Mullaitivu regional director of health services Thurairaja Varadaraja told Frances Harrison in the programme that they had been kept at the fourth floor of the CID, where they had practice sessions before the media briefing, which was to be attended by pro-government journalists.

They had been ordered to tell the media that they had given civilian casualty figures of the war under duress by the LTTE.

July 2009 media briefing

This media briefing was held at the Media Centre for National Security of the Defence Ministry in Colombo on 08 July 2009, where five doctors who had served in the Wanni during the final stages of the war said that the LTTE had ordered them to exaggerate the civilian casualty figures.

They said that between 650 and 750 civilians had died during January to May 2009, with less than 650 wounded.

But, he told ‘Witness’ that intelligence officers had threatened him that he would not be able to undergo crucial surgery for serious wounds he had suffered during a shell attack, if he refused to do their bidding at the media briefing.

He said he was ashamed and felt guilty to have said that he had to give figures to the contrary, although more than 40,000 civilians had died in the war.

The doctors had been promised to be freed within one week, but had been kept at the fourth floor for three more weeks.

In May 2009, health ministry officials said they would take disciplinary action against these Wanni doctors for giving false information from the war zone.

Wikileaks also reported that these doctors had participated in the media briefing under duress, jdslanka.org reports.