Sri Lankan Tamil party urges govt to ‘uncover truth’ at mass grave excavation site

Colombo, Jul 11 (PTI) Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party on Friday demanded the Dissanayake government to take decisive action to “uncover the truth” at an ongoing excavation site believed to be a mass grave linked to a bloody conflict that ended in 2009.

The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), in a letter to President Anura Kummara Dissanayake, said, “We urge urgent and decisive action to uncover the truth, ensure forensic protocols meet internationally recognised standards and bring perpetrators to justice.” Earlier this year, skeletal remains were discovered during redevelopment work at Chemmani in the northern Jaffna peninsula’s Ariyalai crematorium.

Thereafter, the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court officially declared it a mass grave and ordered a court supervised excavation.

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

The ITAK said Chemmani and several other suspected mass graves in the north and east “constitute clear evidence of war crimes and a genocidal campaign against the Tamil population”.

The party claimed that in the latest excavation, over 40 skeletons, including of infants, have emerged.

It urged President Dissanayake to hold forensic inquiries with international experts on the findings of both excavations in order to deliver justice.

In May 2009, the Sri Lankan Army declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which for three decades had run a parallel administration in the northern and eastern part of the country in their quest to set up a separate Tamil homeland.

Some 27,000 troops lost their lives over the three decades out of which over 6,200 soldiers and 22,000 LTTE cadres died in the final phase which began in July 2006. PTI CORR GSP GSP