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President
Chandrika Kumaratunga urged to make
Bindunuwewa massacre report public
New
Delhi: Asian
Centre for Human Rights in its report, “Sri
Lanka: Miscarriage of Justice” (http://www.achrweb.org/reports/srilanka/SLK0105.pdf)
condemned the acquittal of the accused of murder of 28 Tamil prisoners
and attempted murder of 14 others at the Bindunuwewa Rehabilitation
Centre on 25 October 2000. On 27 May 2005, the Supreme Court of
Sri Lanka acquitted four accused who were earlier sentenced to death
by the High Court.
“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 Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights
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.
Ends/
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