Colombo: Three years after the killing of Norwegian Refugee Council’s Sri Lanka staff member, Mr. Jeyaruban Gnanapragasam, there has been no accountability for his killing, the NRC said last week.

May 15 also marked the completion of one year since the disappearance of staff member Mr. Sebastian Goodfellow from Colombo. May 27 will complete six months since the killing of staff member Mr. A. Vigneswaran in Batticaloa district. To date there have been no prosecutions for any of these crimes.

"Space and protection for aid workers is a basic pre-requisite for humanitarian organisations to deliver needed assistance, and a requirement under International Humanitarian Law" said Elisabeth Rasmusson, Secretary-General for the Norwegian Refugee Council. "Credible investigation and prosecutions for every single incident are paramount and will serve as a good deterrent against future attacks."

Twenty-two year old Jeyaruban was employed by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s shelter project in Vavuniya District in Northern Sri Lanka. After failing to return home after work on May 15, 2006, his body was found the next morning by a colleague. Jeyaruban had been shot five times in his body and twice in his head. His NRC-issued identity card had been taken from his remains. On August 29, 2006 the Vavuniya Magistrate identified four suspects in the case. To date no arrests or charges have been made against any individual for involvement in the killing.

Sebastian Goodfellow was employed as a driver with NRC. He was last seen when he dropped off some NRC staff at the head country office in Colombo on May 15, 2008. NRC reported Sebastian Goodfellow’s possible enforced disappearance to the Cinnamon Gardens police station in Colombo in May 2008, and his family reported the same to the police in the eastern city of Batticaloa, where he is normally based. Over the past year NRC has hired a lawyer to attend fortnightly hearings on the police progress and investigation into Sebastian’s disappearance, but no progress has been made. Sebastian is a father of three and had worked for the NRC in Sri Lanka for nearly 3 years, based in Batticaloa.

On the evening of November 27, 2008 unidentified men entered Vigneswaran’s home and forcibly took him to a nearby decommissioned IDP-site, where he was shot in the mouth. Vigneswaran was later taken to a nearby hospital but pronounced dead on arrival. Motive for the killing is unknown. Twenty-eight year old Vigneswaran had been working as a construction-supervisor with the NRC for nearly two years, based in Batticaloa.