Bodies of 17 NGO workers brought to Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 August 2006, 09:01 GMT]
The bodies of 17 persons, 16 Tamils and a Muslim, were brought to the mortuary of the Trincomalee general hospital Tuesday in a lorry from Muthur via Allai-Kantalai road. On the orders of the Sri Lankan authorities, a Sinhalese Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) was brought from Anuradhapura to conduct the post-mortem examinations. One of the victims, Y.Kodeeswaran, was the eldest brother of Y.Hemachchandran, another victim of an execution-style massacre by the Special Task Force (STF), the Sri Lankan counter-insurgency elite force in January this year along the Trincomalee sea beach. A father who was a driver, and his daughter, a hygience promoter, were also among the ACF victims.

Media persons who went to take photographs of the victims lying in the mortuary Tuesday morning were not allowed by the Sri Lankan armed forces and police to enter the hospital premises.

Many of the local reporters refrained from covering the incident as a Tami reporter who photographed the January 02 massacre was assasinated.

Funeral of victims are to be held by their relatives on receipt of the sealed coffins which "should be kept in their home for about two hours," according to the instructions by the Sri Lankan armed forces, informed civil sources said.

The victims


Among those killed four were women and others men. Of them sixteen were Tamils and one Muslim. All were deployed by the ACF in Muthur area to implement tsunami relief works such as in the construction of permanent houses, sources said.



The four women were identified as G. Kavitha, 27, K.Kovarthani, 28, S.Romila, 25, and V.Kokilavathani, 29. All women victims were Hygiene Promoters. Kavitha's father, a driver, was also killed in the massacre.

Advanced Field-Officer G. Sreethraran, 36, Assistant Promotion Manager Primus Anandarajah, from Vanni, Supervisor Matahavarasa Ketheeswaran, 36, father of two and field officers, M. Narmathan, 24, R. Arulraj, 24, P.Partheeban, 27, M. Rishikeshan, 28, and Y. Kodeeswaran, 31, were killed.

The drivers, were identified as S. Ganesh, 54, whose daughter was also killed in the massacre, I. Muraleetharan, 35, and K. Koneshwaran, 24.

The Muslim victim, Abdul Latif Mohamed Jauffer, 31, was a peon, from Muthur.

Y.Kodeeswaran, one of the massacre victims is the eldest brother of Y.Hemachchandran who was killed on January 2 this year with four other Tamil students along the Trincomalee sea beach in an execution type killed carried out by the Special Task Force (STF) of the Police. Hemachchandran was the youngest in the family.

Dr.M.Waidiyaraetna, Judical Medical Officer of the Anuradhapura General Hospital has been conducting post-mortem examination on the bodies of several workers of the French humanitarian organization.

The ACF workers were, allegedly lined up and shot dead by Sri Lankan government troopers when they entered the Muthur town after LTTE fighters returned to their positions in Muthur East. The post-mortem examinations are held in the Trincomalee general hospital, medical sources said.

Till 1.30 p.m. Tuesday post-mortem examinations on four bodies were completed and were released to their relatives in sealed coffins. Relatives of the victims had been asked to conduct the burial within two hours and not to open the seal coffins as the bodies were in the state of putrefaction, sources said.



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