Aid workers targeted in Sri Lanka

[oberliner]

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Seventeen Sri Lankan aid workers are killed execution style. Ambulances are blown off the road. Relief groups are cut off from tens of thousands of displaced villagers.

Sri Lanka's resurgent civil conflict is shaping up to be among the most dangerous for humanitarian workers in recent years, aid agencies say. Air strikes, gunbattles and artillery duels threaten rescue workers nearly every day and have forced several international agencies to suspend operations

.At best, aid agencies say the military and Tamil Tiger rebels make little effort to avoid harming rescue workers. At worst, some suspect aid workers have been deliberately attacked because they are seen as taking sides in the conflict.

The worst attack came Aug. 7 with the discovery of 17 dead aid workers, all shot execution style in the eastern town of Muttur. All but one were Tamils working for the international group Action Against Hunger.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060829/ap_on_re_as/sri_lanka_aid_workers

[Eugene]

1. BBC: 'Military' killed Lanka aid staff

Last Updated: Wednesday, 30 August 2006, 11:20 GMT 12:20 UK

'Military' killed Lanka aid staff

Truce monitors in Sri Lanka have accused the military of killing 17
local employees of a French charity.

The 7 August deaths of the Action Against Hunger workers were "a gross
violation of the ceasefire accord by the security forces", monitors said.

They said they were "convinced" no other armed group could have been
behind the killings.

The government denies its forces had a hand in shooting dead the aid
workers near Muttur in the north-east.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5298470.stm

[oberliner]

2. Sri Lanka Rejects Report Blaming Army for Killing Aid Workers

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aFWPI5oN1WGE


Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka's government rejected a report by international truce monitors that blamed the army for the killing of 17 aid workers, saying their conclusions lack ``any factual evidence.''

There are ``very strong indications'' security forces were involved in the deaths of the workers from the French aid group Action Against Hunger in the northeastern town of Muttur this month, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission said yesterday.

``The government regrets the unprofessional and rather irresponsible stand taken by the head of the SLMM,'' it said in a statement posted early today on the Defense Ministry Web site. ``The head of the SLMM has derived specific conclusions even before investigations and forensic examination of evidence have been concluded.''