News and events

Mannar mass grave- excavation process takes place without an end

2018-08-27

The excavation process taking place in Mannar is continuing on its 58th day as of August 27, 2018. The excavation process is taking place in the ‘Lanka Sathosa’ compound as well as in the already excavated earth which is closer to the entrance to Mannar town.

There have been 91 human skeletal remains have been identified till date, out of which 86 remains have been removed from the excavation site, packed and handed over to Mannar Magistrate court. Within the identified human skeletal remains there were 5 skeletal remains of children and many skeletal remains of women too.

Attorney at law Ranitha Gnanarajah, V.S. Niranchan and K.S. Ratnavale, Senior Counsel and Director of CHRD as well as field officers of CHRD visited the excavation to express solidarity.

Excavation is being carried out by various groups which comprises a team of judicial medical officers which is led by consultant Judicial Medical Officer A.S. Rajapaksha as well as a team of forensic archeologists led by Professor Raj Somadeva of Kelaniya University.

The Government of Sri Lanka has decided to send the skeletal remains to Florida for radiocarbon dating to determine the age of the remains. Many raise doubts regarding this decision due to past experiences of the remains of mass grave where the cases have come to a standstill and no results obtained.