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Mass grave fuels fear of thousands buried in Sri Lanka war zone

17 January 2014 21:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The discovery of a mass grave containing more than 30 skulls in northern Sri Lanka has fuelled speculation that there may be many more like it containing the remains of thousands who went missing during the island nation's nearly three-decade war, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The police have suggested that the Tamil Tiger rebels it defeated five years ago could be responsible for the burial, uncovered near a historic Hindu temple in the district of Mannar.

Sri Lanka is already under international pressure to address alleged wartime human rights violations. A failure to probe the discovery could fuel the anger of Western nations demanding an independent international investigation into suspected abuses.

The remains, which workers stumbled on as they dug up roadside paving for a water project, are yet to be identified. The first mass grave to be found in the former war zone, it is spread over an area measuring about 400 square feet (37 square meters) and is 5 feet deep.

"The bodies are buried in several layers. Unfortunately, the top layer of the bodies have been destroyed by the road construction work," said Dhanajaya Waidyaratne, the Judicial Medical Officer in charge of the excavation.

More than 100,000 people were killed in the war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government military since it started in 1983 and thousands, mainly ethnic- minority Tamils, are still unaccounted for or missing.

A U.N. panel has said around 40,000 mainly Tamil civilians died in the ferocious final months of the conflict, but Sri Lanka has disputed that figure. Both sides committed atrocities, but army shelling killed most victims, it concluded.

Police Spokesman Ajith Rohana said initial forensic evidence suggested the bodies may have been buried at least 15 years ago.

"This area was controlled by the LTTE for over 20 years and there are reports that hundreds of soldiers went missing in this area. But we don't know for sure. The investigations are continuing," Rohana told Reuters.