[Reuters]
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I remember the stench from the bloated corpses of the 17 dead Sri Lankan aid workers in the hospital and the cries of their families outside as I wondered if I had shaken the hands of their killers. Last week, a local human rights group detailed the hours before and after the murder of local tsunami workers in August 2006 and I’m asking the same question again. The workers from international aid group Action Contre la Faim (ACF) were gunned down in their compound at close range, the bullet wounds clearly visible on their bodies.

[Full Story]

[BBC]

A human rights group in Sri Lanka has blamed local security forces for the massacre of 17 aid workers in 2006 and accused the government of a cover-up. The bodies of the Action Against Hunger workers were found in the north-eastern town of Muttur. It was one of the worst attacks on humanitarian workers since the 2003 bombing of the UN compound in Baghdad. Meanwhile, another human rights group has shut down, after accusing Colombo of failing to tackle rights issues. So far there has been no response from the government to both developments.

[Full Story]

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[Reuters]

A rights group report on Tuesday blamed local security forces for the massacre of 17 Sri Lankan tsunami aid workers in 2006 and accused the government of an outright cover-up. At the time, the killing of the local workers from aid group Action Contre La Faim (ACF) in the island’s northeast was the worst attack on humanitarian workers since the 2003 bombing of the United Nations compound in Baghdad.

[Full Story]

[AP]

Nearly 18 months after Sri Lanka launched an independent investigation into a wave of civilian killings during its renewed civil war, not a single case has been resolved, and some human rights groups and lawyers fear no one will ever be held accountable.

A credible probe into the incidents, including the slaying of 17 aid workers blamed on security forces, will test the government’s will to pursue potentially embarrassing cases and strengthen its efforts to prevent the dispatch of a U.N. human rights monitoring mission.

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[Reuters]

Relatives of 17 aid workers massacred in Sri Lanka said on Monday they did not expect justice as a heated human rights inquiry began 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. “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.

[Full Story]