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.”

More bodies found in Sri Lanka's mass grave; It is 80 now

80 skeletons; No investigation

 Forensic experts have found more bodies in an unmarked mass grave in Sri Lanka's northern former war zone, taking the total number to 80, an official said on Tuesday. Judicial medical officer Dhananjaya Waidyaratne said excavations resumed on Monday after a short break at the grave site discovered by construction workers in December. The grave is the first uncovered in the former war zone since  troops defeated Tamil rebels nearly five years ago following a decades-long conflict for a separate homeland for ethnic minority Tamils.