SRI LANKA UNITED NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CANADA
Box 55292, 300 Borough Drive, Toronto, Ontario M1P 4Z7 Canada

Website: www.sluna.org E-mail: sluna@idirect.com
MEDIA RELEASE September 2, 2006

Nordic Monitoring Mission Grossly Violates Rules Of Impartiality
Killing of 17 Local Aid Workers from ACF (Action Against Hunger)

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission made up of Nordic observers have once again displayed their bias toward the Tamil Tiger Terrorists who are well entrenched in Norway, by their naïve logic in reaching conclusions based on mere hearsay in the case of aid workers killed in Muttur, Sri Lanka.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which extorted funds from the Tamil Diaspora worldwide to launch their final war to establish their mono-ethnic Tamil racist separate state in the north and east of Sri Lanka, intensified their attacks on the Sri Lankan Security Forces and civilian population around December 2005. The Tamil Tiger Terrorists moved their armed cadres to Mavil Aru and forcibly shut the sluice gates feeding water to the channel flowing downstream to farming communities, who depended on this for drinking purposes and irrigating their paddy crops nearing maturity, on July 20, 2006. With the failure of the SLMM to get the LTTE to resume water supply to the civilian population for a whole week, the Sri Lanka Government was compelled to launch a limited military operation to drive the LTTE forces away and restore water to the civilian population on July 29, 2006.

The LTTE heavily mined the approach route to the Mavil Aru sluice gates to slow the advancing government forces and immediately launched a lightning strike on the town of Muttur close to the Trincomalee Naval Base, issuing leaflets threatening the majority Muslim population, forcing civilians from the Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala communities to flee the region. The LTTE partially overran the town of Muttur, but were driven back by the government troops who retaliated with greater force after about four days of heavy fighting. Soon after the Tamil Tiger Terrorists had withdrawn from Muttur on August 5th, 2006, bodies of 17 Sri Lankan aid workers attached to the French Aid Agency, ACF (Action Against Hunger) were discovered. These aid workers (16 Tamil and 1 Muslim) had been killed in execution style and their bodies dumped in the town.

The head of the SLMM, Ulf Henricson who failed to get the LTTE to restore water in Mavil Aru attempted to travel to the southern sector of Muttur on August 5, 2006 without informing the Sri Lankan authorities when a major battle was underway, and he was promptly advised by Colombo not proceed to the conflict zone as his security could not be assured at the time. Ulf Henricson who has boastfully claimed that he had submitted a seven point memo to the EU advising against banning the Tamil Tigers, now claims that he had been stopped from travelling to Muttur by the Government because they did not want him to pry into the aid workers deaths, which he states has been committed by the Sri Lankan forces. Journalists and Humanitarian Workers were allowed soon after the area had been secured in keeping with normal government policy.

We would like to quote from the statement issued by the SLMM in this regard for your quick perusal:

“Noting the facts outlined in the SLMM findings there are very strong indications of the involvement of the Security Forces in the act despite their denial. Firstly, the SLMM cannot find the reasons for the restrictions of movements into the said areas especially in above mentioned circumstances acceptable, thereby strongly indicating the GOSL’s eagerness to conceal the matter from the SLMM.

Taking into consideration the fact that the Security Forces had been present in Mutur at the time of the incident it appears highly unlikely to blame other groups for the killing.

Provided that was the case it would in particular be illogical for the Security Forces to prevent the SLMM from entering the area and making proper inquiries in order to find the perpetrator(s).

The Head of SLMM has also had confidential conversations with highly reliable sources regarding the party who most likely has been responsible for the act. The views have not proved contradictory and the Security Forces of Sri Lanka are widely and consistently deemed to be responsible for the incident.

Consequently, the killing of the 17 civilian aid workers in Muttur on August 4, 2006 is ruled as a gross violation of the ceasefire agreement by the Security Forces of Sri Lanka.”

Contrary to what the SLMM has stated, on August 4, 2006, the LTTE forces were engaged in hostile armed actions within the town of Muttur. The Judicial Medical Officer who conducted the post-mortems has stated that the deaths had taken place on the night of August 3rd or the early part of August 4, 2006. The Government of Sri Lanka has sought the assistance of Forensic Experts from the Government of Australia to assist in determining the culprits for this heinous crime, and has not taken any steps to cover up the sad incident. These aid workers were earlier living and working in the town of Muttur which was controlled by the government forces, and had been permitted to carry on their humanitarian work without interruption or harassment by the security forces. Whereas the LTTE is well known for killing Tamils considered dissidents, and apparently had reasons to kill these aid workers to create a serious human rights violation before pulling out of Muttur.

The Government of Sri Lanka has rejected the SLMM’s conclusions, and are taking steps to find the truth. The Government has further stated; “This may be a unique occasion in which a Monitoring Mission has first made a determination and subsequently requested that an investigation be conducted to establish the facts.” The SLMM has displayed their utter lack of professionalism in jumping to conclusions based on mere hearsay.

We are also submitting in attachment a previous communication dated June 20, 2006, where we discussed the various acts on the part of the Norwegian Peace Facilitator, which we found to be in contravention of their role of an independent unbiased peace arbitrator in the Sri Lanka Peace Process commencing from the latter part of 2001.

Yours very truly,

Mahinda Gunasekera
Honorary President
Encl. Communication of June 20, 2006.