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French aid workers not killed by army in Sri Lanka claim

Thursday, 16 July 2009

French aid workers not killed by army in Sri Lanka claim

A Sri Lankan human rights commission has cleared the army of any involvement in causing the deaths of 17 French charity workers back in 2006.

The head of the panel investigating the matter said they were unable to say who was responsible for killing the Action Against Hunger workers, who had been working on tsunami relief projects.

Their dead bodies had been discovered in the north-eastern town of Muttur, and security forces had been blamed although they denied any part in the killings.

Soldiers and Tamil rebels had been fighting in the area at the time because the rebels are seeking an independent state.

Fifteen of the dead workers were found lying down and shot at close range and their deaths sparked an international outrage. The other two corpses were discovered at a later time.

Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella had stated that Muttur was totally under the control of the army at the time the workers were killed, however, Judge Udalagama said he didn’t believe this was correct.

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