[National Post]

This isn’t a column about the Middle East. But to make my point, I’m going to start by asking readers to imagine a scenario from that part of the world.

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[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.

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[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.

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