Image caption Forensic archaeologists were brought in after building workers unearthed human remains

Experts in northern Sri Lanka are trying to identify the remains of dozens of bodies in a mass grave in the country's former war zone.

So far the skeletal remains of more than 90 people have been unearthed in the north-western town of Mannar.

The mass grave is the second biggest found in the north since the end of the conflict in 2009.

The 26-year war between troops and separatist Tamil rebels left at least 100,000 people dead, and many missing.

A court ordered detailed excavations at the site - a former co-operative wholesale depot near the main bus terminus - after human remains were found by workers digging foundations for a new building earlier this year.

"The entire area can be divided into two parts. In one segment we have a proper cemetery. In the second part, you have a collection of human skeletons which have been deposited in an informal way," said Professor Raj Somadeva, a forensic archaeologist from the University of Kelaniya near Colombo, who is leading a team of experts at the site.

Image caption None of the victims have been identified

There is more ground still to excavate and he says more skeletons could be found. The remains unearthed by his team include the skeletons of at least six children.

Who the victims were - and who killed them and when - remains unclear. The town of Mannar is dominated by ethnic minority Tamils.

Local police guard the site so no-one can tamper with it and the forensic archaeologists can painstakingly remove skulls and other bones from the dirt without being disturbed. They use brushes and small chisels so the remains are not damaged.

No clothes or other items have been found in the grave that could help identify the victims.

While Mannar town remained mostly under army control during the civil war, Tamil Tiger rebels dominated its surrounding areas and many other parts of the district. The military captured the entire district after ferocious battles, which ended almost 10 years ago.

The way the bodies are arranged inside the mass grave has puzzled the experts.

"We are concerned about the line position. [It is] completely chaotic - you have two layers of skeletons roughly," said Prof Somadeva.

As his team uncovers the human remains, they transfer them to the custody of the court in Mannar, which will decide the future course of action once the excavation is complete.

Prof Somadeva and his colleagues are also yet to determine how the victims died. The age of the bodies will be analysed later.

So far no one has been blamed for the killings.

Image caption Professor Somadeva hopes his work will help find answers

A number of mass graves have been unearthed in Sri Lanka's former war zone since the conflict ended.

None found so far has contained more bodies than a site in another part of Mannar - adjacent to Thiruketheeswaram, a prominent Hindu temple - where the remains of 96 people were discovered in 2014.

But four years on there's still no clarity in this case either, about who was killed and by whom.

Rights groups allege that both the military and the Tamil Tigers inflicted widespread civilian casualties. At least 20,000 people disappeared during the conflict.

But the government has always denied its forces had anything to do with civilian deaths or disappearances.

After years of international pressure, the government set up an independent body, the Office of the Missing Persons (OMP), earlier this year to investigate the disappearances. The OMP has provided partial funding for the excavation in Mannar.

OMP chairman Saliya Pieris insists that a detailed investigation at the latest grave found in Mannar is important.

"The primary task of the OMP is tracing the disappeared and informing the relatives about the circumstances of their disappearances.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Many people were taken into custody during the conflict and thousands disappeared

"One of the aspects of this tracing would be naturally [to find out] if there are mass graves and there are people who have been disappeared, who have been buried in mass graves."

But given the failure of the authorities to investigate the remains unearthed from previous mass graves, there is scepticism among Tamils over what the new inquiry might achieve.

"Hundreds of people disappeared in Mannar district during the conflict while moving from uncontrolled areas to controlled areas," said Victor Sosai, vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of Mannar.

"There have been allegations that several Tamils who were trying to flee the conflict to India on boats were also intercepted and their fate is unknown."

He visited the site of the latest mass grave along with the Bishop of Mannar, Emmanuel Fernando, during the initial stages of the excavation.

"We understand that they have found skeletons of children and adults, we need to really find out more about who these people are and how they died and who was responsible," Rev Sosai says.

The Tamil Tigers were accused of ruthlessly eliminating fighters and supporters of rival Tamil militant groups. They were also accused of executing Sri Lankan soldiers captured in battle.

Image copyright Human Rights Watch Image caption Both sides were accused of widespread atrocities in the conflict

Soon after the end of the conflict, some Tamils accused the rebels of firing at fleeing civilians on the beaches of north-eastern Mullaitivu district during the final days of the war. The military is also accused of widespread atrocities.

