SRI LANKA: War report a step forward, say activists

SRI LANKA: War report a step forward, say activists

humanitarian news and analysis
a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Thousands of civilians died in the conflict

COLOMBO, 3 August 2011 (IRIN) - Sri Lankan rights activists say the Defence Ministry report released on 1 August, acknowledging for the first time civilian deaths in the final days of the war, is a step forward, but caution that much depends on the government’s next move.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but a lot will depend on the next step by the government - whether it is willing to engage or whether it will harden its stance,” Jehan Perera, director of the Colombo-based think-tank, the National Peace Council, told IRIN.

Thousands are believed to have died in the decades-long war between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who had been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983.

According to the 161-page government report: "It was impossible in a battle of this magnitude, against a ruthless opponent actively endangering civilians, for civilian casualties to be avoided.”  read more
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Victims of war deserve closure

  Gulf News Editorial  Published: 00:00 August 3, 2011
 
Sri Lanka must allow probe into allegations of rights abuses during 25-year civil strife
The defeat of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka ended a 25-year civil war and brought peace, stability and economic expansion to the island nation. But, as is often the case, in the aftermath of the war there have been allegations of war crimes by the government forces as they secured victory over Tamil extremists — themselves guilty of terrorism.
The United Nations special investigator, among others, has said that there is serious evidence of human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings towards the end of the war. The Sri Lankan government has dismissed the claims.
Despite the Sri Lankan government's reservations, the truth must be uncovered — if not to punish the guilty, at least to give the families of the victims closure, and perhaps compensation. This will also make it clear to those involved in conflicts, anywhere in the world, that they will be held publicly accountable for their actions, even in war.
One of the greatest challenges facing countries with a legacy of war is to remember the lessons of the past while building a future for all.

Article continues below

Sri Lanka must commit itself to good governance, the rule of law and human rights as the country moves beyond the war.

President personally phones newspaper’s chairman to threaten him

Published on Tuesday 2 August 2011.

 Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns the threats that President Mahinda Rajapaksa made in a phone call to the chairman of The Sunday Leader, Lal Wickrematunge, on 19 July because of an article reporting that China had given the president and his son, parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, money to be used “at their discretion.”

“We are extremely shocked that the president personally phones journalists in order to threaten them.” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is unacceptable that The Sunday Leader, Sri Lanka’s only independent English-language newspaper, should be subjected to such pressure. If the president disagrees with an article, he can respond to it and explain himself in the media. That is how issues are discussed in a democracy.

“We condemn the president’s action as irresponsible. A country’s president is supposed to set an example. But Mahinda Rajapaksa is setting a bad one. It says a lot about the degree of respect he feels for media independence and his political readiness to establish the conditions needed for media freedom. We urge him to change course.

“This is not the first time that a news media has been threatened by members of the Rajapaksa family. We urge the president to put an immediate stop to these warnings and threats against journalists. We also urge Sri Lanka’s media to join together in condemning such behaviour, which can have a real intimidatory effect on the entire media profession.”

When Wickrematunge received the call from President Rajapaksa on 19 July, the president shouted: “You are writing lies, outrageous lies! You can attack me politically, but if you attack me personally, I will know how to attack you personally too.” Around 100 posters with the words “Do not lie!” and “The gods will punish you” also appeared on the walls of the newspaper’s headquarters. (see picture)

Rajapaksa’s call was prompted by an article that editor Frederica Jansz published in the newspaper two days earlier reporting that China had made a grant of 9 million dollars to the president and half a million dollars to the president’s son, to be used “at their discretion.” The newspaper’s attempts to contact the president for an explanation had been unsuccessful.

The Sunday Leader has long been targeted by the government. Lal Wickrematunge’s predecessor at the head of the newspaper, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was murdered on 8 January 2009. The murder was not investigated properly and the culprit was never caught, in a clear sign of ill-will on the part of the authorities. Reporters Without Borders reiterates its call for a proper investigation.

