Now that the war is over in Sri Lanka, the government has no more excuses not to allow foreign journalists into the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps and the previous conflict zones.

In fact, when the conflict was going on, the Sri Lankan government should have allowed foreign journalists in to let the world know the true story. Not allowing these journalists in on the pretext of safety is just a lame excuse. Obviously, the army and the government were trying to hide something.

The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry's website showed a video of the body of the late Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief, Veluppillai Prabhakaran being retrieved from a lagoon. The video was shot by TV crewmen from Rupavahini , a Sinhalese news station. Sri Lanka soldiers were seen rejoicing upon seeing the dead body of Prabhakaran.

My question is, if Rupavahini crewmen were allowed in to follow the Sri Lankan army during the conflict, why weren't other international media such as CNN , BBC and Al-Jazeera allowed to cover the conflict? Obviously, Sri Lanka had something to hide from the world. No other country has done this to international media, blocking it from covering news eagerly sought by an international audience.

Right now there is news coming out from the IDP camps that girls are being raped and youths are being taken away by the Sri Lankan army to be tortured and killed. These are innocent Tamil civilians, NOT terrorists. The Lankan government lied by saying that it knows better.

The international community has become impotent in stopping this dastardly act of genocide against the Tamil people. The karmic consequences are sure to follow.

Meanwhile, media organisations should keep on pressuring the Sri Lankan government to allow them in to report the truth to the world. That is the duty, the work ethics of media -- to tell the truth, nothing but the truth to the world. Otherwise, it will be seen to be an accomplice to falsehood and in time lose all respect due to it.

The Sri Lanka army and government may claim victory over freedom fighters it had labelled as terrorists. It will do nothing to quell the racial and religious chauvinism that in the first place gave rise to this 25 years of conflict that brought about untold suffering and pain to the Tamils, Sinhalese and even the Indians.

It is now up to the international media to do something to report the complete truth and help defeat chauvinism in all its ugly forms so that the island once and for all is rid of acts of terror by people from both sides of the divide.