On Wednesday 26 March 2014, Lacuna magazine hosted a night of discussion and performance at the Frontline Club chaired by Maureen Freely, English Pen president.

ice&fire perform an extract of a new play based on the Sri Lankan civil war

Lesley McIntyre spoke first about her time spent photographing the RAF Greenham protest against nuclear weapons in the early eighties:

“What I saw at Greenham . . . it was a moment that was unprecedented, and an extraordinary ability to sustain a non-violent demonstration. . . . I always tried . . . to care about composition. . . . It was always trying to get an aesthetic image, a symbolic image that could be a metaphor for it.”

Freely:

“What struck me this time [watching McIntyre’s film] the aesthetic comes first. . . . It’s the aesthetic that makes you understand that something extraordinary is going on. It implies that . . . art is not separate.”

The birth of McIntyre‘s daughter, Molly, led to her leaving the Greenham project but led to the start of a whole new chapter in her life: Molly’s life with disability and her fight to get her into mainstream school. McIntyre documented the entire time through her photographs which eventually formed the book The Time of Her Life.

On finding the aesthetics within her photographs, McIntyre said that it only revealed itself when she started to slowly print up the images years later:

“I was suddenly aware that what I had recorded was a life effectively, from birth until death. . . . The edit almost revealed itself. . . . It would have been very hard to write, to describe her physical presence. . . . Photographs reveal that. . . . I really wanted to address that particular aspect and how beautiful she was.”

Laila Sumpton discussing found poetry #lacunalive pic.twitter.com/Pp2GTopQfy

— Lacuna Magazine (@Lacunamagazine) March 26, 2014

Laila Sumpton is a poet, member of the Keats House Poetry Forum and also works with young campaigners at global children’s charity Plan UK, to help empower young people to speak about their own lives. After reading from In Protest: 150 Poems for Human Rights, Sumpton said that laughter is a key emotion to fighting with words:

“Laughter is an incredibly powerful tool . . . to confront human rights abuses, to stand up to terrible situations and spin them on their head – spin the power structures on their head as well. There are a lot of very harrowing poems in [the book] but there are also a lot of poems which stand up and say, ‘No, we’re going to show you how ridiculous you are by using humour.’”

"Laughter is a choice between survival and defeat" Laila Sumpton #lacunalive

— Lacuna Magazine (@Lacunamagazine) March 26, 2014

Lacuna editor Andrew Williams and lecturer in law and creative writing at Warwick University said that after 20 years of working in legal terminology as a lawyer he became incensed by the constrained language and form he was forced to use.  He decided to take it out in creative writing, particularly his book A Very British Killing, which describes in minute and intense detail the case of Barha Mousa, who was beaten to death in the middle of a British military base in Iraq.

“The book is based on vigorous approach towards evidence . . . trying to look at more detail than you would possibly see in a court case, the detail that lies behind just the facts, the pettiness of the behaviour, which wasn’t overly abusive, just childish in it’s nature. . . . The aesthetic element of that is to try and break through the press reporting of it or the legal description in court, all very dry, all very mundane. . . . The aesthetic here is to try and get to a deeper truth.”

Maureen Freely, Lesley McIntyre and Andrew Williams discuss art and politics at the Frontline Club

ice&fire artistic director Christine Bacon started out as an actor in Australia. In 2001, the then-Australian prime minister John Howard refused a boat of asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Iraq entry to the country forcing them to be detained on the small island nation of Nauru for four years. The Australian people subsequently voted Howard back into parliament.

“These events are shocking enough in themselves, the most shocking thing to me was that 85% of the Australian public agreed with the actions of the government. . . . That was my moment, of just saying, ‘What? Why do I think differently to everyone else?’”

Christine Bacon on being inspired by the conduct of Australian govt towards asylum seekers in 2001 #lacunalive

— Lacuna Magazine (@Lacunamagazine) March 26, 2014

Bacon attended a meeting addressing the situation and heard a woman speak who had survived for three days in the ocean after around 350 people drowned around her.

