Slain Red Cross staffers laid to rest in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2007, 20:32 GMT]
The remains of the two staffers of the Sri Lanka Red Cross abducted and killed, after having participated in a training programme in Colombo Sunday, were interred Thursday around 9:00 a.m at Ka'l'liyangkaadu burial site on Boundary road in Batticalo, attended by a large crowd of people.



Sinnarasa Shanmugalingam, 32 and Karthikesu Chandramohan, 26 had worked for the Batticaloa branch of the Sri Lanka Red Cross. They had been in Colombo attending a training workshop organized by the Sri Lanka Red Cross national headquarters. At about 6:45 p.m. on 1 June they were abducted from Fort railway station in Colombo by unknown men while waiting to return to Batticaloa. Their bodies were found on 2 June at the Dumbara Estate in Kiriella, Ratnapura district.

The joint press release of ICRC, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society Colombo/Geneva Monday called upon the Sri Lankan authorities to carry out an immediate and comprehensive investigation into the killings.

The tragic fate of the two Red Cross staffers is similar to that of the 15 Tamil humanitarian workers of the French NGO, Action Contre la Faim allegedly massacred by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers in Muthoor town on 05 August 2006 which still remains unsolved and the perpetrators allowed to roam free.

Ten TRO staff members were abducted by Sri Lanka Army-backed paramilitaries in Batticaloa district on January 30, 2006. Three were released, but the other seven have ‘disappeared’ and many believe they have been killed in custody.

Rt. Rev. Joseph Kingsley Swampillai, Bishop of Trincomalee, Batticaloa, paying homage to the two slain staffers at Batticaloa Wedenesday said, that the killings was a horrendous act and that the Sri Lanka Government should take steps to halt the killings immediately.









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