Monitors blame Sri Lanka forces for aid massacre

COLOMBO, Aug 30: International ceasefire monitors blamed Sri Lankan troops today for the killing of 17 aid workers during fighting with Tamil tiger rebels earlier in the month.

The victims were working on tsunami relief projects for international aid group Action Contre La Faim in the northeastern town of Mutur, the scene of several days of fighting between troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

''SLMM is, with the obtained findings, convinced that there cannot be any other armed groups than the security forces who could actually have been behind the act,'' said a statement from the unarmed Nordic-staffed Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

The government has denied troops were involved in the execution-style killings and promised an investigation.

''What disturbs me is the speed with which SLMM made this ruling,'' said head of the government peace secretariat Palitha Kohona. ''Why was the SLMM in such a hurry when there is still a judicial inquiry going on?'' The victims, all but one of them ethnic Tamils, were found shot dead and lying face down in the compound of their office.

The killing was the worst mass murder of aid staff since a 2003 bomb attack on the United Nations compound in Baghdad, Iraq.

Many aid staff and some of the families blamed the military, who have also been accused of other killings.

The SLMM statement came as a delegation headed by President Mahinda Rajapakse left for London. Rajapakse is to meet Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday for what officials called ''substantive talks'' to discuss the ongoing open warfare between the government and the rebels.

The key issue is likely to be lessons learnt from the Northern Ireland peace process. Former senior Irish Republican Army (IRA) member Martin McGuinness has met Rajapakse twice and the rebels once this year to discuss the same issue.

NORTHERN IRELAND LESSONS

Diplomats say the fact Sri Lanka wants to talk about the Northern Ireland experience is a positive sign, but a 2002 truce with the rebels has been shattered and remains only on paper. A meeting between Rajapakse and London-based Tiger theoretician Anton Balasingham on the same trip is seen as possible, but probably unlikely.

''I think it's a remote possibility,'' said Kohona, part of the government delegation to London. ''I wouldn't want to speculate.'' The SLMM statement came only days before outgoing Swedish mission head Major General Ulf Henricsson steps down because of demands from the Tigers that all European Union monitors quit.

The demand came after the EU declared the Tigers a terrorist organisation. Monitors from non-EU members Norway and Iceland will remain in Sri Lanka after the September 1 deadline issued by the rebels.

SLMM also ruled that a fragmentation mine attack on a civilian bus in June that killed almost 70 people was a breach of the ceasefire by the Tigers, while blaming the government for a string of similar attacks in rebel areas. Each deny the charge.

Government forces and the Tigers are now involved in artillery and mortar battles around the northeastern port of Trincomalee.

Hundreds of troops, rebels and civilians have died in the past month, and more than 200,000 people have fled their homes. The army said 13 soldiers have been killed in action and 79 wounded in the area since Monday.

The Tigers, who want a separate ethnic Tamil homeland in the north and east, vow they will never leave the area around the town of Sampur, a position on the southern edge of the harbour that allows them to shell the naval base and nearby shipping.

''If the Sri Lankan military aggression continued, it would set a full stop to the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement,'' pro-rebel Web site www.tamilnet.com quoted Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan as saying.

REUTERS