Lal Wickrematunge took charge of the newspaper after his brother’s murder. Now he is the target of intimidation attempts too.
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Sri Lanka's formal response to war crimes allegations

Updated August 2, 2011 21:51:23

The Sri Lankan government has formally conceded that civilians were killed by security forces in the final offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009.

The Defence ministry's report entitled Humanitarian Operation -Factual Analysis" follows a damning Channel 4 British television documentary of government atrocities and an earlier UN report that blames both sides for crimes against humanity.

Correspondent: Kanaha Sabapathy
Speakers: Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's Defence Minister; Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asian Director of Human Rights Watch; Dr Jehan Perera, Director, National Peace Council

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SABAPATHY: On the first anniversary of the crushing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, president Mahinda Rajapakse had insisted that not a single civilian was killed by his troops. Speaking at the victory parade in June last year he said "Our troops carried a gun in one hand and a copy of the human rights charter in the other."          Read More >

Journalist in two divided demos

02 August, 2011

	Killing Fields

Reflecting the political divide in Sri Lanka, pro- and anti-government demonstrations have been taking place in the capital, Colombo. A pro-government rally was held in protest against the British broadcaster Channel 4 which has recently aired two programmes alleging that Sri Lankan forces committed war crimes. In a smaller demonstration, journalists blamed pro-government elements for severely beating up a Tamil journalist in northern Sri Lanka last week.

Charles Haviland of the BBC reporting from Colombo said that about 500 government supporters chanted slogans against Channel 4 outside the main railway station where they’d put up a giant billboard of President Rajapaksa.They waved national flags and cut-outs of the president, clutching banners urging that “local and foreign conspiracies” be defeated.

As the BBC reporter approached to record them they seemed to mistrust his intentions and surrounded him.

A protester shouted out “This is our country! Nobody has the right to come and tell us to keep our mouths shut! Just because you have a white skin don’t think you can come and shout at us, OK! ”

In its recent broadcasts Channel 4 condemned what it says were possible war crimes by both the government and the Tamil Tigers or LTTE. But the demonstrators described the channel as an LTTE supporter, something it denies being.

A protester said whoever supports LTTE – will be punished – doesn’t matter their skin colour or race – whoever supports, we will punish them, otherwise God will punish them. They will be cursed! They will be cursed!

The protester further said “As a Tamil I am telling you, don’t do these dirty games. If you continue to do these dirty games we will take action and will make sure stopping this Channel 4 for ever and ever!"

Attack on Journolist

	Gnanasundaram Kuganathan

Another demonstration was held elsewhere in Colombo on Tuesday, condemning attacks on a Journalist.

Here about 100 activists denounced the state for what they said was its responsibility for a severe assault on a newspaper journalist based in northern Sri Lanka last Friday. Gnanasundaram Kuganathan was beaten about the head with iron rods by a gang.

N. Vithyatharan, who used to work on a sister paper, blamed government supporters whose party lost to Tamil nationalists in recent local elections.

Vithyatharan, said “I think the people, those who are defeated in the election, are taking revenge on the media who brought the truth to the light.”

Dharmasiri lankapeli of the Media workers trade union federation said that President Rajapaksha should take responsibility for attacks on journalist not been properly investigated.

Mr Kuganathan spent time in intensive care but is slowly recovering. The government says it wants to apprehend his attackers.

Sri Lanka: Official Report Whitewashes Military Abuses

Sri Lanka: Official Report Whitewashes Military Abuses

Human Rights Watch    

Admits Civilian Deaths for the First Time, but Puts All Blame on Tamil Tigers

August 1, 2011

The Sri Lankan government is finally admitting that its forces caused civilians losses during the conflict’s final months, but unconvincingly claims no responsibility. This is just the latest and glossiest effort to whitewash mounting evidence of government atrocities during the fighting.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch

(New York) – A new Sri Lankan Defense Ministry report concedes for the first time that government forces caused civilian deaths in the final months of the conflict with the Tamil Tigers but takes no responsibility for laws-of-war violations, Human Rights Watch said today. The report, “Humanitarian Operation – Factual Analysis,” issued on August 1, 2011, claims that government forces did not use artillery against populated areas despite considerable evidence to the contrary and ignores compelling evidence of summary executions by its soldiers.    Full Story>>>  
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UN HR Rapporteur denied access to Sri Lanka since June 2009

