61 Vanni elderly IDPs buried in one mass-pit in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 11:21 GMT]
Bodies of sixty one elderly Internally Displaced (IDPs) kept in the mortuary of the Vavuniyaa General Hospital were buried in a single mass-pit in general cemetery located in Poonthooddam Monday evening. All of those buried died due to natural causes in welfare centres where large numbers of IDPs who fled from the war from Vanni are sheltered.

As the mortuary was overflowing its capacity for holding corpses, and no one came to claim their bodies in Vavuniyaa, medical authorities decided to bury the unclaimed corpses at state expenses, hospital officials said.

The Vavuniyaa Magistrate allowed an application by the Vavuniyaa general hospital administration to bury 61 bodies of elderly persons in one pit on Monday, sources said.