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An explosive report on the much disputed video showing footage of ethnic Tamils allegedly being murdered by men attired in Sri Lankan military uniform has been handed over to the US State Department.

In a controversial turn of events, a United States company specialising in forensic services has in a preliminary report maintained that no tampering or editing was carried out in either the video or audio portions of the controversial Channel 4 video clip which showed a man in Sri Lankan military uniform executing civilians.

The Sunday Leader has obtained exclusive access to the preliminary report issued by this company, whose services were sought by the US based Tamils Against Genocide organisation.

The preliminary report issued on October 8, ruled that, “the video in question appears to be consistent with a video that was recorded on a camera cell phone.”

“The 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,” the preliminary conclusions said.

Until the final report is released The Sunday Leader has been asked to refrain from naming the company.

It was also disclosed in the report that, the audio delay with respect to both gun shots’ audio compared with each corresponding rifle recoil is consistent for some, if not most, camera cell phones that are capable of video recording.

The report also disclosed that the preliminary field test with a typical camera cell phone of similar audio qualities (per header information in Exhibit “A”), was able to record a MAK-90 (AK variant w/16” barrel) gun shot w/7.62x39mm ammo, with the camera cell phone being positioned in a similar camera field of view of the 2nd gun shot, or 12 feet away from the muzzle, without any distortion of the audio.

Meanwhile, Government’s defence spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella shot down this latest development claiming there were some INGOs and members of a diaspora working overnight with the terrorist organisation hell bent on discrediting the country.

“We have put forward clear scientific evidence to Channel 4, challenging their video clip, and they have not come back to us, this is what matters to us. We do not take notice of those who issue reports from various countries and borders,” Rambukwella added.

Published: Oct 18, 2009 5:25:38 GMT