Foreign aid donors under human rights fire over Sri Lanka killings

Peace broker Norway and nations which promised Sri Lanka three billion dollars in tsunami aid were Tuesday accused by an international human rights group of not using their financial clout to halt a string of killings.







Peace broker Norway and nations which promised Sri Lanka three billion dollars in tsunami aid were Tuesday accused by an international human rights group of not using their financial clout to halt a string of killings. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said an estimated 200 people had been killed in Sri Lanka since an Oslo-brokered truce went into effect from February 23, 2002.

Aid donors have done little to stop the murders, it charged.

The rights group said the island's donors last week topped their tsunami pledges to more than three billion dollars, but did not demand an end to the political killings and abductions.

"Norway, the facilitator of the ceasefire agreement, and other key states, such as Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom have also chosen not to use their leverage to demand an end to the killings," HRW said in a statement.

However, it added that the European Union and Canada had spoken out "more recently in strong terms against the killings.

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