
Background to the killing of 17 Aid workers by the Sri Lankan military
SLMM has ruled that the killing of 17 aid workers, killed execution style, in Mutur on 4 August is a Ceasefire Violation by the Government of Sri Lanka.
It is worth remembering all the other attacks on aid agencies in recent times. A list of killings and other attacks on aid agencies over the last few months is listed below. Aid agency staff killed and disappeared: - In the latter part of January seven TRO employees were abducted and disappeared near Thivuchenai in Batticaloa. - On 8th June a GoSL Deep penetration unit claymore attack on a mobile health unit killed one nurse in Akkarayan in Kilinochchi. - On 4 August, in Mutur east in Trincomalee, 17 employees of the International NGO Action Against Hunger was told to lie face down on the ground with their hands on their head and shot dead. - On 9 August five people including a doctor and two nurses were killed when a GoSL deep penetration unit claymore hit an ambulance in LTTE area of Mullaitivu. - On 20 August, a female Red Cross worker was shot dead in Vavuniya. - On 23 August, P Jesley, an employee of the UNOPS office in Thimpilu in Amparai was abducted and shot dead. UN withdrew all its operations following this murder of its employee. Aid agency offices attacked: - On 21 May, three aid offices, in Trincomalee, Non Violent Peace Force (NVPF), ZOA (a Dutch agency helping refugees), and Intersos (an Italian relief organization), were attacked simultaneously with grenades. - Many TRO offices and warehouses have been set on fire; the latest was on 27 August when the two TRO offices in Jaffna were set alight costing more one million rupees.
31 August 2006
|