“It was so vivid . . . this encounter with this woman, and I thought if only other people can have this experience, if only other people can hear what she’s saying in such an authentic and immediate way, surely things could change.”

ice&fire performed a short extract from a new play that addresses the Sri Lankan civil war. Bacon said she was shocked to find out about what happened in Sri Lanka:

“It was shocking in terms of its subject matter, but again the shocking thing was, ‘Why don’t I know this? . . . Why is this not common knowledge? . . . Why is Sri Lanka not being held to account for this?’ That was really the impetuous for how do we find a way to make this as vivid as these stories were for people who really have no idea it really happened.”

Really moving performance by @iceandfire about Sri Lankan civil war. Worth visiting @frontlineclub website to watch live recording

— R Omonira-Oyekanmi (@Rebecca_Omonira) March 26, 2014

An audience member asked, how do you stop these outputs from being purely aesthetic or on the reverse being swayed by government or NGO outlooks?

Bacon:

“Everything that we’ve done has been rooted in very detailed research and speaking to those people and making sure what is presented has an authenticity about it. . . . How can we authentically communicate something so complex difficult, full of all sorts of facets to people that are the lay-audience and make them understand this is something you should care about? . . . Because listen to that person. . . . It’s about this person, where they are and what they’ve been through, that’s why we should care. And that’s part of the power of art and expressive mediums.”

Watch or listen to the full discussion below:

Former BBC Sri Lanka correspondent, Frances Harrison, investigates on-going allegations of rape and torture by the Sri Lankan security forces for BBC Our World.

The documentary gives evidence of the Sri Lankan government security forces’ involvement in the torture and rape of Tamil civilians as recently as this year – four years after the end of civil war. A top British lawyer says the BBC’s new evidence could amount to on-going crimes against humanity being committed by the Sri Lankan government.

These allegations have come as Tamils flee Sri Lanka and seek refuge in Europe and elsewhere. Many would only be interviewed anonymously for fear of retribution against their relatives back in Sri Lanka and, because of the stigma surrounding rape in Sri Lanka, victims fear bringing shame on their families. However for the first time some of them have agreed to tell their stories on camera and shared their confidential medical reports because they say they want to try to prevent similar attacks on others.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with:

Frances Harrison, BBC Correspondent in Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2004. She has worked at Amnesty International as Head of News and is the author of Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka’s Hidden War.

Sonya Sceats is policy and advocacy manager at Freedom from Torture, one of the world’s largest rehabilitation centres. She is an international human rights law expert and oversees Freedom from Torture’s country reporting program which has produced numerous research publications and advocacy on post-conflict torture in Sri Lanka.

Callum Macrae is a filmmaker and journalist who has reported, filmed and directed many award-winning documentaries for Channel 4, the BBC and Al Jazeera English among others. HIs most recent film is No Fire Zone – The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, chronicling the final 138 days of the 26-year Sri Lankan civil war.

Chaired by Sadakat Kadri, a writer, and a barrister at London’s Doughty Street Chambers. At the beginning of 2013, he acted as rapporteur to a mission convened by the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute to investigate the impeachment of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice Bandaranayake. The report can be downloaded here.

This event is organised by BBC Global News.

On 5 November, No Fire Zone was shown at Riverside Studios  as part of a series of Between the Lines follow up events hosted by Frontline Club and DocHouse. This documentary chronicles the last 138 days of the civil war in Sri Lanka, revealing the brutal tactics employed by the Sri Lankan army and government against the Tamil population. The screeninng was followed by a lively Q&A with director, Callum Macrae, who introduced the film as evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and warned the audience to prepare themselves accordingly for the images they were about to see.

The film uses footage taken by civilians, Tamil Tigers and government soldiers, plus testimonies from civilian survivors and UN officials, forming a harrowing and disturbing picture of the final stages of the 26-year civil war, where an estimated 40,000 – 70,000 Tamil civilians were massacred by the government’s military. The title of the film refers to the government-allocated no fire zones that were set-up as safe areas for Tamil civilians, which the military then purposefully attacked.

