| Sri Lankan security forces behind aid massacre, says rights group |
|
|
|
|
The Sri Lankan Government has been accused of a high level cover-up over the 2006 murder of 17 aid workers by local security forces. A local human rights group says local police shot the 17, most of whom were Tamils, with the complicity of senior officers.
Presenter: Karon Snowdon SNOWDON: In August 2006, most of the population of Mutur, a predominantly Muslim town in Sri Lanka's northeast had fled serious fighting between Tamil Tigers and government security forces. 17 local employees of the French aid group ACF stayed behind. They were murdered execution-style on the 4th or 5th of August - shot in the head in the agency's compound. A group which has worked for 20 years to expose abuses on both sides of the civil war in Sri Lanka, the University Teachers for Human Rights, did its own investigation. Spokesman Rajan Hoole says it's gathered evidence which shows the 17 aid workers were shot by police with naval security forces present. He says it was a reprisal for the attack on the town by the Tamil Tigers, or LTTE. HOOLE: It happened just after the LTTE occupied Mutur for nearly three days and then pulled out. SNOWDON: Dr Hoole's report implicates two police constables in the massacre and says the ring leader during the killing was a Muslim man employed by the police. Known as the Muslim Home Guard, such men are usually hired for short periods to provide local knowledge in Muslim areas. Among those killed was the brother of a student who was among five students killed seven months earlier in a similar fashion in Trincomalee. Dr Hoole says some of the same police were involved in both massacres. HOOLE: One this that the state has become quite cavalier about killing young Tamils in response to LTTE provocations. We have been pointing to certain persons of high rank who had the special blessings of the defence ministry. The general outlook of the defence ministry has been towards ruthlessness. The state has been involved in covering up. The main obstacle was the fear among people, but we were able to make contact with some policemen who talked. The principle problem immediately comes down to impunity. And under this particular government, the security forces have been quite cavalier about killing Tamils. SNOWDON: The report is critical of the defence ministry, senior police and the government's lack of action. Dr Hoole says it's a government coverup . He adds an Australian forensic scientist was influenced to change crucial findings on the type of bullet used in the killings in order to implicate the Tamil Tigers. Several witnesses have been killed, others have disappeared, many have been intimidated. Sri Lanka's Foreign Secretary Dr Palitha Kohona says the government suspects the group was killed by Tamil Tigers, but is determined to get to the truth. The phone line here is particularly bad. KOHONA: It's almost outrageous to suggest there is a cover up. The Foreign Secretary, Palitha Kohona who added the government's independent investigation is calling witnesses this month. He says if Sri Lanka was trying to cover -up, it wouldn't have asked for Australian forensic assistance. Now an international monitoring group approved by the Government itself has pulled out of the country, citing frustration at the government's lack of commitment to its investigation. Foreign Secretary Kohona says there were some differences of opinion over methodology but some recommendations made by the eminent persons group will be followed KOHONA: And the government, I must assure you, is determined to ensure human rights are protected in Sri Lanka. Dr Rajan Hoole of the University teacher for Human Rights is a former mathematics professor, who's group was formed after a close colleague became one of the thousand's murdered in Sri Lanka's decades of trouble. He says the report proves the Sri Lankan government is incapable of acceptable standards in human rights and investigating the many cases of killings and disappearances.. HOOLE: And we hope this will make the government think seriously about bringing in a multi-lateral role in monitoring human rights and checking abuses. Source: http://www.abc.net.au/ra/programguide/stories/200804/s2205825.htm |
| < Previous | Next > |
|---|
Post New Event