By Jagdish Hathiramani
The Internet is the "key means by which individuals can exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression, as guaranteed by article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," according to a report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, which was submitted to the body's Human Rights Council recently.
The report identified Sri Lanka, part of a group comprising Iran, Tunisia and Venezuela, as a country to which the Special Rapporteur had made a visit request which is still pending from June 2009.
Also noted in the report, freedom of opinion and expression was an "'enabler' of other rights, including economic, social and cultural rights, such as the right to education and the right to take part in cultural life and to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, as well as civil and political rights, such as the rights to freedom of association and assembly. Thus, by acting as a catalyst for individuals to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Internet also facilitates the realisation of a range of other human rights."   Read more...  
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India can’t cut off ties with Lanka, PM tells Vaiko

Shekhar Iyer, Hindustan Times
Manmohan Singh on Tuesday told MDMK leader Vaiko that India cannot afford to restrict economic ties with Sri Lanka — as demanded by Tamil Nadu’s political parties — in order to apply pressure to mitigate the sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils.
That, the Prime Minister said, would onlyencourage China to displace India as a strategic and trading partner of Sri Lanka.

In response, Vaiko, who met the PM in Parliament House, said he told Singh that “in any case, China is already aiding the Sri Lanka naval forces to attack Indian fishermen and is more of an ally of Pakistan than India”.
Since the assembly polls, Tamil Nadu politicians have been trying to beat one another in taking up the plight of Lankan Tamils living in camps and Indian fishermen following the May 2009 war, which liquidated Tamil Tigers led by LTTE chief V Prabhakaran.
Vaiko said in a statement that he also took up with PM the case of death row convict Perarivalan in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, saying it could be considered on the lines of another convict, Nalini, whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
Perarivalan has already spent 20 years in prison, Vaiko said.
The PM agreed to ask the home ministry to look into the case. Vaiko also met home minister P Chidambaram.
Vaiko’s meeting with the PM took place a day after Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa announced a monthly dole of R1,000 to 5,544 Lankan Tamils living in refugee camps in the state.
On Monday, ADMK MPs tried to embarrass a visiting Sri Lankan parliamentary delegation by raising slogans.
DMK MP Tiruchi Siva also staged a walkout from a meeting in honour of the visiting team hosted by vice-president Hamid Ansari, in protest against the “violence and human rights violations” by the Lankan government.
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Rights group: Sri Lankan war report is a whitewash

Aug 2, 2011
By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI
Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - An international rights group on Tuesday called Sri Lanka's report on its 26-year civil war an attempt to whitewash growing evidence of alleged government atrocities.
Two years after the conflict ended, Sri Lanka conceded for the first time this week that troops caused civilian deaths in the last months of fighting against Tamil Tiger rebels. But its war report takes no responsibility for those deaths or for any alleged violations of the rules of war, New York-based Human Rights Watch said.
"This is just the latest and glossiest effort to whitewash mounting evidence of government atrocities during the fighting," the group's Asia director, Brad Adams, said in a statement.
Sri Lanka has been under increasing international pressure to allow for an independent investigation into alleged human rights violations by both troops and rebels, which a U.N. experts panel said could amount to war crimes.
The 161-page report released Monday by the Sri Lankan Defense Ministry reverses two years of government insistence that its troops adhered to a "zero civilian casualty policy."
However, it denies allegations that troops committed rights violations and executed prisoners, and says the civilian deaths were unavoidable given the magnitude of the fighting and ruthlessness of the opponent.
It does not say how many civilians may have been killed, though the U.N. panel has said tens of thousand perished in just the last months of the war.
The report says the government was forced to go to war after unsuccessful attempts to broker peace with the independence-seeking rebels, and that its military operation followed international laws while accusing the rebels of abuses including using civilians as human shields and conscripting child soldiers.
Human Rights Watch urged international governments to reject the "factually challenged report" and renew calls for government accountability, saying alleged rebel abuses did not justify violations by government security forces.
The government's report "is yet another feeble attempt to convince the world, despite growing evidence to the contrary, that government forces committed no crimes."
The troops are alleged to have deliberately shelled civilians in a no-fire zone, targeted hospitals and blocked food and medical aid, according to the U.N. panel.
Footage allegedly taken by front-line soldiers and aired on Britain's Channel 4 television appears to show blindfolded prisoners being shot at close range and the naked bodies of women being loaded into a tractor trailer.
Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on Monday accused Channel 4 of "promoting baseless accusations whose sole purpose is to discredit Sri Lanka."
Hundreds of government supporters, including state-run media journalists, protested Tuesday in Colombo against the UK channel with placards reading "Stop Channel 4 dirty media tricks" and "Channel 4 - Enough is enough."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Full Story>>>

