Dodd's report for Commission of Inquiry

COLOMBO: Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe has requested the Attorney-General's Department to place the supplementary report of the Australian forensic pathologist, Dr. Malcolm Dodd, before the Commission of Inquiry investigating the killings of the 17 Action Contr la Faim in August 2006.

The Criminal Investigation Department of the Police has taken steps to file the supplementary report titled 'Independent Forensic Investigation of the Muttur Massacre' before the Anuradhapura Magistrate.

In the supplementary report, Dr. Dodd states that the conclusion in his report as to the identification of the one of the bullets as being of 5.56 calibre "has been proved to be incorrect".

He states that he has no specialised expertise in ballistics, but had relied on the "advice of members of the CID that this retrieved projectile in question was of 5.56 calibre."

The CID have informed Samarasinghe that an affidavit clarifying the position in this connection from a CID officer, who attended the second post mortem, has also been filed in the same court.

The Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, in a release dated August 3, called upon “those who had used the Dodd Report subjectively to cast aspersions on the integrity of the Government of Sri Lanka and its investigative processes, to retract their statements and in future not to leap to unduly hasty conclusions, when not in possession of the full facts.”

Despite being faced with the facts as revealed by the Australian expert, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), have yet to amend their original claims. The Ministry has addressed a communications to the ICJ notifying them of the current position.

The Malcolm Dodd Supplementary Report is released in the interests of clarity and transparency given the intense public interest generated by unsubstantiated claims relating to the ballistic evidence and allegations of tampering with evidence, emanating from several quarters.

The Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights reiterates its call to those parties who have made these false allegations to retract these misleading statements and to clarify their positions immediately giving similar publicity to these corrections as they did with their original claims.

The Government remains committed to ensuring the completion of the investigations into these killings in order to bring the perpetrators before the Courts where they will be prosecuted in accordance with the laws of Sri Lanka.