In a statement issued to mark the World Humanitarian Day, the AI recalls that many humanitarian workers and their relatives victimised during the height of the conflict are still waiting for justice.

The killing of 17 aid workers in Muttur in 2006 in particular, AI says, is yet to be properly investigated.

The incident regarded by the activists as “the worst single attack on aid workers since the 2003 bombing of a UN headquarters in Iraq,” has been internationally condemned.

But no suspects were arrested or convicted on the murder of the aid workers.

I was told to by President Rajapaksa to submit a report with what we have done and stop the proceedings. I did not ask the reason but we did ask for an extension Commission chairman, Nissanka Udalagama

“Today there are no credible domestic mechanisms to deal with serious human rights violations. The Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission lacks independence and has itself acknowledged its lack of capacity to deal with investigations into disappearances,” AI said in a statement.

The government appointed a presidential commission to investigate the massacre and 14 other serious incidents.

But the Commission chairman, retired justice Nissanka Udalagama, told BBC Sandeshaya that President Rajapaksa ordered him to abruptly end the investigation without giving him any reason.

“I was told to by President Rajapaksa to submit a report with what we have done and stop the proceedings. I did not ask the reason but we did ask for an extension,” he said.

The AI says that Sri Lanka has 5,749 outstanding cases being reviewed by the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.

“Given Sri Lanka’s consistent failure to prosecute perpetrators of human rights violations, Amnesty International believes the chances of justice being served domestically in the ACF and other cases are very slim,” it said in a statement issued on Thursday.