Channel 4 News - 1st August - Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Channel 4 news -

 Warning: You may find parts of this report distressing.

Former Sri Lankan President denounces current government

Sri Lanka 'war crimes' soldiers ordered to 'finish the job'

http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-war-crimes-soldiers-ordered-to-finish-the-job 

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Gotabhaya denies role in white flag surrender killings

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 August 2011, 12:55 GMT]

Rattled and ravaged by the widespread credible war crime allegations, Sri Lankan Presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on Monday denied his role and responsibility over the killing of LTTE’s political wing leaders, Nadesan and Puleedevan while surrendering to the 58 Division troops in the final days of the war in May 2009. In the meantime, a disinformation report released by his ministry has come with a comically low figure of major offences committed by Sri Lanka Army personnel between 2005 and 2010 in the North and East: 8 murders, 4 rapes and 1 sexual abuse. The only year with no major offenses by the SL Army was, according to its own report, none other than the year 2009, the year when SLA ironically adhered to the policy of Gotabhaya's “Zero Civilian Casualty”.

A piece of disinformation in the “Factual Analysis” of the “Humanitarian Operation July 2006 - May 2009” by the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry led by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa [Courtesy: Page 79 of the report]    Full story >>

Gotabhaya denies role in white flag surrender killings

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 August 2011, 12:55 GMT]

Rattled and ravaged by the widespread credible war crime allegations, Sri Lankan Presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on Monday denied his role and responsibility over the killing of LTTE’s political wing leaders, Nadesan and Puleedevan while surrendering to the 58 Division troops in the final days of the war in May 2009. In the meantime, a disinformation report released by his ministry has come with a comically low figure of major offences committed by Sri Lanka Army personnel between 2005 and 2010 in the North and East: 8 murders, 4 rapes and 1 sexual abuse. The only year with no major offenses by the SL Army was, according to its own report, none other than the year 2009, the year when SLA ironically adhered to the policy of Gotabhaya's “Zero Civilian Casualty”.

A piece of disinformation in the “Factual Analysis” of the “Humanitarian Operation July 2006 - May 2009” by the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry led by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa [Courtesy: Page 79 of the report]    Full story >>

Sri Lanka admits for 1st time civilian deaths in final phase of war, calls them unavoidable

The Washington Post World

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, August 1, 10:29 AM

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka acknowledged for the first time Monday that civilian casualties occurred in the final phase of its 26-year civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels, but called the deaths unavoidable.
The government’s statement — issued a few months after a U.N. experts panel cited credible claims of human rights violations by both troops and the rebels — marks a reversal from its insistence that its troops adhered to a “zero civilian casualty policy.”
It also hopes the document will convince the world that it waged a just war.
A Defense Ministry report said “it was impossible” to avoid civilian deaths, despite the military’s best efforts, given the magnitude of the fighting and ruthlessness of the opponent.
The report analyzes the war’s events and denies allegations that troops committed rights violations and executed prisoners before the war ended in May 2009,
Tens of thousands of people were killed in the last months of the war, the United Nations panel said. The Defense Ministry report does not say, however, how many civilians may have been killed.  

