FAQ

How the Organisation reacted internally to the massacre?

A massacre of so many NGO workers never happened in the humanitarian history.

This killing has deeply affected all the Organisation members. Many former expatriates of Sri Lanka, expatriates and national employees on other missions wrote the mission in Sri Lanka to express their sorrow. ACF also received many compassion messages from the international community (government officials, donors, international institutions).

To cope with such a security incident is an arduous job for any organisation. There were a lot of discussions at the mission level and in the headquarters regarding the massacre, the crisis management and the future of the mission Sri Lanka.

•  An external audit was requested to assess the security management
• All operational activities were on stand-by for three months in order to dedicate all the resources to support the families, to launch the investigation and to assess the risks for the Organisation
•  Decision was taken to resume operational activities with extremely protective security rules.

Do you think that truth will come out from a Sri Lankan investigation?

When we started the proceeding, we were realistic and we knew that very few criminal cases were solved in Sri Lanka.

Nevertheless the Organisation continued to follow the on-going procedures and complied with the SL law and made sure all the remedies will be exhausted.
Nevertheless, it’s now nearly two years that we are fighting to obtain the truth on Muttur massacre, and unfortunately the 3 different proceeding led nowhere and are not moving forward. Moreover, after the departure of the IIGEP, ACF loose confidence in these remedies and decided to stop the following of the 3 procedures. As it’s not possible to have a credible investigation in Sri Lanka, ACF requests the setting up of an international inquiry to obtain the truth

What about France attitude regarding ACF?

France is closely following the Muttur case since the beginning. The French embassy has supported ACF several times not only by giving advises but also through its strong relationships with both national and international authorities.

Recently the French foreign ministry declared that it would explore, together with his international partners, our request for an international inquiry.

It was “said” that you didn’t compensate properly the families/employees?

Every family has received compensation. ACF calculated the amount according to the sri lankan law and the habits of UN agencies and NGOs in this kind of situation. The amount took into consideration the salary, the experience, the number of the family’s members.

The minimum each family received is one year of salary, plus one year of the average salaries of the base (to maintain equity between highest and lowest salary), upon that came a sum depending on their seniority in the Organisation and their family situation.
In addition various costs were paid by the organisation (coffins, transportation, ceremonies…).

Regarding employees for which their contract came to an end, they received compensations due to an anticipated end of contract based on their seniority. The amount was calculated according to the Sri Lankan law upon which the Organisation gave some bonuses.

Why did you finally leave SL ?

The presence of the IIGEP became the only guaranty of the respect of the international standards during the investigation at the Commission of Inquiry.

After 18 months of proceedings, ACF has observe a lot of flaws, mistakes…therefore ACF is not confident anymore in the Sri Lankan justice for the Muttur case and  now requests an international investigation process to get the truth and the prosecution of the culprits.

What is your “scenario” of the killings? Ultimately, who is guilty?

The Organisation is aware of the SLMM declarations pointing out the responsibility of Security Forces, as well as the UTHR report.

3 processes on going. Actually, no result
To assert who is guilty will be the outcome of an international inquiry now. We are neither investigators nor a Human Rights organisation.