Sri Lanka Red Cross asks probe of volunteer killings

COLOMBO, June 4 (Reuters) The Sri Lanka Red Cross today demanded a probe into the killing of two of its volunteers amid a rash of abductions and murders in a renewed civil war, and urged the government and Tamil Tiger rebels to respect human rights.

The corpses of the two Muslim men were found dumped in the gem-mining district of Ratnapura yesterday, southeast of Colombo, two days after they were taken away by men who identified themselves as police at a train station in the capital.

Police have denied any involvement in the killings, discovered after President Mahinda Rajapaksa said most complaints about abductions -- many of which are levelled at state security forces -- were false.

''The movement calls upon the Sri Lankan authorities to carry out an immediate and comprehensive investigation into the killings,'' Sri Lanka Red Cross Director General Nevil Nanayakkara said in a statement.

''The movement reminds the parties to the conflict that murder is prohibited under international humanitarian law, and that they must respect the work of humanitarian agencies and refrain from any acts that might jeopardise humanitarian staff or activities.'' Rights groups have reported hundreds of abductions and disappearances in recent months after the military and separatist Tigers resumed a two-decade civil war in which nearly 70,000 people have been killed since 1983.

The international community has voiced repeated concerns about rights abuses blamed on elements of the Sri Lankan military and the Tigers.

Nordic truce monitors suspect military elements were behind the execution-style murder of 17 local staff of aid agency Action Contre la Faim in the island's east last year, the worst attack against humanitarian workers in memory.

REUTERS AE KN1856