Muttur aid workers massacre inquiry put off

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 October 2006, 17:12 GMT]
The Anuradhapura Magistrate, appointed to conduct the inquest proceedings into the killing of seventeen aid workers of Action against Hunger (ACF) in Muttur last week, put off the further inquiry for October 11 without making an order for the exhumation of remaining fifteen bodies buried after the first post-mortem examination. The family members of the slain aid workers did not attend the hearing on October 4 when the case was taken for inquiry, legal sources said.

Two of the seventeen bodies were earlier exhumed on the orders of the Anuradhapura Magistrate for further post-mortem examination and have been kept in the Colombo national hospital mortuary till the remaining fifteen bodies are exhumed, sources said.

The date for exhumations of the remaining fifteen bodies is expected to be fixed at the next date of hearing scheduled to take place in the Kantalai magistrate's court.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Sri Lanka Police is expected to make an application on October 11 for the exhumation of remaining fifteen bodies between October 16 and 20, legal sources said.

Earlier, Australian forensic experts brought to Sri Lanka to investigate the killings returned home last week of September "frustrated by having to idle in Sri Lanka until legal and other modalities were cleared," media in Colombo reported. The experts are experted to return to assist in the investigations.

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