| 2006 Trincomalee Massacre of NGO workers | |
|---|---|
| Location | Muttur, Sri Lanka |
| Date | August 4, 2006 |
| Target | Sri Lankan Tamil employees of Action Against Hunger |
| Attack type | Armed massacre |
| Weapon(s) | Automatics rifles |
| Deaths | 17 |
| Suspected perpetrator(s) | Civil Defence Force, Sri Lankan police (Sri lankan Government) |
The 2006 Trincomalee massacre of NGO workers, also known as the Muttur massacre,[1] took place on August 4 or 5, 2006, when 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF) were shot at close range in the city of Muttur, Sri Lanka, close to Trincomalee.[2] The victims included sixteen minority Sri Lankan Tamils and one Sri Lankan Muslim.[3]
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When the bodies were discovered the town of Muttur had come under the control of the government forces. There was fierce fighting between government forces and rebel LTTE forces the previous week prior to the discovery of the bodies.[4]
The Sri Lankan government denied responsibility but the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission suspect that the Sri Lankan Army was responsible for the killings. According to the SLMM,
| “ | [...] is convinced that there cannot be any other armed groups than the security forces who could actually have been behind the act | ” |
The head of the Mission, the retired Swedish Colonel Ulf Henricsson, was quoted as saying that this was
| “ | [...] one of the most serious recent crimes against humanitarian aid workers worldwide.[5] | ” |
The NGO, Action Against Hunger termed it a war crime [6]
Under increasing pressure to investigate this incident by the international community, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse in September 2006 announced the formation of a Commission of Inquiry with a mandate to look into 15 specified alleged violations, including the Muttur massacre of ACF staff. With the dubious track record of previous Commissions of Inquiry in mind, a group of bilateral donors negotiated for the formation of a group of International Independent Eminent Persons (IIGEP) that, invited by the president, have the mandate to observe the investigations of the Commission of Inquiry. Among the countries that nominated an Eminent Person (EP) were Australia.[7]
Sri Lankan Government's investigation is still on as to who killed these NGO workers. The Government of Australia extended forensic expertise to assist in the investigation.
On April 1, 2008, the Organisation "University Teachers for Human Rights", which is run by former teachers at the Jaffna University who are known to be openly critical both of the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka, released their "Special Report #30"[8], which exclusively deals with the massacre of ACF staff. UTHR names one member of the Sri Lankan Home Guard (now the Civil Defence Force) and two Police Constables based in the Muthur Police Station as perpetrators, but adds that several Sri Lanka Navy Special Forces were part of the group that entered the ACF compound and remained passive as the ACF staff were murdered.[8][9]