Finding failure

• A judicial enquiry started at the end of August 2006 before the Magistrate Court, the highest instance of common law, at which Action contre la Faim (ACF) was represented by an attorney.

• Concurrently, on 12st September 2006, recourse was introduced by ACF to the National Commission of Human Rights of Trincomalee, in charge of monitoring Human Rights in Sri Lanka, and whose conclusions result in recommendations.

• In addition to these procedures, and in response to the appeal of the co-presidents of the Tokyo Conference  for an international and independent inquiry, president Rajapaksa appointed, in October 2006, a special Presidential Commission of Inquiry charged with examining 16 serious alleged violations of Human Rights, including the killings of the ACF staff.

During the 18 months following the killings, ACF – wishing to trust the Sri Lankan justice – has used all available national recourses without success. Having recognised the inefficiency of each procedure, and the accumulation of numerous irregularities in each, the organisation is now convinced that neither will lead to the truth on the crime.

The Sri Lankan government has therefore failed in its obligation to conduct an efficient inquiry into the murder of the 17 aid workers; and to search for the perpetrators as prescribed by the norms and standards of law.

In consequence of these failures, ACF has decided to cease its activities in Sri Lanka, leave the country, and disassociate itself from the ongoing Sri Lankan legal proceedings.

ACF will henceforth continue to work to uncover the truth behind the killings  from outside of the country. The identification and sentencing of the perpetrators of the crime of the 17 ACF employees in Muttur remain ACF’s priority; however new measures must be taken in order to shed the light on the circumstances, and identify the perpetrators, of the Muttur massacre.