NEW DELHI: The director of a controversial war film on Sri Lanka streamed it free online in India on Sunday, after censors banned its theatrical release over fears it may strain friendly ties with Colombo.

Callum Macrae, the British director of “No Fire Zone: The killing fields of Sri Lanka”, said the film will also be available free in Malaysia, Nepal and Sri Lanka — the other countries where its general screening has been banned.

The 93-minute film is a collection of footage recorded in Sri Lanka's northeast by doctors, civilians, rebels and soldiers as the government allegedly bombarded areas teeming with refugees trying to flee the fighting.

The documentary has been contested by the Sri Lankan government as propaganda to discredit Colombo in the eyes of the international community.

In a statement, the producers of the film said the Indian censor board had banned its release on the grounds it “may strain friendly relations with Sri Lanka”.

Macrae said India's reluctance to release the film hurt him the most, given the country's deep-rooted tradition of democracy and free speech.

“I find it very disturbing that a country whose independent history is rooted in the struggle for democratic rights and free speech should have taken what is, in effect, an act of overt political censorship,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.

In protest against the ban, the documentary was screened on Sunday in the southern Indian city of Chennai by a student's group.

Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu state where millions of ethnic Tamils share close cultural and religious ties with their counterparts in Sri Lanka.

The ruling Congress party is seen as being soft on Sri Lanka because it does not want to alienate potential Tamil supporters with elections due by May 2014.

Officials of India's Central Board of Film Certification were not immediately available for comment.

The ban on the film comes after the Indian government last year refused to grant a visa to Macrae to attend the premiere of the documentary which was screened in private in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Rights groups say up to 40,000 civilians were killed by security forces in the final months of a no-holds-barred offensive in 2009 that ended Sri Lanka's decades-long fight against Tamil separatists.

Sri Lanka denies causing civilian deaths and President Mahindra Rajapakse sees himself as having brought peace to the Indian Ocean island.

Macrae said he hoped the film's release online will spur a debate ahead of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva starting March 3.—AFP

Opinion

Editorial

Judiciary’s SOS
Updated 28 Mar, 2024

Judiciary’s SOS

The ball is now in CJP Isa’s court, and he will feel pressure to take action.
Data protection
28 Mar, 2024

Data protection

WHAT do we want? Data protection laws. When do we want them? Immediately. Without delay, if we are to prevent ...
Selling humans
28 Mar, 2024

Selling humans

HUMAN traders feed off economic distress; they peddle promises of a better life to the impoverished who, mired in...
New terror wave
Updated 27 Mar, 2024

New terror wave

The time has come for decisive government action against militancy.
Development costs
27 Mar, 2024

Development costs

A HEFTY escalation of 30pc in the cost of ongoing federal development schemes is one of the many decisions where the...
Aitchison controversy
Updated 27 Mar, 2024

Aitchison controversy

It is hoped that higher authorities realise that politics and nepotism have no place in schools.