Exactly three months ago, seventeen humanitarian workers that belonged to a French NGO, Action Against Hunger, were brutally massacred allegedly by Sri Lanka government security forces at the organisation's Muttur office. Even three months after the incident, still no arrests have been made and the impunity prevails as usual. Eleven bodies of the slain were exhumed and transferred to Colombo on 18th October for an autopsy.

The post-mortems are taking place under the observation of Australian forensic experts. The post-mortem report will be transferred to the magistrate in charge of the case and will be made to known to public the next hearing. International pressure on Muttur massacre caused the government to initiate to create an investigatory commission including Sri Lankan representatives and international observers, under the aegis of the president. Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to announce 'ceremonially' on the day the three months after the Muttur massacre, the names of a commission of inquiry to investigate 15 serious human rights violations that took place in Sri Lanka recently. The eight-member committee will investigate 15 cases of abduction, disappearance and extra-judicial killings that occurred after August 2005.

These cases include the killing of Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lakshman Kadirgamar; the hanging of a family of five in Mannar; the Pesalai incident where the navy is blamed for firing on civilians inside a church; the killing of civilians in Kayts Island; the assassination of five students in Trincomalee; the claymore attack on a civilian bus in Kebetigollewa; the 17 killings of Action Against Hunger workers in Muttur; the five headless bodies in Avissawella; disappearances of Muslims in Muttur; and the attack on the Sri Lanka Navy transit camp in Digampathana. According to informed sources, the commission appointed for a period of one year and headed by Supreme Court Judge N. K. Udalagama will comprise of civil society representatives including Devanesan Nesiah, Manouri Muttetuwegama, Jezima Ismail and Javed Yusuf.

An International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) will also be set up to act as observers into these investigations. The group will be chaired by Justice P. N. Bhagwati, the former chief justice of India, and is expected to comprise 11 persons. They are from United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Japan, the European Union, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The IIGEP?s mandate would be to observe the inquiry and investigation process of the special commission. Meanwhile a leading rights body, Human Rights Watch, is seeking a UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Sri Lanka to put an immediate end to widespread violations of humanitarian law by the government and the Tamil Tigers.

Human Rights Watch has also urged the government, its military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to agree to set up demilitarised zones as sanctuaries in conflict areas. Whatever the international pressure to safeguard the human rights, the abductions, torture and killing are continued in broad day light even amidst tight security in the Colombo city. More than 219 people have been killed, abducted or are feared killed by 'unknown gunmen' across Sri Lanka since January this year, according to the figures at hand of the new Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Disappearances. 40 complaints have been received by the commission from Colombo district alone.

Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC) Chairman Sirthunga Jayasooriya said that there have been 54 abductions in Colombo city alone and of these, 36 are missing, 09 have been killed and 09 have been released after alleged payment ransom money. Jayasuriya openly said that the CMC would not trust the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Disappearances as it was just a face-saving exercise for the government. He charged that certain organizations were abducting people and collecting ransoms while other extremist groups are carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Colombo to rid the area of Tamils. Except a few Sinhala and Muslim persons almost all the affected persons are Tamils. Sivanandan, a leading Colombo activist of the government ally Upcountry People's Front is also among the disappeared.

Around 500 parents, relatives and friends of the disappeared persons staged a protest in front of the Colombo Fort railway station November 1st demanding the government to end the disappearances and abductions. Sri Lanka Defence Ministry says that 3300 people have died in Sri Lanka since December 2005 due to the escalation of violence as fighting erupted between government security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE). Since November 17th last year, the day President Mahinda Rajapakse swore in, up to 25th October, 860 security personnel and 549 civilians have been killed, the Ministry of Defence said.

The number of Tamil Tigers rebels killed by the security forces has been estimated 1880 and 1303 are believed injured. The figures point out that the majority of the killed are civilians. They clearly outnumber the casualties of the Lebanon war.

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