Shooting of French aid workers and civilians in Muttur, Sri Lanka
8°33′58″N 81°13′59″E / 8.566°N 81.233°E / 8.566; 81.233
The 2006 Trincomalee Massacre of NGO Workers, also known as the Muttur Massacre,[3] took place on 4 or 5 August 2006, when 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF) were shot at close range in the city of Muttur, Sri Lanka, close to Trincomalee.[4] The victims included sixteen minority Sri Lankan Tamils and one Sri Lankan Muslim.[5][6]
Incident
The bodies were discovered after the town of Muttur had come under the control of the government forces. There was fierce fighting between government forces and rebel LTTE forces the previous week prior to the discovery of the bodies.[7]
Reactions
SLMM
The Sri Lankan government denied responsibility but the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission suspected that the Sri Lankan Army was responsible for the killings. According to the SLMM, " ... [it] is convinced that there cannot be any other armed groups than the security forces who could actually have been behind the act". The outgoing head of the Mission, the retired Swedish Colonel Ulf Henricsson, said that this was "one of the most serious recent crimes against humanitarian aid workers worldwide".[8]
Action Against Hunger
Action Against Hunger, the non-governmental organization (NGO) for whom the victims worked, termed it a war crime.[9]
Investigation
In September 2006, under increasing pressure from the international community to investigate this incident, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse announced the formation of a Commission of Inquiry with a mandate to look into 15 specified alleged violations, including the Muttur massacre of ACF staff. With the dubious track record of previous Commissions of Inquiry in mind,[citation needed] a group of bilateral donors negotiated for the formation of a group of International Independent Eminent Persons (IIGEP) that, invited by the president, have the mandate to observe the investigations of the Commission of Inquiry. Australia nominated an Eminent Person (EP).[10]
UTHR Report
On 1 April 2008, the organisation University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR), which is run by former teachers at the University of Jaffna—known to be openly critical both of the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka—released their "Special Report #30",[11] which exclusively deals with the massacre of ACF staff. UTHR names one member of the Sri Lankan Home Guard—now the Civil Defence Force—and two Police Constables based in the Muthur Police Station as perpetrators, but adds that several Sri Lanka Navy Special Forces were part of the group that entered the ACF compound and remained passive as the ACF staff were murdered.[11][12]