All the footage used in the film has been authenticated as genuine by forensic pathologists. However, as Macrae told the audience, the Sri Lankan government continues to maintain that the videos in the film, which have mostly been taken using camera phones or satellite phones, are fabrications, as are the estimated death count and disappearances.

The Sri Lankan government has strongly opposed the release of this film, using their influence to pressure other countries into preventing screenings. A recent Malaysian screening was raided and one of the organisers was arrested for censorship charges, facing a possible three year prison sentence. Macrae is also having problems obtaining an Indian visa to attend screenings of the film, an application process which he started in February.

One audience member asked why the videos and photos of the atrocities presented in the film did not make it into our news media or social media the same way images from the Arab Spring did? Macrae responded that the Western media needs to ask themselves that question, as the images did make their way onto the Internet, as events were occurring, and British Tamils were staging large campaigns and protests to draw attention to the atrocities.

The Sri Lankan government dismissed the videos as propaganda. They were able to gain international support from allies, as much of the world already viewed the Tamil Tigers as terrorists, and were able to hide behind a ‘shameless’ adoption of the West’s rhetoric of the “war on terror”, creating a ‘conspiracy of silence’, Macrae said.  This view was challenged, towards the end of the session, by a Sinhalese audience member who accused the film and Channel 4 of bias against the government, which was vehemently rejected by Macrae.

Much of the Q&A focused on the lack of action by the international community. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is due to be held in Colombo towards the end of November, despite criticism from international human rights organisations. Currently the only government who has expressed their opposition to this decision is Canada, who will boycott the conference.

The film depicts the UN leaving Sri Lanka, and presents testimonies from former UN staffers on their distress over this decision, and the abandonment of their role as protectors. Macrae was also critical of the UN, noting that the Human Rights Council passed a resolution congratulating Sri Lanka on ending the civil war. He stated that the UN made no real effort to intervene while in Sri Lanka, and strongly believes that they consciously concealed information about the number of deaths by preventing information being revealed during the time. Furthermore, Macrae added:

“I believe [that by staying there] it wasn’t just that it was complicit in what was going on, it provided an active cover for what was going on, because . . . people were assuming the UN was providing some kind of monitoring process. I think, in a sense [the UN] facilitated the ongoing massacres by saying nothing.”

He did, however, acknowledge that some progress has been made since, in part due to his film, and is hopeful that the UN’s criticism of Sri Lanka’s actions will grow stronger. He noted that the film has been shown to UN delegations also, with positive responses.

Congrats to @Callum_Macrae on powerful documentary showing truth to power #NoFireZone pic.twitter.com/2oFxaYPJZX

— James Denselow (@jamesdenselow) November 5, 2013

Many audience members wanted to know what they could do as individuals, and what the international community is doing or should be doing to hold Sri Lanka to account. Macrae stated that the intention of the film was to increase awareness of the war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government and hopes that it will be used as a form of evidence for justice in the future. He continued:

“Without justice you can’t have peace and reconciliation, and to get justice you need truth”

He asked that everyone put pressure on the UK government, by contacting their MPs and the Prime Minister, to remain true to their promises to raise these issues with Sri Lanka during CHOGM.  He pointed out that David Cameron maintains that it is a better decision to participate in the conference to bring attention to the issues, but that the government has made no sign of opposing Sri Lanka’s actions.

Macrae remains hopeful, however, that India, an influential country in the region with a large Tamil population, will decide to boycott CHOGM. He told the audience that he has received threats over his decision to travel to  Sri Lanka during CHOGM, due to the opposition to this film.

A shortened version of No Fire Zone can be viewed on Channel 4 4od and there are a number of international events lined up.

The Frontline Club hosted an evening of reflections marking the publication of Granta 125: After the War on 17 October. Two correspondents shared their personal views on developments on the ground, after the battles are fought and the camera teams have moved on to cover other wars.

From left to right: Roma Tearne, Frances Harrison and Lindsey Hilsum

Roma Tearne, Sri Lankan artist, filmmaker and novelist, spoke to Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor for Channel 4 News who covered the Rwandan genocide and Frances Harrison, former BBC Correspondent in Sri Lanka.

