Australian pathologist Dr. Dodd denies international report on Muttur

By Bharatha Mallawarachchi

An Australian pathologist has denied a report by an international legal organisation that alleged Sri Lankan authorities may have tampered with evidence in a probe into the killings of 17 aid workers, the foreign ministry said Friday.

The Sri Lankan aid workers were killed execution-style in August 2006 in Muttur, 230 kilometers (140 miles) northeast of the capital, Colombo, amid heavy fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels. The Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists in June raised "serious concerns" that a bullet may have been removed from evidence submitted by investigators to a Sri Lankan court.

The ICJ said Dr. Malcolm Dodd, an Australian pathologist who was present at a post-mortem last October, reported that eight bullets were recovered from seven bodies.

The legal group cited Dodd as saying one of the bullets was 5.56 caliber. However, a Sri Lankan government analyst later concluded that all the bullets were 7.62 caliber. "There is, therefore, evidence to indicate that the 5.56 caliber bullet was removed from the evidence submitted as exhibits ... and that another bullet of a different type was substituted," the ICJ said at the time, calling on Sri Lanka to launch a new investigation. But on Friday Sri Lanka's foreign ministry issued a statement quoting Dodd refuting the ICJ's evidence-tampering allegation. "There is no suggestion in my mind of substitution of exhibits," it cited Dodd as saying. "To this end, I would categorically refute the suggestion in that (ICJ) report."

According to the foreign ministry statement, "Dr. Dodd has stated that the presence of a 5.56 caliber projectile can be confidently excluded."

It remains unclear who carried out the killings, which prompted an international outcry and demands for a U.N. investigation. Monitors of a Norway-brokered cease-fire said Sri Lankan troops were responsible - a charge Colombo vehemently denied. (AP)