I was in Sri Lanka on August 4, 2006, when 17 humanitarian aid workers were brutally murdered in the embattled town of Muttur, near the coastal city of Trincomalee. I’ve written about the incident ever since, but 20 years later, I still cannot report that those responsible have been held to account.
During the height of the fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2006, LTTE forces on August 2 captured Muttur. Sri Lankan staff members of the Paris-based international aid organization Action Contre la Faim (Action against Hunger, or ACF) were caught up in the shelling and shooting, stranded in their office compound.
After Sri Lankan security forces retook the town following the LTTE’s withdrawal around noon on August 4, they reported a horrific discovery: the bodies of 15 ACF workers lying face down in their compound, with bullet wounds to their heads and necks fired at point-blank range. The bodies of two other ACF workers, who appeared to have tried to escape, were found in a vehicle nearby.
The Sri Lankan military informed foreign journalists shown the scene that the LTTE had murdered the 13 men and 4 women, all ethnic Tamils except for one Muslim. However, in-depth reporting by the nongovernmental University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) later debunked the official account. The group said that two police constables and Sri Lankan naval special forces commandos were responsible for the killings, and that senior police and justice officials were involved in a coverup.
The Muttur massacre was just one of many atrocities by both sides during Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war, which ended with the LTTE’s destruction in 2009. It was among the dozen major rights cases that successive governments promised to pursue—but never seriously did.
The families of the ACF workers, as well as those of thousands of others unlawfully killed, forcibly disappeared or otherwise unaccounted for, have been waiting decades for justice.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government needs to make good on its 2024 election-year pledge to establish an independent prosecutor to pursue emblematic cases from the civil war, including the Muttur massacre. Concerned governments should continue to press for accountability in Sri Lanka and highlight the need for justice for all victims of wartime abuses and its aftermath.