Watch it back and listen to the podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/granta-125-after-the-war-with

[vimeo clip_id=”57211223″ width=”400″ height=”225″]

No Fire Zone – The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, chronicles the final 138 days of the 26-year Sri Lankan civil war. Told by the people who lived through it, the film builds on two award winning television documentaries by director Callum Macrae.

Civilians, Tamil Tiger camera operators and government soldiers filmed the events using small cameras and mobile phones. This disturbing footage is carefully analysed and authenticated by video analysts.

Macrae pieces together the scenes with personal accounts from civilians who survived the conflict and testimonies from UN officials who were forced to leave the area. The Sri Lankan government contests the depiction of events shown in No Fire Zone and dismisses the documentary as fake.

Directed by Callum Macrae
Duration: 90′
Year: 2013

Between the Lines was a three-day festival that took place at Rich Mix from 1 to 3 March. In a series of follow up events we continue to explore the challenges facing documentary makers, investigative journalists and citizen reporters in the new media landscape.

Presented by:

Supported by:

Chaired by Roma Tearne, a Sri Lankan born artist, film maker and novelist. She trained at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art and has published five novels. Her latest novel, The Road To Urbino, was long-listed for the Asian Man Booker prize.

Lindsey Hilsum is an internationally respected and admired communicator from the world’s most dangerous flashpoints. She is International Editor for Channel 4 News and has covered the major conflicts and international events of the past two decades. She spent most of 2011 reporting on the Arab Spring, primarily in Libya but also in Egypt and Bahrain, and is the author of Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution. In ‘The Rainy Season’, published in Granta’s After the War issue, she returns to Rwanda twenty years after witnessing the beginning of genocide.

Frances Harrison worked for many years as a foreign correspondent for the BBC posted in South Asia, South East Asia and Iran. From 2000-2004 she was the resident BBC Correspondent in Sri Lanka. She has worked at Amnesty International as Head of News and is the author of Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka’s Hidden War.

https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/granta-125-after-the-war-with

On 23rd April 2013, The Frontline Club held the first UK preview screening of award winning television director Callum Macrae’s new documentary, No Fire Zone – The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka.

No Fire Zone uses forensically verified footage from civilian mobile phones and government forces cameras to chronicle the last 138 days of the 26 year long Sri Lankan civil war between the Sinhalese led government and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE).

The film documents with sometimes disturbing footage the barbaric onslaught and effects of shelling by Sri Lankan government forces on the self-proclaimed no fire zone in the northeastern region of Sri Lanka known as the Vanni. Macrae says that the film is evidence of war crimes by the Sri Lankan government led by president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

. @Callum_Macrae – if there are any #lka govt reps here they will say that this evidence is fake. It is not. It has been checked.

— Tamil Guardian (@TamilGuardian) April 23, 2013

But why didn’t the UN or any international governments recognise the atrocities at the time? Macrae answered:

 “Sri Lanka had an extraordinary breadth of support because of its strategic position . . . and because the world powers like to deal with a single government there was an extraordinary alliance in support of, or at least looking the other way, whilst the Sri Lankan government did this.”

On interviewing Sir John Holmes, former Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator of the UN, Macrae seemed still shocked at how out in the open officials were being about the facts, yet not doing anything about them:

“To start with, I thought he was being a whistleblower. I thought he was exposing what happened and then I realised that actually behind it was an extraordinary cynicism that this is exactly what the leadership and the highest hierarchies of the UN thought, which is basically ‘we will put our fingers in our ears and we’ll close our eyes and we’ll hum loudly and hope that not too many people die.’ An absolutely appalling neglection of the UN’s duties.”

Why does Rajapaksa and his government continue to target the Tamils, which now only makes up about 15% of the Sri Lankan population?

“It is important to understand the kind of culture that exists . . . [it] is a kind of ultra-nationalist, singular paranoia . . . which fails to distinguish between Tamil civilians and Tamil fighters. [It] basically sees enemies around every corner.”

