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Bhagwati panel submits final report

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s air force on Tuesday claimed to have bombed an LTTE “covert communication” facility at Panikkankulam in Mullaittivu.

According to Air Force spokesperson Wing Commander Andrew Wijesooriya, the air sorties were conducted by Kfir jets.

Separately, the military said suspected LTTE cadres triggered a claymore mine blast targeting a motor cycle carrying two civil security force personnel in Kebethigollewa in the south. It said the explosion, which injured the two security personnel, took place along the Thalgahawewa-Yakawewa road in general area Kebethigollewa.

In another development the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) headed by Justice (retd.) P.N. Bhagwati in its concluding public statement regretted that it was unable to carry on its mission, as required by the terms of the presidential invitation, due to lack of “political and institutional will” on the part of the government.

“There seems to the IIGEP to be an absence of political and institutional will on the part of the Government to pursue with vigour the cases under review with the intention of identifying the perpetrators or at least uncovering the systemic failures and obstructions to justice that rendered the original investigations ineffective”, the 16 page statement said.

The IIGEP was fully formed in February 2007, when the President of Sri Lanka invited 11 persons from a number of countries to observe the work of the Commission of Inquiry to Investigate and Inquire into Alleged Serious Violations of Human Rights (“the Commission”), which was established in November 2006.

The IIGEP’s recommendations include a suggestion that the President ensure that all state bodies comply with international norms and standards and his directive to provide full disclosure of information and cooperation to the Commission.

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