Macrae releases another documentry: Sri Lanka: The Search For Justice.

Callum Macrae behind the controversial Emmy-nominated feature documentary No Fire Zone  have launched a new short film, Sri Lanka: The Search For Justice. It calls on the international community to listen to the voices of the Tamil victims who are calling for an international accountability process to ensure truth and justice.

The half-hour long video coincides with the long anticipated publication of the international war crimes investigation, ordered by the United Nations Human Rights Council 18 months ago in Geneva. It will be made live to an international public initially in English and Spanish, with translations in Tamil, Sinhala, French and Hindi to follow on-line in the next few days.

Sri Lanka: The Search For Justice is currently being taken on an international preview tour through five Latin American countries – Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Mexico – by No Fire Zone director Callum Macrae. He will then travel to the United States to screen the film and meet politicians, government officials and human rights activists in both New York and Washington.

From there he will take the film to Geneva, where it will be screened in the Palais de Nation, the Human Rights Council’s headquarters.

Macrae said that should the UN endorse such a domestic inquiry against the wishes of the victims it would represent a betrayal of the UN’s own principles: “The UN has very clear principles on the role of victims in any transitional justice programme, principles which make it clear that you cannot impose a mechanism on the victims. The victims must be involved in its design and have confidence in it,” he said.

“It would be very wrong if the Human Rights Council endorsed a process seen by the victims as a victor’s court. It would be a tragedy should the Human Rights Council tell the victims they must submit themselves to a process they can’t trust to guarantee their safety, let alone give them a fair hearing.”

Macrae called on the government of Sri Lanka to demonstrate its commitment to peace and reconciliation by accepting that an international accountability process – examining crimes by all sides in the war – was the only way forward.