UN war crimes report has found.” The Australian acknowledged the error and chose to remove the offending article: “The article, sourced from The Times, stated that a UN war crimes report had found that 40,000 Sri Lankan civilians were killed by government forces in the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war. The Australian accepts that the UN report’s estimate of 40,000 deaths referred to civilian deaths overall, and not specifically to those people killed by Government forces. We have accordingly removed the article from our website. Please note, that The Times story did not appear in print in our newspaper.” Ironically, the official response itself contains a factual error. |
The Guardian |
Andy Bull – 4 June 2011
The article claims: “The UN estimates that 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed.” |
The Hindu |
R. K. Radhakrishnan – February 24, 2012
“The United Nations Secretary General’s Expert Panel on Accountability issues in Sri Lanka has said that upwards of 40,000 civilians were killed.” |
The Independent |
Callum Macrae – 11 March 2012
“Last year, a special panel of experts appointed by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, suggested that as many as 40,000 civilians died in the last few weeks of the war” Callum Macrae misinterpreted the five months referred to in the Darusman report to mean a “few weeks” in his documentary too, Channel 4’s “Killing Fields”. |
The New York Times |
MANU JOSEPH – February 27, 2013
“They estimate that more than 40,000 Tamil civilians died in the final months of the war.” |
The Vancouver Sun |
Jonathan Manthorpe – January 18, 2013
“A United Nations panel appointed in April 2011 by secretary general Ban Kimoon says as many as 40,000 people were killed in the final weeks of the war and has called on the Rajapaksa administration to account for what happened.” |
The Washington Post |
Simon Denyer – July 6, 2012
“The United Nations has called for an investigation into the final stages of the civil war, accusing the Tigers of using civilians as human shields but also accusing the army of indiscriminate shelling and of denying civilians access to humanitarian aid. It estimates that 40,000 innocent people may have died.” [84] The error was corrected immediately and an annotation acknowledging the error was added: “Correction: An earlier version of this article described the United Nations as estimating that 40,000 innocent people may have died in the civil war in northern Sri Lanka. That is the high end of the estimate; the world body says at least 7,721 and as many as 40,000 civilians were killed. This version has been revised to reflect that estimate.” The revised article now states: “It estimates that at least 7,721 and as many as 40,000 innocent civilians may have died.” |
Times of India |
Paul Newman – Jul 3, 2011 “BANGALORE: Nearly 1,00,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the war in Sri Lanka during the final stages of civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a report by a committee of the United Nations said. The International Committee of the Red Cross ( ICRC) has estimated that nearly 14,000 wounded Tamil civilians were evacuated by ship from a no-fire zone in Sri Lanka during the end of war. Of which, the Committee said, 5,000 civilians were amputated and nearly 70,000 children died of starvation during the war in 2008. Political Science professor Paul Newman from Bangalore University on Saturday presented these statistics quoting from a UN panel report headed by Marzuki Darusman, Steven Ratner and Yasmin Sooka.” The Times of India claims that the UN Advisory Panel report said there was a civilian death toll of 100,000 during the final stages of the war. The Times of India is attributing this to a presentation by Paul Newman
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Human Rights Watch |
Kenneth Roth – Executive Director – – Mar 24, 2012 “In the last stages of the war, the Sri Lankan army indiscriminately shelled the Tigers trapped on a beach. Along with them, 40000 civilians too were killed.” |
UN Watch |
Hillel Neuer – Executive Director of UN Watch – March 22, 2012
“In 2009, after an estimated 40,000 civilians were killed by Sri Lanka …” |
INDIVIDUALS
INDIVIDUALS
DBS Jeyaraj – 22 February 2012 “The UN Panel headed by Darusman found “credible evidence” that the Sri Lankan army had killed tens of thousands of civilians in the final stages of the war against the LTTE.” |
Gordon Weiss – former UN spokesperson in Sri Lanka – July 10, 2011 “But a UN report in April this year went further. The UN’s panel of experts detailed credible evidence that the same army systematically bombarded so-called no-fire zones sheltering civilians; deliberately bombed hospitals overflowing with wounded women and children; withheld food from starving people; and murdered prisoners.” |
The New York Times editorial has made the same mistake
– by Shenali D Waduge
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