Wednesday, July 31, 2013

In Sri Lanka, will mass grave case be buried?

On November 24 last year, workers digging a trench in the compound of Matale hospital, central Sri Lanka, made a gruesome discovery. Using a backhoeing machine ahead of plans to build foundations for a new bio-gas unit behind a kitchen, workers began to unearth what appeared to be human remains.

Forensic excavation over the next three months confirmed at least 154 human skeletons, the largest mass grave discovered in Sri Lanka, where more than three decades of civil war ended with the defeat of the rebel Tamil Tigers in 2009. Preliminary forensic reports submitted to Matale court earlier this year paint a picture of torture and killings. Some bones showed evidence of nails hammered in before death and one leg bone was tied with a carefully knotted metal wire.

“There are several skulls that remain devoid of their skeletons,” a sign of decapitations, reads one of the forensic reports. Evidence also points to the use of firearms and blunt instruments before death.

For President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his powerful family, the ongoing investigation into what happened in Matale has turned into a ticking political and judicial time bomb. Not only has the case subjected the president’s questionable rights record to embarrassing scrutiny, it has also implicated his brother, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, in serious abuses perpetrated against the country’s Sinhalese majority, the source of political support for both men following their victorious ending of the civil war four years ago. Full story...

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