But the army dismisses any suggestion that soldiers are connected with the bodies found in the mass grave in Mannar.

"Definitely there is no link between this grave and the army. No one has accused the army so far," said army spokesman Brig Sumith Atapattu.

But many in the minority Tamil community say if Sri Lanka really wants to come to terms with its past, then it has to sincerely address the issue of the disappeared by investigating mass graves.

Only then might the families affected be able to properly grieve and try to move on.</s>MANNAR, SRI LANKA—The BBC reports that archaeologists in Sri Lanka have unearthed more than 90 skeletons at the site of a mass grave in the northern town of Mannar. Construction work near a bus terminal initially revealed the site earlier this year. The remains are assumed to have belonged to people who were killed during the country's recent civil war, which lasted 26 years and ended in 2009. According to University of Kelaniya forensic archaeologist Raj Somadeva, who leads the team, not all the people were buried at the site in the same manner. "In one segment we have a proper cemetery," says Somadeva. "In the second part, you have a collection of human skeletons which have been deposited in an informal way." Several mass graves found since the war came to an end, but the Mannar site is one of the biggest yet discovered. To read about the work of forensic archaeologists at the border of the United States, go to “The Journey to El Norte.”</s>Investigators say they have unearthed more than 100 skeletons from a mass grave in the northern Sri Lankan town of Mannar, where Tamil guerrillas and state security forces clashed during the country’s 26-year civil war.



More bodies are being recovered each day from the site, which is already among the largest mass graves found in the country. About 50% of the trench is still to be excavated.

“We have found 101 people and already moved 96 individual skeletons from the trench,” said Raj Somadeva, an archaeologist working on the site.

Unlike a mass grave previously discovered in central town of Matale, where the bodies were laid neatly beside each other, the remains in Mannar appeared to have been dumped, making the process of identifying individual skeletons more difficult.

As many as 10 skeletons appeared to belong to juveniles, Somadeva said. The team also found ceramic pottery, pieces of porcelain and metallic objects that could be jewellery.



The remains, discovered about three metres below ground, will undergo forensic analysis to determine how many individuals were buried and when they died. A court ordered the excavation in May after workers stumbled on bones while digging the foundations for a building.

It is being funded by the Office of Missing Persons, a government agency established in 2016 to trace more than 20,000 people estimated to have gone missing during the civil war, mainly fought between the government and militant Tamil nationalists.

Government forces were regularly accused of carrying out abductions and large-scale killings during the war. Tamil separatist groups including the Tamil Tigers have also been accused of atrocities against civilians and opposition fighters.

The war ended in 2009 with a series of ruthless offensives by the Sri Lankan military. The UN estimates 40,000 civilians were killed in the final weeks of the conflict and accused both sides of “horrific” human rights abuses.

Human rights groups have speculated that there may be dozens of mass graves across Sri Lanka. More than 150 bodies were discovered in 2012 in the grounds of a government hospital in Matale. A judge described the site as a crime scene, and pointed to evidence the bodies were about 25 years old, suggesting they may have been buried during a leftist insurrection against the government. An investigation has stalled.

Another mass grave was found in Mannar in February 2014. Workers preparing to lay a water pipe discovered more than 30 skeletons buried in layers near a well-known temple.

There have also been instances of families stumbling on mass graves in their gardens in former conflict areas.

The UN estimates that between 80,000 and 100,000 people were killed during the conflict.</s>China beat Sri Lanka to advance to round of 12 for Asiad men’s volleyball

China beat Sri Lanka 3-1 to claim the second place of Pool E at the Asiad men’s volleyball competition here on Saturday.

Following an unexpected loss to Vietnam and a narrow victory over Thailand, the match against Sri Lanka was vital for China to advance to the next round as top two of the group.

China got off to a flying start, leading Sri Lanka 5-1 just minutes into the first set, forcing Sri Lanka to call a time-out. After that, Sir Lanka tried to put their acts together, but failed to stop the Chinese who further enlarged the margin and ended the set 25-15.

