UTHR names Muttur killers; HR Minister wary

By Jayashika Padmasiri
The University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) yesterday issued a report blaming the security forces for the controversial massacre of 17 aid workers in Muttur in 2006 and accused the government of a complete cover-up of the issue.

The UTHR report named a local Muslim home guard, a Police auxiliary and two constables as the killers.

UTHR Head Prof. Rajan Hoole in an interview with Reuters said, “The evidence shows state security forces, including Police, killed the 17 aid workers and that senior Police officers covered it up. The killing of civilians during time of conflict is a war crime. The perpetrators and their superiors should be brought to justice.”

The report said that the brother of a Muslim home guard had been killed by a Tiger gunman the previous day and he had vowed revenge. It also said that a special forces commander in the town ordered security forces to ‘finish off’ any Tamil speakers in plain clothes, if they had any suspicions.

The report also said that witnesses described an ‘air of celebration’ at the Mutur Police Station after the massacre, adding that the anger of the Muslim home guard appeared to have simply been ‘a pretext’ and senior figures in the nearby north-eastern town of Trincomalee apparently backed the killings.

Meanwhile, Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe responded to the allegations made in the UTHR report saying that the UNHR should make its representations to the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the President in this regard.

“The UTHR should go and complain to the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the President. I’m sure that the Police are also aware of this report and allegations in the. However, anyone can make complains, but they should be interrogated properly by the Police,” he said.

Human Rights Watch, in the meantime, described the report as a “brilliant piece of investigative work.”

“It does more than name the names of those responsible for the brutal ACF killings,” said Human Rights Watch Senior Legal Advisor James Ross. “It shows the government investigations into the massacre were little more than a bad joke played out on the victims’ families and the international community.”

UTHR said publishing the report was not without risk, particularly as three witnesses had already been killed, a fourth had gone missing and others fled the country – part of a wider pattern of disappearances and killings.