Sri Lankan rally image doctored to add Tamil Tigers symbol

An image has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook posts that they claim shows Sri Lankan anti-government protesters waving flags bearing the symbol of the Tamil Tigers, separatist rebels who waged a decades-long civil war against the island nation’s government. The image, however, has been manipulated to add the Tamil Tigers symbol to the flags. The original image shows protesters at a May Day rally waving flags bearing a union logo.

The image was shared here on Facebook on May 2, 2022.

It has been shared more than 270 times.

The image appears to show a group of protesters waving red flags bearing the symbol of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist militant group also known as the Tamil Tigers.

the group was crushed by government forces in 2009, when incumbent President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the island nation’s top defense official, ending a decades-long ethnic civil war that claimed the lives of at least 100,000 people.

The Sinhala text on the image appears to suggest that the protesters calling for the resignation of “Gota”, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, over his government’s handling of an unprecedented economic crisis, are supporters of the LTTE.

“Independent LTTE representation of non-partisan protest ground. May 1, 2022, Galle Face #gotagohome #prabhakarancomeback,” the text reads.

The post’s caption reads, “There wasn’t one [person] with a backbone at the protest site?”

circulated after May Day demonstrations in which Sri Lanka’s divided opposition came together to call for the ouster of the Rajapaksa and his powerful ruling family.

The image was also next to a similar claim. here Y here.

The claim, however, is false; the flags have been retouched to add the symbol of the rebel group.

A keyword search on Facebook found East photo posted on May 1 by Thilina Kaluthotage, a photographer who has been covering the public protest in gall facenear the office of the beleaguered president.

In your photo, the flags do not show the LTTE symbol.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the image from the misleading Facebook posts (left) and the original photo (right):

Thilina told AFP that her photo had been doctored.

“The red flags in the photo were carried by the workers from the free zones who joined the commemoration of May Day in Gotagogama,” he explained.

“gotagorangetranslates to “Gota Go Village,” the name protesters have given to the stretch of Galle Face near the president’s office.

More photos of the workers’ demonstration were published on East album on his Facebook page.

Closer examination of Thilina’s original image confirmed that it shows flags bearing the Free Trade Zone workers’ union logo, as seen in the following comparison:

Flags can also be seen on East live broadcast from Gotagogama entitled “May Day of the protest! At the site of the protest!”

Anton Marcus, general secretary of the Free Trade Zone Workers’ Union, told AFP that the red flags in the image bear his logo.

AFP has debunked a wave of misinformation since protests erupted in early April 2022 over the Sri Lankan government’s handling of the country’s economic crisis, including here, here and here.