The resilient Sri Lanka came back to claim three straight points at the beginning of the second set. Chinese coach Shen Qiong called a time-out, and with improved blocking, China managed to level the score 4-4.

The two sides took turns to lead in the rest of the set, and despite another time-out and two replacements, China lost 20-25 following several strings of straight points by Sri Lanka.

The third and fourth sets saw the Chinese go all out to regain their momentum. They left the opponents no chance and sailed to the victory with 25-14 and 25-17, respectively.

China’s Zhang Zhejia got 20 points to lead the game, including 11 spikes, 7 blocks and 2 serves. Li Liye, Yu Yuantai and Zhang Chen also scored double digits.

With two victories and one loss, China holds the second place in Asian Games Pool E that groups China, Vietnam, Thailand and Sri Lanka.</s>Sri Lanka Partners with Travel Industry Exhibition in Sydney – Media Release by the Consulate General of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) in collaboration with the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Sydney organised Sri Lanka’s participation at the Travel Industry Exhibition held from 21st to 22nd August, 2018 at Dockside, Darling Harbour.

Sri Lanka was the destination partner at this annual event and 14 member Sri Lankan travel trade and SLTPB official delegation showcased unparalleled diversity of the Island nation and the newest travel experiences at the exhibition.

On the first day of the exhibition, a Press Briefing over a Sri Lankan Breakfast was organised at the Dockside Cold Room and more than 40 media personnel and travel trade members attended the networking meeting. Hon. Damien Tudehope MP, the NSW State Parliament, Ms Rhonda Piggott, Director/Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Mr. Lal Wickrematunge, Consul General for Sri Lanka in Sydney, Mr. Sutheash Balasubramaniam, Managing Director/SLTPB and Mr. Sanjeewa Jayathilake, Country Manager/SriLankan Airlines in Melbourne spoke at the Press Briefing.

Managing Director/SLTPB made the presentation highlighting the major tourist attractions of the country and played the promotional video for the audience. He said Sri Lanka has a rich artistic tradition, with distinct creative forms that encompass music dance and arts. He said that the culturally rich island is home to a number of different religions bringing with them their own traditions, festivals and parades making Sri Lanka a hot spot for tourist and locals alike. Buddhist, Hindu and Muslims celebrations bring a unique flavour of dance, costume and music. A peacock dance number was presented to the audience at the press briefing. Sri Lankan delicacies including hoppers and Ceylon tea were served at the Breakfast Networking.

Sri Lanka is one of the fastest growing outbound leisure destination from Australia, with the country is now accessible via non-stop SriLankan Airline flights direct from Melbourne to Colombo.

The invited Australian guests and the media personnel joined the official opening of the Sri Lankan Pavilion while the Sri Lankan dance group performing the traditional cultural items.

The Sri Lanka Consulate had also arranged meetings with Council of Australian Tour Operators (CATO), the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA), Fairfax Media, Helloworld Group and Unique Tourism for the visiting Tourism Officials from the SLTPB.

Sri Lanka’s participation at the Travel Industry Show was co-ordinated by Mr. Abdul Raheem, Consul (Commercial) of the Sri Lankan Consulate General in Sydney and Ms Chami Gasnawage, Assistant Director of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau.</s>The Sri Lanka women's team is set to host India for three ODIs and five T20Is in September.

The Indian team are expected to arrive in Sri Lanka on September 7, with the first two ODIs set to take place in Galle on the September 11 and 13. The teams will then travel to Katunayake for the final ODI and the first T20I, on September 16 and 19 respectively. The next three T20Is will be played in Colombo at the Colts Cricket Club grounds, before the action returns to Katunayake for the final match on September 25.

The ODI leg of the tour will count towards the Women's Championship, which will determine the three automatic qualifiers - apart from the hosts New Zealand - for the Women's World Cup 2021.

India, who are currently two places above eighth-placed Sri Lanka on the Women's Championship points table, come into the tour on the back of a 2-1 win against England in the ODIs at home, while Sri Lanka have lost their last two 50-over series 3-0 - away to West Indies and at home to Pakistan.

