June 15, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
While attacks on aid workers in Sri Lanka are growing, don’t expect swift justice for the culprits, writes Peter Apps on his blog on AlertNet, a Web site sponsored by Reuters that focuses on humanitarian problems.
The BBC reports that yesterday a Mercy Corps employee was shot in Sri Lanka — he is in stable condition — and last week, two Red Cross workers were killed.
In the case of the Red Cross murders, “the government promised an immediate investigation. But few have any confidence that those responsible will be brought to justice,” writes Mr. Apps, a journalist who used to cover the civil war in Sri Lanka.
He is skeptical he writes because Sri Lankan authorities have done little to investigate last year’s massacre of 17 employees for Action Against Hunger, an incident in which some evidence suggests that the military may have played a role.
All the aid workers who have been killed have been members of the Tamil minority; the Sri Lankan government, which is run by the majority Sinhalese, is currently fighting a Tamil separatist movement in the island’s northern and eastern territories.
Read a Chronicle opinion article by Nancy Langer, a veteran aid worker, who says that charities that work in dangerous parts of the world need to spend more money on security.
What do you think? What should be done to protect aid workers in Sri Lanka and other global war zones?
