Sri Lanka: Mass graves everywhere, but where are the killers? — Final Part
Many investigations into mass killings had commenced in the past, but almost all of them have stalled. Killings and disappearances in the name of national security and patriotism have become the norm and part of the non-disclosed statistics. The common thread one could find among all this is the belief of the State that if it can deflect and ignore the obvious, the secrets of criminality will be buried and everything will be forgotten with time.
by Lionel Bopage-
Read Previous parts of this series: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four
Matale mass grave – 2012
( March 12, 2018, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) In the 1988-89 period, the JVP led an armed uprising mainly in the south of Sri Lanka, against the Indian Peace Keeping Forces and the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. This uprising was put down with tens of thousands of Sinhala youth killed. In Matale, Central Sri Lanka, more than 450 people had disappeared. In November 2012, workers installing a biogas plant at a construction site in the Matale General Hospital found human remains that had been buried. In November 2012, the Matale Magistrate’s Court ordered the remains to be exhumed. By February 2013, 155 human skeletons were unearthed. This is the largest mass grave discovered in the South so far.[1] The police claimed that these skeletons were of victims of a smallpox epidemic in the 1950s.[2] Yet, the site had all the hall marks of a mass grave, with all its skeletons stacked on top of each other and laid out in rows. The JVP called for a criminal investigation and a full disclosure of its results.[3]
by Lionel Bopage-
Matale mass grave – 2012
( March 12, 2018, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) In the 1988-89 period, the JVP led an armed uprising mainly in the south of Sri Lanka, against the Indian Peace Keeping Forces and the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. This uprising was put down with tens of thousands of Sinhala youth killed. In Matale, Central Sri Lanka, more than 450 people had disappeared. In November 2012, workers installing a biogas plant at a construction site in the Matale General Hospital found human remains that had been buried. In November 2012, the Matale Magistrate’s Court ordered the remains to be exhumed. By February 2013, 155 human skeletons were unearthed. This is the largest mass grave discovered in the South so far.[1] The police claimed that these skeletons were of victims of a smallpox epidemic in the 1950s.[2] Yet, the site had all the hall marks of a mass grave, with all its skeletons stacked on top of each other and laid out in rows. The JVP called for a criminal investigation and a full disclosure of its results.[3]