S.Lanka president's office meddled in probe-experts

COLOMBO, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's office has interfered with a commission probing civil war rights abuses and murders that include some blamed on state security forces, international observers said on Wednesday.

The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) says the presidential probe into abuses, including a massacre of 17 aid workers last year that Nordic truce monitors have blamed on security forces, lacks transparency and fails to meet international standards. There was no immediate comment from the president's office.

The panel said the president's office wrote to the commission last month clarifying that it was not necessary to probe the conduct of the Attorney General or his department regarding investigations relevant to the probe.

"The IIGEP ... questions the need for this specific clarification and is of the opinion that this statement at the very least constitutes an interference in the independence of the commission," the panel said in a statement.

It noted that the commission had shown no intention to question the officers of the Attorney General's department on the investigations into rights abuses following the instructions from the president's office.

"In the circumstances, this communication from the President's office erodes the independence and neutrality of the commission, and could impede the search for the truth," the panel said.

The panel, which includes experts from India and France among other nations, was set up to observe the presidential commission's probe following calls by international rights groups.

The panel's criticism comes against a backdrop of increasing tension between the Sri Lankan government and rights groups over abuses blamed on both sides of renewed civil war between the state and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Rights groups say hundreds of people have been killed or abducted since last year when the civil war, that has killed around 70,000 people since 1983, resumed after a near four-year lull.

The eminent persons group is also concerned at the lack of witness protection legislation, and says the presidential commission has not properly shared information.

The presidential commission countered the criticism with a statement of its own, accusing the panel of experts of failing to properly observe its work and of lacking transparency itself.

The two bodies have been at loggerheads for months.

"The COI (commission of inquiry) does not comprehend how the IIGEP came to hold the opinion that the COI's investigations are not transparent," it said. "The observation by the IIGEP that there has been no full and timely disclosure by the COI is not acceptable." (Reporting by Simon Gardner; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)