SCOPP says SLMM head shot his mouth off on aid workers

“The Head of SLMM has based his ruling on 'speculation' and 'innuendo' in an unfortunate attempt to bring disrepute to the Sri Lankan Security Forces, said members of the legal fraternity commenting in the media on the recent ruling by SLMM on the killing of 17 Aid Workers attached to Action Against Hunger (ACF) in Muttur ’’ a Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat release states.

The further text of the statement is as follows: Given the international engagements of the President at the time, the selective timing of the SLMM ruling and its motives are extremely questionable.

In their comments the Lawyers have established clearly the facts relating to the incident, which in their view have been grossly distorted by Major General (Retd) Henricsson. The Lawyers have highlighted the following factual circumstances that have been ignored in the SLMM ruling.

a) The Judicial Medical Officer who performed the post-mortem examinations on the deceased has indicated the probable time of death to be between the night of 3 August and 4 August 2006. According to the ACF office in Trincomalee which had maintained radio contact with the ACF Muttur Office every 30 minutes from 1 August, the last contact was at 06:10 hrs on the morning of Friday 4 August. ACF had stated that after 06:10 hrs on the morning of Friday 4 August all attempts to contact the Muttur Office by radio, mobile phone and satellite phone failed. Thereby the estimated time of the incident can be placed between 06:10 a.m. and 06:40 a.m. on Friday 4 August.

b) According to TamilNet, the LTTE had infiltrated areas of Muttur Town from around 02:35 GMT (i.e. about 9.00 p.m.) on 1 August until midnight on Friday 4 August (see TamilNet news item of 02:35 GMT on 2.8.06; 19:18 hrs on 2.8.06 and 11:04 GMT on 5.8.06). Indeed TamilNet (August 5, 2006 11:04 GMT) states "the Military Spokesman of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Irasaiah Ilanthiayan, told TamilNet that the LTTE troops by midnight Friday, returned to their original positions as per February 22, 2002 Ceasefire Agreement”. The Security Forces were able to completely secure Muttur Town only in the course of 5 August 2006. This shows that the LTTE had infiltrated Muttur Town and had access to the ACF office between 06:10 hrs and 06:40 hrs on the morning of Friday 4 August when most likely the incident took place.

c) TamilNet in its bulletin datelined 14:28 GMT on Saturday 5 August states that the Sri Lanka Army had killed 15 Tamil Aid Workers. However, the bulletin datelined 07:26 GMT on 8 August 2006 states that the bodies of these unfortunate people were found by the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) on Sunday, namely 6 August 2006. How could the LTTE have been aware of these murders more than one day before the discovery of the bodies.

d) Regarding the contention that the SLMM was denied access to Muttur by the Armed Forces on both 5 and 6 August 2006 while journalists were taken to Muttur.

It is a manifest and undeniable fact that journalists reporting armed conflicts willingly take risks of their own accord as a part of their professional duties to report such conflicts. The fact that journalists were permitted to travel to Muttur clearly establishes that the Security Forces were positively disposed to such a situation. The Government however, by the Ceasefire Agreement, undertook responsibility for the safety and security of members of the SLMM. In accordance with that duty the Government could not possibly have taken members of the SLMM to this scene of fierce fighting on the day its forces completely secured Muttur or on the following day.

Moreover Muttur was at that time, approachable only by sea. The Navy was then stretched to the maximum and its vessels sailing to Muttur were always at risk of being attacked from Sampur. The advisory by the Security Forces regarding travel to Muttur was to ensure the safety of the SLMM members.

It is extremely irresponsible that a pre-emptive ruling of this nature was issued while a judicial inquiry with international assistance was in progress. This action has significantly undermined the proper judicial process.

The Lawyers point out that when considering the above facts the ruling given by Maj. Gen. (Retd) Ulf Henricsson is baseless and lacks any real evidence to apportion responsibility to the Security Forces for these killings.