A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

HHR Condemns the Murder of Two Red Cross Aid Workers, June 8, 2007

Colombo – Two aid workers from the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society were abducted and murdered on 1st June by unknown men.  Their bodies were found with gunshot wounds 95 kilometers southeast of Colombo on the 2nd.

The abductions occurred only three days before the arrival of Yasushi Akashi, a Japanese peace envoy.  Mr. Yasushi will be in Sri Lanka for five days to discuss the current state of the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement.  The attack abduction is the worst incident committed against aid workers since the murder of 17 employees of the French NGO, Action Contre le Faim, in August 2006.  The investigation into the August killings is ongoing.

Home for Human Rights condemns the killings and any attacks on civilians in the ongoing conflict. 

The victims, Sinnarajah Shanmuganathan, 38, and Karthigesu Chandramohan, 28, had traveled from Batticaloa in the Eastern province to attend a two-day workshop at the ICRC headquarters in Colombo.  After completing the workshop on Friday, they went to Colombo’s Fort train station to return to Batticaloa with four other SLRCS representatives around 6:30 pm. The unknown abductors examined the workers’ identity cards and took the men away in a white van to be questioned, according to witness reports.

After completing an autopsy, the bodies were delivered to the SLRC Batticoloa office on Tuesday, 5th June, and laid to rest yesterday. 

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For additional information, contact Home for Human Rights, 14 Pentreve Gardens, Colombo 3, Sri Lanka.  Phone: (0)11 257 7962, (0)11 552 2495; Fax: 011-2573693; Email: info@hhr-srilanka.org