Times expert authenticates Sri Lanka's Channel-4 war-crimes video

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 04:51 GMT]
Following independent verification by a US-based group of the authenticity of the Channel-4 video in October, UK's Times reported in its Tuesday edition that its own independent analysis of the Channel-4 broadcast video, showing Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers summarily executing unarmed Tamils stripped naked and hands tied behind the back, found "no evidence of digital manipulation, editing or any other special effects." Times' forensic analyst, Grant Fredericks, is an independent forensic video specialist who is also an instructor at the FBI National Academy, the paper said.

Mr Fredericks’s research showed that code embedded in the footage appeared to match with software used in Nokia mobile phones.” He said: “The recording is completely consistent with a cell phone video recording and there are no signs of editing or alterations,” according to Times.

The Times UK report closely matches the key findings by the US Colorado-based Image and Sound Forensics (ISF) experts who performed the analysis on behalf of US pressure group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG). Colorado ISF's report, parts of which appeared in the Sunday Leader, had previously confirmed, "[t]he video and audio of the events depicted in the Video, were continuous without any evidence of start/stops, insertions, deletions, over recordings, editing or tampering of any kind."

While, Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions had earlier declared the video investigations by the local 'experts' appointed by the Sri Lanka Government as "not impartial."

However, Philip Alston's assertion that UN will conduct its own investigations on the authenticity of the video has not materialized.

Meanwhile, TAG spokesperson when contacted by TamilNet said, "While we have published the summary of the findings, ISF is due to provide TAG a detailed technical report detailing the analysis carried out."