Relatives of seventeen aid workers massacred in Sri Lanka said they did not expect justice, as a heated human rights inquiry began on March 24 into their execution-style murders more than a year ago.
Ravi Shantha, the aunt of one of the Action Contre la Faim (ACF) aid workers killed in August 2006 in the northeastern town of Muttur, told a panel of judges appointed to investigate rights abuses in Sri Lanka that too much time had passed.
The 17 Tamil workers were shot in the head and were lying face down in the ACF compound.
"I don't trust that I will be given justice in this case," Shantha said to Reuters after giving evidence about the last known movements of her nephew Ambigavathy Jayaseelan.
"It's almost two years. Nobody has talked about justice and I do not think I will able to get it, even after this," she said at the end of an emotional four hours in the witness box.
Nordic truce monitors have blamed the massacre, at the time the worst attack on aid workers since a 2003 bomb attack on the United Nations office in Baghdad, on state security forces.
The government has accused ACF of being responsible for the massacre of their own local staff through "negligence" and "irresponsibility" in the midst of a 25-year civil war between government forces and Tamil Tigers.
After initially denying fault, and then blaming the Tigers, the military said they were trapped in fighting between troops and the Tigers.
Shantha told the hearing that her nephew, also her adopted son, joined the NGO because he could not get a government job, going to work by bicycle and "leaving again in a coffin".
She also told of threats after Jayaseelan's death from a group of unidentified men dressed in civilian clothes.
"They warned us not to speak about this incident to anyone," she said, wiping away tears.
Shantha, an ethnic Tamil, said she had not even been allowed to see Jayaseelan's body before burial or file a police report.
Lawyer for the army, Gomin Dayasiri, pressed Shantha on foreign negligence and leapt on an admission by rights lawyer Desmond Fernando that he had secretly been told who carried out the massacre by Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe.
Mr. Fernando said he no longer wished to participate in the Presidential Commission of Inquiry because he was privy to such information, reported the Daily Mirror.
However, when the State Counsel objected to this statement, some Commissioners requested Mr. Fernando to repeat his original statement as they had not heard it properly. “I only said I had a confidential discussion with the Minister,” Mr. Fernando said by way of an explanation.
“He said the minister had told him who the killer was,” the State Counsel claimed.
“No, I did not say that at all,” Mr. Fernando responded. The inquiry was then disrupted by a heated argument on the impact of this revelation.
“Unfortunately the statement may not have been recorded as only four microphones can be used at the same time. We will have to check the official recording later,” Chairman N.K. Udalagama said.
International monitors recently told the government they were withdrawing from the inquiry because of official interference and lack of internationally acceptable standards.
Separately, a rights group charged that a local Muslim home guard - a police auxiliary - and two constables are the killers of most of the group.
It said witnesses described an "air of celebration" at Mutur police station after the massacre and that senior figures in the nearby northeastern town of Trincomalee apparently also backed the killings. The report said the execution-style murder of five Tamil students in Trincomalee earlier in 2006 had also been covered up and one of the responsible officers promoted, fostering a culture of impunity as a 2002 ceasefire collapsed into open war.
"It shows the government investigations into the massacre were little more than a bad joke played out on the victims' families and the international community," said Human Rights Watch senior legal adviser James Ross.
The U.S. State Department, in its recent annual rights report, said the Sri Lankan state's respect for human rights continued to decline in 2007, citing reports of killings by government agents and collaboration between the state and paramilitaries accused of major abuses.
Ravi Shantha, the aunt of one of the Action Contre la Faim (ACF) aid workers killed in August 2006 in the northeastern town of Muttur, told a panel of judges appointed to investigate rights abuses in Sri Lanka that too much time had passed.
The 17 Tamil workers were shot in the head and were lying face down in the ACF compound.
"I don't trust that I will be given justice in this case," Shantha said to Reuters after giving evidence about the last known movements of her nephew Ambigavathy Jayaseelan.
"It's almost two years. Nobody has talked about justice and I do not think I will able to get it, even after this," she said at the end of an emotional four hours in the witness box.
Nordic truce monitors have blamed the massacre, at the time the worst attack on aid workers since a 2003 bomb attack on the United Nations office in Baghdad, on state security forces.
The government has accused ACF of being responsible for the massacre of their own local staff through "negligence" and "irresponsibility" in the midst of a 25-year civil war between government forces and Tamil Tigers.
After initially denying fault, and then blaming the Tigers, the military said they were trapped in fighting between troops and the Tigers.
Shantha told the hearing that her nephew, also her adopted son, joined the NGO because he could not get a government job, going to work by bicycle and "leaving again in a coffin".
She also told of threats after Jayaseelan's death from a group of unidentified men dressed in civilian clothes.
"They warned us not to speak about this incident to anyone," she said, wiping away tears.
Shantha, an ethnic Tamil, said she had not even been allowed to see Jayaseelan's body before burial or file a police report.
Lawyer for the army, Gomin Dayasiri, pressed Shantha on foreign negligence and leapt on an admission by rights lawyer Desmond Fernando that he had secretly been told who carried out the massacre by Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe.
Mr. Fernando said he no longer wished to participate in the Presidential Commission of Inquiry because he was privy to such information, reported the Daily Mirror.
However, when the State Counsel objected to this statement, some Commissioners requested Mr. Fernando to repeat his original statement as they had not heard it properly. “I only said I had a confidential discussion with the Minister,” Mr. Fernando said by way of an explanation.
“He said the minister had told him who the killer was,” the State Counsel claimed.
“No, I did not say that at all,” Mr. Fernando responded. The inquiry was then disrupted by a heated argument on the impact of this revelation.
“Unfortunately the statement may not have been recorded as only four microphones can be used at the same time. We will have to check the official recording later,” Chairman N.K. Udalagama said.
International monitors recently told the government they were withdrawing from the inquiry because of official interference and lack of internationally acceptable standards.
Separately, a rights group charged that a local Muslim home guard - a police auxiliary - and two constables are the killers of most of the group.
It said witnesses described an "air of celebration" at Mutur police station after the massacre and that senior figures in the nearby northeastern town of Trincomalee apparently also backed the killings. The report said the execution-style murder of five Tamil students in Trincomalee earlier in 2006 had also been covered up and one of the responsible officers promoted, fostering a culture of impunity as a 2002 ceasefire collapsed into open war.
"It shows the government investigations into the massacre were little more than a bad joke played out on the victims' families and the international community," said Human Rights Watch senior legal adviser James Ross.
The U.S. State Department, in its recent annual rights report, said the Sri Lankan state's respect for human rights continued to decline in 2007, citing reports of killings by government agents and collaboration between the state and paramilitaries accused of major abuses.
