December 20, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 9, 1428

COLOMBO: An international human rights panel on Wednesday accused Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s office of interfering with an investigation into alleged rights abuses and a series of unresolved killings in this war-torn nation.

The government came under increasing international pressure following a series of high-profile killings that occurred over the last two years as fighting flared between government troops and Tamil separatists. The killings included the execution-style slaying last year of 17 local workers from the aid group Action Against Hunger in eastern Sri Lanka.

In an effort to blunt the criticism, Rajapakse appointed an international panel of “eminent persons” last year to oversee a government commission investigating that incident and 15 others, including a 2006 airstrike that reportedly killed 51 school girls and the 2005 assassination of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, allegedly by Tamil rebels.

The panel, known as the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons, said on Wednesday a letter sent from the president’s office last month said the government commission should no longer “consider, scrutinize, monitor, investigate or inquire into the conduct” of the attorney general or his officers.—AP