Full Story>>>

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Sri Lanka's ethnic polarization persists strongly despite peace

The vancouver sun    July 29, 2011

  Members of the Socialist Youth Union (SYU) shout slogans during a protest against the Sri Lankan government in Colombo July 28, 2011. Demonstrators demanded the release of Tamils who were arrested during the final stage of the 25-year-long war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The group also demanded the government search for the people missing since the war started.

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka's old war zone has been at peace for two years but the minority Tamils who populate it say they are hungry for jobs, despite the economic revival the government has offered instead of the political powers for which Tamils first took up arms.

In Sri Lanka's north and east, people last week voted for the first time in at least 12 years and as many as 29 to elect local councils, two years after the military wiped out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end a 25-year war.

Read more:

SRI LANKA: Over 600 war children still missing

Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN

Kulasekran has been looking for her son for three years

VAVUNIYA, 1 August 2011 (IRIN) - More than two years after Sri Lanka's decades-long conflict officially ended, the whereabouts of 630 children are unknown, according to a government database.

Most went missing during the final phase of the war that ended on 18 May 2009, when government forces declared victory over the now defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who had been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983.

According to reports cited by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), 64 percent of those missing were recruited by the LTTE while 30 percent were last seen behind government lines.

During the last phase of the war, more than 300,000 civilians were displaced from areas once under Tiger control, popularly known as the Vanni.

When they poured into camps set up in Vavuniya, just outside the theatre of fighting, many parents were desperate to find their children.

"There were women crying outside my office, asking me to find their children," Piencia Charles, the most senior government official in the Vavuniya District, told IRIN.

In December 2009, Charles set up the Family Tracing Unit within the Vavuniya Divisional Secretariat.

"It's something I felt I had to do. There was no mechanism in place to search for these kids. The parents were in so much pain," she said.         Full Story>>>
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Is This Ban's 'Never Again' Moment?

Posted: 1/8/11

Edward Mortimer

Chair of the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice

  We failed to prevent a massacre in Sri Lanka. We must not fail to seek justice for it.

'Never again' is the promise that has followed the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda and Srebrenica; issued each time with outrage and contrition, and, in recent years, a report on the failure of the international community to act. Kofi Annan commissioned one such report in 1999 on the Rwandan genocide, declaring: "Of all my aims as [UN] Secretary-General, there is none to which I feel more deeply committed than that of enabling the UN never again to fail in protecting a civilian population". Less than five years later, the UN was unable to galvanise international action in Darfur. Ten years later it failed to prevent tragedy unfolding in the final stages of Sri Lanka's long-running civil war.      Full Story>>>

An Unhealed Land

Black July was enabled by our collective-denial of the humanity of Tamils. The silent majority regarded Tamils as monsters enabling a violent minority to treat them as such. Our inability to be affected by Tamil suffering during and post-war indicates that that moral failure which enabled the Black July is still with us and within us.

by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“If one harbours anywhere in one’s mind a nationalistic loyalty or hatred, certain facts, though in a sense known to be true, are inadmissible”. Orwell (Notes on Nationalism)

(July 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Round II of the local government elections was held, coincidentally, on the 17th anniversary of Black July. Its results embody a stark message: post-war, Sri Lanka remains a politico-psychologically divided land. The Rajapaksas are still popular in the Sinhala-South but utterly unpopular in the Tamil-North.

The Rajapaksas wanted a Northern victory as proof of Tamil-contentment with the status quo. A mix-and-match of bribery and brute force was used to achieve this aim. Killing dogs and dumping excreta intermingled with baby-kissing and freebies. The Mahinda-Basil-Namal trio haunted the North. Huge rallies were held at which the President informed the Tamils how happy they are, post-war.  Read More 
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Protest against Lankan delegation

Monday, 01 August 2011
New Delhi:  AIADMK members in the Lok Sabha Monday shouted slogans to protest the presence of Sri Lankan delegates, led by Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, who were in the house as special foreign guests.

AIADMK members, led by S. Semmalai and Munisamy Thambidurai, shouted “shame, shame” as soon as Speaker Meira Kumar began reading out her welcome message to Rajapaksa and his other colleagues, including Sri Lankan ministers, sitting in the special box to the left of her.

