S Lanka rejects death probe claim

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The Sri Lankan government has rejected allegations that evidence relating to the killing of 17 aid workers last year was tampered with.

The International Commission of Jurists had alleged that a bullet recovered from the scene - a type used mainly by the military - had been removed.

The Action Against Hunger workers were killed in Muttur in northern Sri Lanka.

Both the government and Tamil Tiger rebels blame each other for the killings last August.

The Sri Lanka government has, for the first time, formally rejected allegations of tampering with evidence in the incident by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).

In a letter to the ICJ, the head of the Sri Lankan government's peace secretariat, Rajiva Wijesinha, accused the organisation of being unprofessional.

'Lack of impartiality'

Earlier, the Secretary General of ICJ, Nicholas Howen, said he believed one bullet recovered from the scene - of a type mainly used by the Sri Lankan military - had been removed.

An ICJ report earlier this year had said there had been "a disturbing lack of impartiality and transparency in the investigation".

The aid workers were deliberately shot dead in their office in Muttur at a time when fighting was going on in the area.

Truce monitors blamed security forces, who denied carrying out the killings.

About 60,000 people have died since the rebel insurgency started three decades ago in Sri Lanka.