Prabhakaran's son killing video authentic, claims Channel 4

London, Mar 15: The chilling footage of killing of slain LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran's 12-year-old son Balachandran, which sent jitters down the spine is "authentic", said Britain's

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The Sri Lankan government earlier questioned the authenticity of the video calling it "concocted". [Read: Prabakaran's son killed: Sri Lanka indicts DMK, apologises]

Callum McCrae, director of the documentary-Sri Lanka's Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished, said that the footage which shows the young boy's with his body bearing bullet holes, lying besides his "slaughtered bodyguards" was examined by Professor Derrick Pounder, a "respected forensic pathologist". [Read: 'Karunanidhi did nothing for Tamils in Sri Lanka']

According to Channel 4, they also got "a series of high-resolution stills of the scene" which was examined by him. [Read: LTTE fabricated videos to gain propaganda advantage: ex-rebel]

"Professor Pounder believes he has identified first of the shots to be fired at the boy. It is possible, he suggests, that the boy may have been made to watch the execution of his bound and blindfolded guards before the gun was turned on him," said Callum McCrae. [Read: Prabhakaran son's killing: Gruesome video screened]

It is also claimed that, while Balachandran was escorted by security personnels, they found out that he was Prabhakaran's son.

"He had been seen with five escorts [going] to surrender. I got to know at a later stage that they [security forces] found out that he was Prabhakaran's son," said the leaked document.

"We've examined the document and found it to be genuine. It is a chilling new evidence of Sri Lankan security forces' systematic policy of executing many surrendering or captured LTTE fighters, even if they were children," said McCrae.

He further said that the video looked like it was shot as a "grotesque trophy video by Sri Lankan forces". It shows the 12-year-old lying on ground with bullets in his body besides his bodyguards. The clothes lying around on the ground suggests that they were tied and blindfolded before being executed.

"The blindfold of Balachandran appeared to have been removed before he was shot," said McCrae.

"It investigates who was responsible — the results point to the highest levels of the Sri Lankan government and complicity at the top of the army. It forensically examines four specific cases. The cases are: the deliberate heavy shelling of civilians and a hospital in the ‘No Fire Zone'; the strategic denial of food and medicine to hundreds and thousands of trapped civilians … and the systematic execution of naked and bound LTTE prisoners," said McCrae.

"We want Delhi to be sensitive to feelings of the Tamils and support the U.S.-led resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva India must stand for justice now,"said spokesman Suren Surendiran, Global Tamil Forum seeking India's intervention into the matter.

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