Sri Lanka's President urged to make Bindunuwewa massacre report public
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 June 2005, 11:02 GMT]
"The fact that that not a single person could be held guilty for the mass
murder of 28 Tamils in the protective custody of the State at Bindunuwewa
will further increase the distrust of even the moderate Tamil minorities
with the democratic institutions of Sri Lanka" stated Mr. Suhas Chakma,
Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) in a 24 page report issued on Thursday titled "Sri Lanka:Miscarriage of Justice". On 27 May 2005, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka acquitted four accused who were earlier sentenced to death by the High Court.
Excerpts from the press release issued by the ACHR on Thursday: The trial of Bindunuwewa massacre case has been a operation whitewash led
by President Chandrika Kumaratunga who ordered a Presidential Commission
headed by Justice P. H. K. Kulatilaka but failed to make the report
public despite the submission of the same in November 2001. The Attorney General did not take the findings of the Justice Kulatika Commission of Inquiry and relied on the weak evidences while framing charges. Not a
single senior officer present at the massacre site was charged. Even the
bullets fired by the police that killed one of the inmates were not
entered into evidence. The report alleged that Sri Lankan government has provided impunity for
the killings of innocent Tamil civilians. Not a single security personnel
has been prosecuted whether it is in the case of Kokkadicholai massacre
of 1991, Kokkuvil massacre of September 1990 or Kumarapuram massacre of
February 1996. The cases relating to Kokkuvil massacre or Kumarapuram
massacre have been dragging on in the courts. In the report handed over the Sri Lankan High Commission in New Delhi,
ACHR also urged President Kumratunga to instruct the government of Sri
Lanka to submit an appeal before the Supreme Court for a review of the
judgement of 27 May 2005 and extend invitation to the Special Rapporteur
on Independence of Judges and Lawyers to visit Sri Lanka. Asian Centre for Human Rights also urged the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour to study all the judgements
relating to the Bindunuwewa massacre and consider appointing a High Level
Panel of Inquiry into the Bindunuwewa massacre.
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