Sri Lanka Mannar mass grave: 81 skeltons found

A police officer works next to a human skull
at a construction site in the former war zone - Reuters

Colombo (AFP) – Sri Lankan authorities halted excavations after recovering 81 skeletal remains from an unmarked mass grave atop an old burial ground in the island’s former war zone, an official said Saturday.

Judicial medical officer Dhananjaya Waidyaratne said digging at a depth of about two metres (6.7 feet) led to the old cemetery and the authorities did not want to go deeper and disturbed those who had been properly buried. “We have gathered skeletal remains from upper layers and grouped them into 81 boxes,” Waidyaratne told AFP. “These remains were in a mass grave buried in a haphazard way compared to the properly laid out graves we found at a depth of two metres.”

Nine bodies, mostly women, found on Sri Lanka’s last battlefield

unearthed bodies of Mullaitivu mass grave

Reuters

Nine bodies, most of them women, have been found in a mass grave in Sri Lanka in the area where the last, bloody battle of a 26-year war with Tamil separatists was fought in 2009. International pressure is growing on Sri Lanka’s government to address allegations that tens of thousands of civilians were killed by the army in the final weeks of the war. The United States plans to put forward a resolution criticizing Sri Lanka at this month’s session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, and U.S. officials have said it may call for an international investigation.

Sri Lanka family finds mass grave in garden in former war zone

Matale mass gave had 154 skeletons

AFP – Colombo: A Sri Lankan family has stumbled upon the remains of at least nine bodies buried in the garden of their home, police said Saturday, the latest mass grave to be discovered in the country’s former war zone. The family made the grisly find on Friday while clearing out their garden in the town of Puthukkudiririppu in the northern district of Mullaittivu, police spokesman Ajith Rohana said.

“Remains of nine people had been found so far and the skeletal remains were taken for analysis by the judicial medical officer in the area,” Rohana told reporters.

Sri Lanka: Police continue to block Trinco grave site

The grave site

Tamil Guardian
 Sri Lankan police have continued to block access to a site in Trincomalee where skeletal remains were found last week, sources have told the Tamil Guardian.
Workers, who were digging a well, uncovered skeletons at the playground in Trincomalee last Thursday and police have since blocked all access to the site.