Sri Lanka President pledges impartial investigation into Chemmani mass grave

Colombo, Sep 1 (PTI) President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Monday pledged a transparent investigation into the excavation of a mass grave at Chemmani in the Jaffna district.

“We will ensure a transparent investigation without any interference,” Dissanayake told a gathering during his visit to Jaffna .

The president said “we have nothing to hide” and we want to make sure such things are not repeated.

The main Tamil party, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) in mid July wrote to Dissanayake urging concrete action on the mass grave.

The ITAK stressed on the excavation of what is being strongly believed as a mass grave dating back to the bloody conflict days in Sri Lanka prior to 2009.

Early this year during redevelopment work at Chemmani in the northern Jaffna peninsula’s Ariyalai crematorium skeletal remains had been discovered. Thereafter the Jaffna Magistrate’s court declared it officially a mass grave and ordered a court supervised excavation.

Chemmani in 1998 too had been suspected to be a mass grave and a 1999 excavation had led to the discovery of 15 skeletons.

In the excavations done so far over 200 skeletal remains have been found.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk also expressed concern on the issue during his visit to the Chemmani mass grave in June. PTI CORR RD RD RD