There is no question that India begin as favourites, having lost just one of 26 ODIs against Sri Lanka. The home side fair only marginally better in the shortest format against this opposition, with three wins in 12 T20Is. Last time the two sides met in a bilateral series was in 2016 in India, when Sri Lanka were whitewashed 3-0 in both the ODI as well as T20I series.</s>The culture of impunity to the security forces under the DRACONIAN PREVENTION TERRORISM ACT [PTA] and their licence to kill especially the Tamils caused several disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Sri Lanka.

It is to be noted that the Mass Graves, Disappearances and the Prevention of Terrorism Act [PTA] are all inter-connected. The Office of the Missing Persons is toothless in powers and the clauses in this Act seem to be protecting the criminals and denying justice to the victims. The victims have no confidence in this Office and are reluctant to give evidence due to this flaw.

It is strongly suspected that the Government and the Security forces are afraid of releasing the lands occupied by them and to release the names of those Tamils forcefully arrested/surrendered to the security forces due to the following reasons:
• There are several mass graves in the lands occupied by the security forces.
• The Tamils who were forcefully arrested or surrendered and killed are buried in these mass graves.

Sri Lanka: Mass graves everywhere, but where are the killers?

( February 4, 2018, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka’s armed conflicts have touched the whole Island, affecting all its ethnicities and faiths. By 2013, Sri Lanka recorded the second highest number of unresolved disappearances in the world.[1] Despite the rhetoric of successive regimes, the people had disappeared not because they had gone abroad or been displaced, rather they had been killed and or executed in order to generate fear and anguish among the population. Their bodies are said to be piled up and buried in mass graves somewhere in the island. Several such mass graves have been discovered in recent years that warrant genuine investigations.

 Source

 https://www.slguardian.org/sri-lanka-mass-graves-everywhere-but-where-are-the-killers-part-01/

Although several killings took place and several Tamil civilians went missing, only this brutal murder attracted world media and exposure forced the Government to take some steps which led to the exposure of several mass graves in Chemmani

It was in 1998, there was an electrifying break in the Chemmani disappearances. Mrs. Kumaratunga [then President] personally saw to a rare prosecution of soldiers. The defendants were accused of raping and murdering an 18-year-old school girl Krisanthi Kumaraswamy at the checkpoint, then killing the school girl’s mother and 16-year-old brother when they came looking for her.

Just before the soldiers were to be sentenced to death by hanging, one of them, Lance Cpl. Somaratne Rajapakse, declared in open court that he knew the location of mass graves around the checkpoint where more than 400 people killed by the security forces in 1996 were buried.

To test his credibility, Corporal Rajapakse was flown to Jaffna and taken to the Chemmani checkpoint in June 1999. He led investigators to a grave that held two bodies.

In late August, more than three weeks of full-scale exhumations began in the heart of the war zone. The atmosphere was tense. At the checkpoint, the condemned men were palpably scared, observers say. And international observers, worried about rebel attacks, were heavily guarded.

”We’d drive like hell to get to the checkpoint,” said Robert Stair, a forensic archaeologist from Canada who took part in the exhumations. ”We took a different route every day.”

Corporal Rajapakse and the other soldiers eventually led the way to seven more graves, but the remains of only 13 people were found.

Mr. Stair and William D. Haglund, Director of the international forensic program for the Boston-based Physicians for Human Rights, said the Sri Lankan authorities had not moved aggressively enough to seek information about the hundreds of others.

Nor did Sri Lanka, lacking the modern methods used to investigate serial murders in the West, accept advice to get assistance from British, Australian or Canadian police experts, said Ms. Massage of Amnesty International.

”Somewhere within the Ministry of Defense must be blocks against this proceeding,” she said.



 Sixty-six human skeletons, including children and women, have been spotted so far and fifty-six of the skeletal remains have been exhumed, said journalists who accessed the site of mass grave excavations at the premises of the premises of former CWE building in the city of Mannaar on Monday. The excavation had been suspended for a few days due to the annual feast at Madu church.

In the meantime, journalists in Mannaar have secured access to news coverage of the mass grave site.

 The SL Magistrates’ Court in Mannaar prohibited media coverage at the request of the SL Police on 07 August.

