Human Rights Watch today accusedthe Sri Lankan Government of being "unwilling" to take actionagainst those responsible for atrocities on ethnic Tamilsduring the civil war, citing its failure to bring to bookthose responsible for slaying of 17 aid workers six years ago.
"The sixth anniversary of the summary executions of 17aid workers has brought the Sri Lankan government no closer toobtaining justice for the victims," said James Ross, legal andpolicy director at Human Rights Watch.
17 aid workers -- 16 Tamils and one Muslim -- were"executed" by gunmen in their office in Mutur town inTrincomalee district in eastern Sri Lanka on August 4, 2006.
The killings followed the high-voltage battle betweenSri Lankan Army and the then powerful Liberation Tigers ofTamil Eelam (LTTE) for control of the vital town.
"President (Mahinda) Rajapaksa's callous indifferenceto the suffering of the aid workers' families will be a sadhallmark of his administration," he said.
Ross noted that the workers were assisting thesurvivors of the 2004 Boxing Day tsumani that wreaked havoc inSri Lanka and other South-East Asian countries.
In July 2009, the Presidential Commission of Inquiry,created in November 2006 to investigate 16 major cases ofhuman rights abuse, exonerated the army and navy in slayings,instead blaming the LTTE, he noted.
Sri Lankan Government is accused of human rightsviolations in the last phase of the civil war that finally sawthe annihilation of the rebel LTTE with the death of its oncefeared leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Western countries like the UK and US had introducedresolutions in the UN Human Rights Council censuring the SriLankan Government on the alleged human rights violations.
Governments concerned about impunity for serious humanrights abuses in Sri Lanka should publicly support anindependent international mechanism, the Human Rights Watchsaid.
"Governments that demanded action at the UN HumanRights Council should not be mollified by the Sri Lankangovernment's tepid proposal to pursue criminal inquiries,"Ross said.