SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT PLEDGES INVESTIGATION INTO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000187 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/01/2016 TAGS: PTER PHUM PGOV CE SUBJECT: SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT PLEDGES INVESTIGATION INTO AID WORKERS' DISAPPEARANCE REF: A. COLOMBO 172 ¶B. COLOMBO 176 Classified By: DCM JAMES F. ENTWISTLE. REASON: 1.4 (B,D). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: On February 2 President Mahinda Rajapaksa telephoned the Ambassador to assure him of Government concern at the reported abductions of Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) staff (Reftels) but reiterated that efforts to investigate were being hampered by lack of access to purported eyewitnesses. In a meeting with a TRO official later the same day, the DCM emphasized the importance of TRO making eyewitnesses available to police investigators. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) personnel met with two eyewitnesses and agreed to facilitate a meeting between them and the police. The facts surrounding these two cases, including the whereabouts of ten purported eyewitnesses, remain murky and are unlikely to become clearer until the eyewitnesses come forward. End summary. ¶2. (C) On the morning of February 2 President Mahinda Rajapaksa telephoned the Ambassador to assure him that the Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) was taking the reported abductions of 10 employees of the pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) very seriously (Reftels) and to report that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) had sent a special team to Welikanda in Polonnaruwa District, where the abductions reportedly occurred, to investigate. These efforts had been thwarted so far, however, because investigators had not been given access to any of the 12 purported eyewitnesses to the abductions, the President said. Noting that the DCM was meeting a TRO official later in the day, the Ambassador said that the Embassy would convey that message. ¶3. (SBU) DCM and poloff met with a TRO Project Development Officer in Colombo on February 2 and emphasized the need for witnesses to the abductions to cooperate with police in their investigations. The TRO officer reported that Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) personnel had interviewed two eyewitnesses to the January 30 abductions and was expected to interview the two eyewitnesses to the January 29 incident later in the day. He said that the witnesses were fearful of going to the police and wanted some kind of assurance, which could possibly be provided through SLMM or ICRC mediation, of their safety. TRO's primary concern was the long-term safety of their personnel, the TRO officer stressed, and the organization would not speculate about perpetrators or motives, adding "there are a lot of groups" with possible reasons to commit these acts. (Note: The LTTE is not nearly so circumspect. A February 2 e-mail from the LTTE Peace Secretariat claimed that the abductions were committed by SIPDIS "paramilitaries working with the assistance of Sri Lanka Army.") He also asserted that TRO is a neutral, impartial NGO that works with both the GSL and LTTE and provides services to members of all communities in the north and east. ¶4. (SBU) SLMM Spokeswoman Helen Olafsdottir confirmed to poloff on February 2 that SLMM personnel in Batticaloa had met with two eyewitnesses to the January 30 abductions and had accompanied the young women from Batticaloa back to Welikanda in an (ultimately futile) attempt to identify the exact place where the incident took place. TRO had asked the SLMM to guarantee the young women's safety by accompanying them a second time to Welikanda to make a police statement to the IGP's team, Olafsdottir reported, but since guaranteeing safety is not part of the SLMM mandate, the truce monitors are instead trying to arrange for investigators to come to Batticaloa and take the women's statement. In a separate conversation just before the close of business, the TRO official told poloff that ICRC "had agreed in principle" to accompany the young women to Welikanda to file a police report later that evening. COLOMBO 00000187 002 OF 002 ¶5. (C) Comment: The government recognizes that these reported abductions could derail the long-awaited ceasefire talks in Geneva, expected to occur later this month, and appears now to be trying in good faith to ensure that that does not happen. Given the flurry of recent TRO press statements--which have included, at least in part, snippets of testimony from some purported eyewitnesses--we find their reluctance to make a formal complaint to the police a little puzzling. The TRO official's description of his organization as impartial strikes us as more than a little disingenuous. While there may well be no ostensible legal links with the LTTE, the TRO is unabashedly pro-LTTE, an orientation that we suspect affects its fundraising as well. LUNSTEAD