They included the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar[i]; the killing of five students in Trincomalee, known as the “Trinco Five”[ii]; the Kebithigollewa claymore mine attack that killed 68 civilians[iii]; the massacre of 17 Action Contre la Faim (ACF) aid workers in Muttur[iv]; the execution of Muslim civilians in Muttur[v]; the killing of 14 persons at Welikanda while being transported from Muttur in ambulances[vi]; the Sencholai air strike that killed 51 schoolgirls[vii]; the Pottuvil massacre of 10 Muslim civilians[viii]; the Digampathana bus bombing near Sigiriya that killed 98 naval personnel[ix]; the disappearance of Fr. Jim Brown and his associate at Allaipiddy[x]; the assassinations of MPs Joseph Pararajasingham and Nadarajah Raviraj[xi]; the killing of aid workers in Jaffna[xii]; allegations of enforced disappearances and abductions linked to the conflict[xiii]; killings of civilians associated with military operations in the North and East; and other serious human rights violations referred to the Commission under its Presidential mandate.
The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) was invited to oversee and observe a domestic Presidential Commission of Inquiry (commonly known as the Udalagama Commission). President Mahinda Rajapaksa legally mandated the commission to investigate 16 specific, high-profile cases of serious human rights violations alleged to have occurred after August 1, 2005.
Because the IIGEP resigned in protest in 2008 over government obstruction, and the Udalagama Commission’s mandate expired before it could complete its work, only 7 of these cases were fully investigated.
The primary, most prominent emblematic cases within those 16 included:
The 7 Concluded Investigations
1. The Muttur Massacre (August 2006): The summary execution-style murder of 17 local aid workers (16 Tamils and one Muslim) working for the French NGO Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger / ACF) inside their office compound.
2. The Trinco Five Case (January 2006): The extrajudicial execution of 5 Tamil college students on the beachfront in Trincomalee.
3. The Assassination of Lakshman Kadirgamar (August 2005): The assassination of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister at his Colombo residence.
4. The Assassination of Joseph Pararajasingham (December 2005): The shooting of the prominent Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament during a Christmas Eve mass in Batticaloa.
5. The Senchoali Air Strike (August 2006): The bombing of the Naddalamottankulam (Senchoali) orphanage/training center, which resulted in the deaths of 51 young girls and school children.
6. The Welikanda Ambulance Execution (August 2006): The abduction and alleged execution of 14 Muslim villagers from Muttur who were being transferred in ambulances.
7. The Pottuvil Massacres (September 2006): The mass killing of 10 Muslim civilian laborers in the Radella area of Pottuvil.
Notable Pending/Unconcluded Mandated Cases
The remaining 9 cases that the IIGEP was originally asked to observe but which the commission ran out of time or failed to investigate included:
• The Assassination of Nadaraja Raviraj (November 2006): The high-profile shooting of the human rights lawyer and TNA Member of Parliament in Colombo.
• The Digampathana (Sigiriya) Bombing (October 2006): A massive suicide truck bombing targeting a military convoy that killed 98 Sri Lanka Navy sailors.
• Five separate incidents of alleged abductions, disappearances, and extrajudicial killings across the Jaffna, Welikanda, and Eastern theater checkpoints involving both state forces and paramilitary factions.
[i] https://reliefweb.int/report/sri-lanka/sri-lanka-kadirgamar-killing-possible-motive-and-consequences
[ii] https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/07/08/sri-lanka-no-justice-trinco-5
[iii] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jun/15/srilanka
[iv] https://www.actioncontrelafaim.org/en/news/campaign/understanding-the-muttur-massacre/ and https://www.uthr.lk/reports No 30
[v] https://www.bbc.com/sinhala/news/story/2006/09/printable/060924_muttur_muslims
[vi] UTHR report No 30 – https://www.uthr.lk/reports
[vii] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/14-aug-2006-53-tamil-school-girls-killed-sri-lankan-air-strike-childrens-home
[viii] https://reliefweb.int/report/sri-lanka/curfew-imposed-eastern-sri-lanka-town-after-clashes
[ix] https://reliefweb.int/report/sri-lanka/suicide-attack-sri-lanka-military-convoy-kills-92
[x] https://srilankabrief.org/fr-jim-brown-and-mr-vimalathas-five-years-after-disappearance-where-are-they-and-whats-happened-to-the-investigation/
[xi][xi] https://www.dailymirror.lk/dbs-jeyaraj-column/twin-assassinations-of-tna-parliamentarians-pararajasingham-and-raviraj/192-91639
[xii] https://reliefweb.int/report/lebanon/caritas-condemns-killing-aid-workers-sri-lanka-and-elsewhere
[xiii] https://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/srilanka0807/5.htm#_ftnref87 (No 87)