Almost all nine members of Tamil Nadu’s ruling party were heard shouting slogans against the Sri Lankan government as MPs from other parties thumped their desks to welcome the nine-member visiting delegation.

P. Lingam, the Communist Party of India (CPI) MP from Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu, also attempted to join the protests over alleged human rights abuses against Sri Lankan Tamils in the island nation. He was seen walking down the aisle towards the speaker’s podium but was stopped by his party leader Gurudas Dasgupta, who asked him to go back to his seat.

A visibly irate Meira Kumar rebuked the Tamil MPs and asked them to show some courtesy to the honoured guests.

The Sri Lankan delegation is on a five-day official visit to India on an invitation by the speaker. (NDTV)

Colombo unable to bury facts of ACF massacre

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 July 2011, 21:15 GMT]
Fifth anniversary of the massacre of seventeen staffers of the French NGO, Action Contre la Faim (ACF), by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers falls on the 4th of August. Later investigations established that the workers, trapped inside their Moothoor branch office residence of ACF located close to Moothoor Cultural Centre, were shot and killed at point blank range, by SLA soldiers. Colombo has continued to sabotage investigations, failed to provide protection for witnesses, and has failed to make public findings of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) report on the ACF killings. Meanwhile, a former wife of slain ACF worker, Premas Anandarajah, has filed a civil suit in the District Court of District of Columbia, U.S., against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse as responsible for the crime, claiming damages of $30m (all three plaintiffs).

Text of complaint for case 1:11-cv-00235

UTHR: Special Report 33 on ACF killings

"Four of the victims were 24 years old and the oldest was 54. They were four women and thirteen men, and eleven were under the age of thirty. The killings of the 17 workers are said to be the most serious crime perpetrated against a non-governmental organisation. Four years after the massacre the perpetrators have yet to be brought to justice," Sunday Leader said in its anniversary coverage.

*Funeral of Moothoor ACF workers (Courtesy: Reuters)

*Representatives of international relief agency Action Against Hunger, right, look on as workers exhume the remains of one of 17 aid workers. (Photo:AP)

*Relatives react after identifying the bodies of slain workers from the international aid agency Action Contre La Faim (ACF), at a hospital entrance in Trincomalee, August 8, 2006. (REUTERS)

Mahindana Wasanthan of Muttur lost a sister in the massacre; Kovarthani Kanavaratnam was 28 and single and died of gunshot wounds as the ACF base she was working in was overrun by armed men. Rasaiah Thurairajah lost his only son when 27 year old Pradeepan was shot dead in the attack. 

"K. Ratnavale, the lawyer who represented the families in the Presidential Commission hearing and also represented ACF in the criminal courts told The Sunday Leader that the commission’s proceedings were ‘bungled’ by the ‘meddling’ of the Attorney General’s Department. He alleges that important evidence was disregarded and ignored. ‘There were several key witnesses from the victims’ families who could have given important information about what happened,’ said Ratnavale adding that witness protection programs were disrupted and finances were not provided for video conferencing with those family members who had fled abroad," the paper added.

On the third anniversary of the killings, Human Rights Watch's (HRW) quoted James Ross as saying, "[f]or three years since the ACF massacre, the Rajapaksa government has put on an elaborate song and dance to bedazzle the international community into believing justice is being done," in a press release, adding, "the Sri Lankan government's gross mishandling of the investigation into the execution-style slaying of 17 aid workers in the northeastern town of Mutur three years ago demonstrates the need for an international commission of inquiry."

The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), tasked to monitor the progress of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Commission of Inquiry (CoI), set up to investigate and inquire into serious violations of Human Rights, including the ACF killings, charged that there was no substantial progress since the inception of the Commission.

The IIGEP expressed concern in September 2007 that the Commission had not fulfilled its obligation of full disclosure and concluded that the investigation and inquiry process failed to comply effectively with international norms and standards.

The IIGEP later March 2008 unilaterally terminated its observation role.

Sealed coffin of a ACF worker killed in Muthur being kept in his residence in Trincomalee for few minutes before taken to cemetery.

Body of Aid worker taken to cemetery by relatives and friends