Sri Lankan panel asked to probe 1990 LTTE massacre of policemen

A Sri Lankan panel investigating the cases of thousands of people who went missing during the nearly three-decade war with LTTE has been asked to probe the execution of over 600 policemen by the Tamil rebels in 1990.

Representatives of a retired senior police officers' association have met the chairman of the panel, Maxwell Paranagama, and requested him to probe the killings.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which fought the Sri Lankan government for a separate Tamil homeland, is accused of killing 600 policemen in the eastern district of Ampara, 24 years ago.

More than 600 police officers in Batticaloa and Ampara in the Eastern Province surrendered to the LTTE following orders of the then President R Premadasa who had agreed to a truce with the rebels. The ceasefire was brokered by India as part of the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord.

Shortly after their surrender on June 11, 1990, the LTTE executed all the officers.

The representatives also asked the panel to check if due compensation had been paid to the victims in addition to conferring of promotions in ranks posthumously. The disappearances commission is looking at missing persons during the nearly three-decade conflict with the LTTE.

About 20,000 complaints have been looked into by the presidential commission at public hearings held in the previous battle zones. Sri Lanka, under international pressure over its alleged rights abuses during the conflict, had set up the commission.

The formation of the panel was a result of the recommendation of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission