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

Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party on Friday asked the 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.

“We urge urgent and decisive action to uncover the truth, ensure forensic protocols meet internationally recognised standards and bring perpetrators to justice,” the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) wrote in a letter to President Anura Kummara Dissanayake.

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”.