{"id":98225,"date":"2013-08-01T12:09:04","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T06:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=98225"},"modified":"2013-08-07T01:00:46","modified_gmt":"2013-08-06T19:30:46","slug":"rajapaksa-govt-is-good-at-throwing-bones-to-the-international-community-human-rights-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-govt-is-good-at-throwing-bones-to-the-international-community-human-rights-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajapaksa Govt Is Good At Throwing Bones To The International Community &#8211; Human Rights Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hrw.org\/asia\/sri-lanka\">Sri Lankan<\/a><\/span>\u00a0government has made no real progress in holding accountable those responsible for the execution style slaying of 17 aid workers seven years ago despite renewed international calls for action.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">On August 4, 2006, gunmen executed 17 Sri Lankan aid workers \u2013 16 ethnic Tamils, four of them women, and a Muslim \u2013 with the Paris-based international humanitarian agency Action Contre La Faim (Action Against Hunger, ACF) in their office compound in the town of Mutur in eastern Trincomalee district. The killings occurred after a several-day battle between government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for control of the town. The ACF team had been providing assistance to survivors of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_98226\" style=\"width: 405px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-govt-is-good-at-throwing-bones-to-the-international-community-human-rights-watch\/a-member-of-the-french-aid-group-acf-places-a-wreath-in-front-of-the-photographs-of-his-slain-colleagues-at-their-memorial-in-batticaloa\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-98226\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-98226\" class=\" wp-image-98226 \" title=\"A member of the French aid group ACF places a wreath in front of the photographs of his slain colleagues at their memorial in Batticaloa\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SriLanka_memorialslainworkers.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"395\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SriLanka_memorialslainworkers.jpg 658w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SriLanka_memorialslainworkers-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 395px) 100vw, 395px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-98226\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A member of the French aid group Action Contre La Faim places a wreath in front of the photographs of his 17 slain colleagues at their memorial in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka on August 11, 2006<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe Rajapaksa government is good at throwing bones to the international community, but not at taking serious measures to find and punish those responsible for serious abuses,\u201d said\u00a0James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cIf the families of 17 aid workers can\u2019t get justice for their loss, it\u2019s hard to be hopeful for anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In July 2013, the government of President <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=8&amp;y=2\">Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>, in apparent response to increasing international pressure, took long overdue steps by directing state lawyers and investigators to review the case and prepare a comprehensive list of witnesses. This was one of several recent moves by the government to adopt previously disregarded recommendations of its Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in 2011, created following the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009.<\/p>\n<p>The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) has\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/uthr.org\/SpecialReports\/spreport33.htm\">published<\/a>\u00a0detailed\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/uthr.org\/SpecialReports\/Spreport30.htm\">findings<\/a>\u00a0on the Mutur killings based on accounts from witnesses and weapons analysis that implicate government security forces in the area at the time. The group reported that two police constables and naval special forces commandos were alleged to be directly responsible, and that senior police and justice officials were linked to an alleged cover-up.<\/p>\n<p>In July 2007, the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, established after the Mutur killings to investigate 16 major human rights cases, exonerated the army and navy in the massacre and instead blamed LTTE forces or Muslim militia. Families of ACF workers who wished to testify to the commission reported security forces personnel. The commission\u2019s full report to President Rajapaksa has never been made public.<\/p>\n<p>In March 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.srilankacampaign.org\/2013\/03\/the-human-rights-council-passes-its.html\">resolution<\/a><\/span>\u00a0on Sri Lanka, reiterating the concerns of a 2012 council resolution, which focused on the lack of accountability for human rights violations. The council called upon the Sri Lankan government to \u201cconduct an independent and credible investigation\u201d into alleged rights abuses and \u201ctake all necessary additional steps\u201d to meet its legal obligations to ensure justice and accountability for all Sri Lankans.<\/p>\n<p>The Sri Lankan government has long had a poor record of investigating serious human rights abuses, and impunity has been a persistent problem. Despite a backlog of cases of unlawful killings and enforced disappearance going back two decades that run into the tens of thousands, there have been only a small number of prosecutions. Past efforts to address violations through the creation of ad hoc mechanisms in Sri Lanka have produced very few prosecutions. On July 26, the government\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymirror.lk\/news\/32932-presidential-commission-to-probe-disappearances.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&amp;utm_medium=twitter\">announced<\/a><\/span>\u00a0yet another commission to look into cases of enforced disappearances.<\/p>\n<p>On May 23, 2009, shortly after the LTTE\u2019s defeat, Rajapaksa and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a joint statement in Sri Lanka in which the government said it \u201cwill take measures to address\u201d the need for an accountability process for violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2011, a panel of experts authorized by the UN secretary-general issued a comprehensive report on violations of international law by both sides during the final months of the armed conflict. It called on the Sri Lankan government to carry out genuine investigations and recommended that the UN create an independent international mechanism to monitor the government&#8217;s implementation of the panel recommendations, conduct an independent investigation, and collect and safeguard evidence.<\/p>\n<p>The UN high commissioner for human rights, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Navi+Pillay&amp;x=6&amp;y=5\">Navi Pillay<\/a><\/span>, is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka in late August. Human Rights Watch repeated its call for the UN secretary-general or other UN body to create an independent international investigation into violations by government forces and the LTTE. This investigation should make recommendations for the prosecution of those responsible for serious abuses during the armed conflict, including the ACF case.<\/p>\n<p>Participating countries at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka in November should publicly express concern about the government\u2019s minimal response to these and other serious abuses, Human Rights Watch said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGovernments seeking justice for the victims of atrocities during Sri Lanka\u2019s long armed conflict should publicly demand an international inquiry,\u201d Ross said. \u201cSri Lanka\u2019s history of inaction on even prominent cases with strong evidence demonstrates the need for concerted international action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>*Human Rights Watch<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":98226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2187,1,6969],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-most-popular","category-news","category-popular-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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