Disturbing new images have emerged of the dead body of the 12-year-old
son of a Tamil leader that researchers say could prove he was executed
by Sri Lankan government forces.
The photographs of Balachandran Prabhakaran, son of Velupillai
Prabhakaran, head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, were taken in
May 2009 at the end of the government’s conflict with the rebels.
The first pictures appear to show the child in the custody of Sri Lankan
forces and he is seen sitting on a bench wrapped in a blanket and
eating some food but photographs taken hours later on the same camera
show him lying on the ground, topless and his chest riddled with bullet
holes. He has five holes to his chest and experts say he was shot at
close range. ....continue to see the second picture but warning: Graphic
content below...
The pictures, which feature in documentary No Fire Zone, show the boy
was alive when he was captured and was executed later, says the film’s
director Callum Macrae.
He told The Independent: ‘They show he was held, and even given a snack, before being taken and executed in cold blood.’
A picture taken hours later shows the boy lying dead on the ground with
up to five bullet wounds to his chest The Sri Lankan government have
always claimed that Balachandran was killed in cross-fire but Mr Macrae
said the photographs ‘rule out’ that possibility.
Mr Macrae said the fact that the boy’s dead body was photographed is
also alarming. He said: ‘That these events were also photographed and
kept as war trophies by the perpetrators is even more disturbing.
The body of Villupillai Prabhakaran was showed on state television in
May 2009 as Sri Lanka’s government declared an end to its 26-year civil
war. There were also suggestions he had been shot at close range as part
of his skull was missing.
Sri Lankan army spokesman Brigadier PR Wanigasooriya told The
Independent that there had been repeated ‘lies, half truths and rumours’
said about the country
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