 [Source]

 https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39165

 TamilNet, Monday, 20 August 2018, 23:02 GMT]

Human skeletons, including that of children, believed to belong to the massacred Eezham Tamils during the times of genocidal war, have been discovered at two separate locations in the city of Jaffna between 15th and 20th of July. At the Jaffna Fort, bones of a child along with a golden ring engraved with the initials ‘SA’ has been recovered. Following this discovery, the officials of Colombo’s Archaeological Department have sent Tamil excavators home while allowing the Sinhala and the British excavators to proceed with the work. On Friday, another alleged mass grave discovered at Naayanmaar-kaddu in Ka’l’liyang-kaadu in Jaffna seems to be an extension of the Chemma’ni killing fields from the times of Chandrika Kumaratunga’s genocidal rule of Jaffna in the mid-1990s.

 Source:

 https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39135

 [TamilNet, Saturday, 21 July 2018, 21:44 GMT]



 The existence of another mass grave has been confirmed after the discovery of human skeletal remains from sands dug from an area previously used as the ‘High-Security Zone’ of the occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka in mainland Mannaar. The latest discovery is from the island of Mannaar where the building of SL state-owned department store network, known as Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE), was situated. The building has been dismantled to put up a new five storey building for the CWE Sathosa. The occupying SL military is still stationed 50 feets close to the site.

The lawyers representing the enforced disappeared Tamils in Mannaar told TamilNet on Wednesday that the latest traces they had witnessed since 28th May, when the excavations started at the site, confirms the fear that the occupying Sinhala military was having institutionalised torture chambers and massacre sites attached to its military base in the site.

 [Source]

 https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39085

 TamilNet, Friday, 01 June 2018, 17:06 GMT]

 

 The occupying Sri Lankan military relocating its 522 Brigade Headquarters, which was the artillery and command base at the Northern front during the war, has been removing the skeletons including the sand from an alleged mass grave site at the locality of the old base in recent weeks, reliable sources in Thenmaraadchi told TamilNet on Monday. After removing all the traces, the bunkers have been filled with sand brought from elsewhere. Despite the claim that it had moved the camp to a new locality, at Aasaippi’l’lai-yeattam at Mirusuvil, the SL military was present at the old site for several weeks to ensure that all traces have been removed, the sources further said.

The notorious Vara’ni camp was situated at Point Pedro – Kodikaamam Road since 1996 when Jaffna peninsula was captured by the genocidal military of Sri Lanka.

The command base, which was blocking the main road, was situated near Vara’ni MMV School at the private lands belonging to more than 80 families.

It was the main supply camp and the artillery base to the Northern frontline during the war.

 Vara’ni camp was a notorious place where the Tamils abducted in Thenmaraadchi region were taken to torture chambers and slain. This includes the 8 youths who were abducted from a temple .

 [Source]

 https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=37178

 TamilNet, Monday, 21 April 2014, 23:21 GMT]

The SL military is particular in concealing mass graves at places where military bases were situated,

contributed to a climate of impunity and hampered investigations into the massacres and disappearances of civilians

Powers of the Office of the Missing Persons [OMP}

Sri Lanka’s Office of the Missing Persons [OMP] is toothless and does not have the authority to prosecute/arrest anyone involved in this crime. They have the power to investigate and collect evidence only.

The United Nations, United Nations Security Council, United Nations Human Rights Council and the International Community have the moral responsibility in the name of humanity to implement the following immediately.
• Lands occupied by the Security Forces and its surroundings to be tested for any mass graves using latest technology and techniques and soil tests to solve the problem of thousands of Tamils went missing since before and after the end of the war.
• Force the Sri Lankan Government to release the list of those arrested by the Security forces/Police and those who surrendered to the security forces and police.

It is agonizing to note that sinister moves of Sri Lanka’s Government to stall suppress and hide the truth and circumstances surrounding these skeletons of Tamil civilians killed violently at some point of time by the Security forces.

 This is not surprising as Sri Lanka follows the entrenched policy and culture of impunity for Security forces and denial of accountability and justice to the Tamil victims.

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

Kumarathasan Rasingam is a Senior Citizen of Canada, Human rights activist, Former President of the Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Org.
Forensic anthropologists from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, report that more than 90 sets of human remains have been discovered near the town of Mannar. The mass grave is situated in an area that saw heavy fighting during the country's civil war.