Macrae emphasised that the same people who are seen to commit the war crimes in his documentary still occupy positions of power. Rajapaksa is still president and scheduled to chair the next Commonwealth leaders meeting at the end of 2013. His brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, is Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka and General Shavendra Silva, who was director of operations in the civil war, is now Sri Lankan Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.

“This is not some kind of historical, academic exercise which we’re saying we need some kind of justice or accounting or truth telling for historical reasons. The situation . . . is absolutely desperate. Repression continues . . . this is a very live issue. This has to be confronted. As Vani said at the end [of the film], there is a generation of very angry young Tamils who watched the world betray them and allowed these massacres to happen. The world now has an opportunity and a duty . . . to ensure that justice is done.”

In UK @frontlineclub @nofirezonemovie discusn- @Callum_Macrae "legitimate grievances of the #Tamil people have been ignored."

— Aust Tamil Congress (@austamilcongres) April 23, 2013

Having already screened No Fire Zone in the Hague and in Geneva, Macrae will be running a Kickstarter campaign over the next month in order to fund a worldwide tour of the documentary including visits to Africa, Latin America and Australia. Find out details on the No Fire Zone Twitter feed soon. Macrae ended by saying:

“It would be a tragedy if this did not get seen around the world. . . . [We need to] tell people what happened because they don’t know.”

Watch the trailer for No Fire Zone – The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gask0NJajug

[vimeo clip_id=”57211223″ width=”400″ height=”225″]

No Fire Zone – The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, chronicles the final 138 days of the 26 year Sri Lankan civil war. Told by the people who lived through it, the film builds on two award winning television documentaries by director Callum Macrae.

Civilians, Tiger camera operators and government soldiers filmed the events using small cameras and mobile phones. This disturbing footage is carefully analysed and authenticated by video analysts, and shows the extreme violence against Tamil civilians and bombing of hospitals by the Sri Lankan armed forces.

Macrae pieces together the scenes with personal accounts from civilians who survived the conflict and testimonies from UN officials who were forced to leave the area. The Sri Lankan government contests the depiction of events shown in No Fire Zone and dismisses the documentary as fake.

Directed by Callum Macrae
Duration: 90′
Year: 2013

But rather than refer the country to its Ministerial Action Group, which deals with persistent or serious violations of the Commonwealth’s values, the 54-member body is responding to international concerns by training the country’s journalists in human rights reporting.

The move is part of a programme of constructive engagement being pursued by the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s office, which it said is producing practical outcomes.

Richard Uku, the Director of Communications and Public Affairs at the Secretariat, said there were “no discussions around relocating the 2013 CHOGM” and that “preparations remain underway” to hold the summit in Colombo as planned. Furthermore, referral to the action group, reserved for members out of step with Commonwealth principles and values was not the first option in such circumstances, Uku added.

Journalism remains a dangerous profession in a country that had seen the death of one editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, and attacks on other reporters, the most recent on 15 February, where a journalist looking into corruption was shot and seriously wounded.

Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group have also called for Sri Lanka’s referral to the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) over its delay in implementing the 2011 Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report. Both organisations recently published reports detailing alleged human rights abuses, including sexual violence, and worries over the independence of the judiciary.

The LLRC, signed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, promised greater autonomy for the Tamil population following its comprehensive defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by Sri Lankan armed forces in 2009.

The UN estimated that between 40,000 and 70,000 civilians died during the final stages of the war, and recently new photographs have emerged that appear to show the execution of a 12-year-old boy, the son of a Tamil Tiger leader. The images form part of a documentary called No Fire Zone, released to coincide with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) meeting now taking place in Geneva. A Sri Lankan army spokesman said the country had been a repeated victim of “lies, half truths, rumours, and numerous forms of speculations”.

What happens next?

The US is sponsoring a resolution at the UNHCR meeting, backed by the UK, expressing concerns of continuing human rights violations and threats to judicial independence, one year after both countries backed a similar move.

Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Mary Robinson, former Irish president, together described the situation as a ‘test’ for the Council. In a jointly written article for The Times of India, they said:

“Other crises have flared in the past year: Syria and Mali . . . rightly feature high on the Council’s agenda. The case of Sri Lanka offers a different test: of the Council’s ability to hold governments accountable when global attention has turned elsewhere.”

