SRI LANKA: As fighting continues Nordic truce monitors formally accuse Sri Lankan security forces of being behind execution-style murders of 17 aid workers in early August

Nordic truce monitors on Wednesday (August 30) formally accused Sri Lankan security forces of being behind the execution-style murders of 17 local staff of aid agency Action Contre La Faim earlier in August in the northeast. "There are strong indications that it was done by a group or individuals linked to the security forces," outgoing Nordic Chief Monitor Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricsson said in an interview. The United Nations threatened overnight to suspend aid operations in Sri Lanka after truce monitors accused the security forces of executing aid workers. The victims, mostly Tamils, were found shot dead in their compound in the northeastern town of Mutur, around 135 miles (220 km) northeast of the capital Colombo. It was the worst mass murder of aid staff since a 2003 bomb attack on the United Nations compound in Baghdad. The Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which oversees a 2002 truce that now only holds on paper, says Sri Lankan authorities have obstructed their efforts to investigate, and says it is convinced no armed groups other than the security services could have been responsible. "I will have some problems to trust a government investigation now because they are too involved in this case," Henricsson said. "I am still convinced that there is not a military solution to this conflict for a lot of reasons and I think the 25 years is proof on that," he added. The Sri Lankan government denied the accusations and angry officials accused the monitors of being biased towards Tamil rebels. "We categorically deny the statement made by the head of the monitoring mission and we would like to say that investigations have not been completed. We have already started the investigation and we have invited some Australian experts also and we are doing our best to find out who the real killers are," Sri Lankan Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa said at a news conference. Eric Schwartz, former U.S. President Bill Clinton's deputy United Nations special envoy for tsunami recovery, who is visiting the island, has called on the government to guarantee the safety of aid workers. The last of the SLMM's European Union members are due to cease work on Thursday, the deadline of a rebel ultimatum for them to leave the island after the 25-nation bloc banned them as a terrorist organisation. Many have already left, sharply reducing the mission by two-thirds to around 20 staff. The military said the north and east had been relatively quiet overnight, with no major attacks reported. But the government is insisting that the Tigers must relinquish a town near the mouth of the strategic northeastern harbour of Trincomalee, which is a key supply route to the besieged Jaffna peninsula at the island's far north. The Tigers, who are fighting for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east, refuse and vow to retaliate with all their might, and analysts expect renewed war to rumble on as long as each side believes it has the upper hand.

ITN Source | August 31, 2006

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