FRANCE: French aid agency Action Against Hunger claims 17 aid workers in Sri Lanka were deliberately "butchered"

French aid agency 'Action Contre la Faim' (ACF - also known as 'Action Against Hunger) said on Wednesday (August 9) that its seventeen employees were "executed in cold blood" in Sri Lanka, and asked the United Nations to support an independent investigation into the killings. "It's an absolutely deliberate murder, with complete knowledge of the cause," ACF President Jean Christophe Rufin told press in Paris. "All the members of the team were wearing the ACF logo, they were intentionally massacred. It's a terrible crime, it's cowardly, it's savage." Rufin said. The seventeen aid workers were killed on Friday (August 4) at their base in Mutur, in north-eastern Sri Lanka, where battles have been raging between government forces and Tamil Tiger militias. The French government angrily condemned the murders, and the news shocked the tsunami aid community in the nearby north-eastern port town of Trincomalee. For the moment, ACF operations in Sri Lanka have been put on stand-by, but ACF says that it's not going to stop helping people who live in hostile environments. "For us this is a turning point in the modern humanitarian [aid] world," said Rufin, adding that this was "the humanitarian aid world's equivalent of Oradour-sur-Glane". Oradour-sur-Glane is the French village whose inhabitants were rounded up by Nazis in 1944 and killed. 642 people died in Oradour-sur-Glane, which has become a symbol of Nazi brutality. "This is 17 people locked up and executed in cold blood, butchered, just because they were aid workers, people who stood for values that the butchers who murdered them have no respect for," Rufin said The aid workers killed were local staff, and most were Tamils. Their mission in Mutur was to help rebuild after the 2004 tsunami. Rumours circulated for several days that the staff were dead, but with the town practically cut off it was not confirmed until the first aid mission found them on Sunday (August 6) on the floor of their office. They had been shot in the head. Pro-rebel website Tamilnet blamed the government for the killings, while the army pointed the finger at the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have fought for an ethnic Tamil homeland for two decades. Angry mobs have attacked several aid agencies trying to move into the conflict area over several days. ACF want an investigation into the murders. "For us this act is undoubtedly a war crime," says Rufin. Meanwhile on Tuesday (August 8) the bodies of the slain workers were laid to rest. While it's not yet known who committed the murders, some families of the dead said they thought the army was involved. "We believe it was the army. He phoned on Saturday. After that, we heard the military personnel came and shot them," said 50-year-old Richard Arulrajah, whose 24-year-old son was among those shot dead. More than 800 people had been killed in Sri Lankan conflicts this year, even before the recent fighting, in which the military says it has killed more than 150 rebels. Dozens of civilians are said to be dead.

ITN Source | August 10, 2006

Tags:. .absolutely. .shocked. .respect. .dozens. .tigers