UK Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said in a twitter Q&A last month that Sri Lanka should “live up to its commitments as a Commonwealth member”. His words drew an angry response from journalist Frances Harrison, who covered the country for four years as a BBC correspondent.

“It is shocking if the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting takes place in Colombo – it sends a message that this is a club of countries that cares not a fig about crimes against humanity,” Harrison said.

Harrison, author of Still Counting The Dead, criticised both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan army in her book for alleged abuses of international laws governing conflict.

Meanwhile Indian diplomats must calculate whether to risk upsetting Colombo by backing a strong US resolution or incur the ire of Tamil Nadu politicians by ignoring their demands.

The Commonwealth Secretariat is engaged in a ‘partnership’ that includes support for the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and is, according to Mr Uku “exploring options to provide technical support to the HRCSL in staff training; expanding training of police personnel on human rights obligations; enhancing the training of journalists on human rights reporting; bolstering capacity to be involved in national reconciliation processes; and strengthening capacity to investigate human rights abuses”.

However, the Commission’s independence is unclear – according to the 1996 Act of Parliament that established the body, the chairman is a Presidential appointee.

A UK Foreign Office spokeswoman added that no decision has yet been made on attendance at the forthcoming Commonwealth meeting, saying that while the LLRC left a number of gaps and unanswered questions, the UK expects the Sri Lankan Government to implement its recommendations ‘in full’.

Epitomising the troubled state of Sri Lanka post-conflict, an impassioned panel spent Wednesday night disputing the truth. Facing an equally ardent audience, they proved that the country has a long way to go before reconciliation will become a reality.

Chaired by BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur – who summarised the evening’s topic as “highly contentious [and] still hugely controversial” – the discussion first focused on two films broadcast by Channel 4: Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields and Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished. Callum Macrae, director of both, clashed repeatedly with Professor Rajiva Wijesinha MP, government advisor on reconciliation who dismissed Channel 4’s work as illegitimate and “sordid.”

Wijesinha stated that while the film was not necessarily false, he believed it to have been “doctored”, although did at times direct his criticism at an earlier Channel 4 news item rather than the films under debate. Macrae rejected the suggestion that he had been an apologist for the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) as “nonsense”, and was later backed by an audience member who described a “very clever propaganda film [by the government] refuting the Channel 4 film” as “an excellent piece of editing.”

Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s Sri Lanka researcher, weighed into the debate by describing the government’s “merely cosmetic” act of lifting the state of emergency last year, and recounted ongoing disappearances and systematic torture. Foster served as a voice of calm in the panel – although criticised by Wijesinha as “avenging”, her measured tone helped her avoid heckles steeped on other panellists.

In December, Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission released a report on atrocities committed during the civil war. Foster said on careful reading the report was “good”, although pushed for the government to move forward with the Commission’s recommendations.

While the panellists failed to agree on the portrayal of war crimes by media and human rights groups, they broadly stood for legal remedies. Wijesinha deflected a question from Sackur about whether anyone had been prosecuted for wartime atrocities, but stated clearly that he was frustrated by delays in pushing the judicial process forward.

Arun Thambimuttu, a Tamil political activist, argued that atrocities were widespread over a 30 year period rather than just a few months, and committed by all sides. Recognising this, Jan Jananayagam, spokesperson for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), stated that prosecutions must cover the breadth of the war:

“The judiciary has failed. I don’t agree that the government has an opt-out clause; that because they didn’t deliver justice for 30 years they won’t do it now.”

The international community has taken a much lesser role in post-conflict resolution and by all accounts momentum from within Sri Lanka seemed lacking.

“The international law which governs the behaviour of all governments around the world applies to Colombo, and that is something we cannot escape from,”

Sackur reminded Wijesinha, as tempers seethed throughout the room.

After two hours, a ceasefire was called on the divided panel. One audience member summarised the withering hope of reconciliation:

“If this is the reaction you get sitting in London; what chance do you have?”

Watch the full event here:

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