Mass graves fear prevents Colombo from seeking demining help - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2009, 11:35 GMT]
"The Sri Lanka government fears that, if the international community gets involved in the de-mining, they may stumble on to mass graves of Tamil victims killed during the last stages of fighting between the Sri Lanka military and the Tamil Tigers," said Parliamentary Group Leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R. Sampathan, on Thursday accusing the Sri Lankan government of refusing to accept foreign assistance towards the de-mining parliamentary sources in Colombo said.

Mr. Sampanthan told the Sri Lankan Parliament on Thursday that countries including Japan, Australia, U.S., Switzerland and Denmark had already offered their help towards this end, but there was no positive response from the Sri Lankan authorities.

Sampanthan added that Colombo is also using demining as a delay tactic in the re-settlement of Tamil civilians held in the welfare camps.

"Sri Lanka military had begun clearing the mines only in late September in the districts of Mullaiththeevu and Ki'linochchi," Mr. Sampathan further told the SL Parliament.