Lanka abuse probe 'set to fail'

A bus attack in June 2006 was one of the abuses to be examined

A presidential commission in Sri Lanka investigating human rights abuses is in danger of failing, a team of international observers says.

The commission is due to complete its work in November. President Mahinda Rajapaksa set it up after a number of bomb blasts and killings.

But the observers say that "no significant progress" has been made by the commission.

The killings include some blamed on the Sri Lankan security forces.

In one case, 17 local employees of a French aid agency were killed in Muttur in the north-east of the island.

Both the military and the Tamil Tiger rebels have been repeatedly accused of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.

Transparency problem

The observers, the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons, (IIGEP), were themselves appointed by President Rajapaksa to oversee his commission's works.

But the IIGEP now says that "the investigation and inquiry process to date fails to comply effectively with international norms and standards".

It says that:

• "The commission is unlikely to have completed any case before the expiry of the commission's mandate in early November 2007"
• The exclusion of the public and families of victims from hearings "may undermine the transparency of the commission's work"
• There are "serious conflicts of interest" in the way the commission is set up
• "The commission still has no functioning" unit to offer protection to witnesses and victims of abuses giving evidence.

The government has not yet responded to the report.

The commission was set up to look into 15 major incidents since August 2005.

Before a ceasefire in 2002, more than 60,000 people had been killed in two decades of civil war.

Since mid-2005, more than 4,000 people more have died as violence has escalated, despite the ceasefire still officially being in place.