Bodies of missing civilians found

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 December 2000, 16:52 GMT]
The bodies of eight Tamil civilians, including a five year old child, who were reported 'missing' after being arrested by Sri Lanka Army soldiers on 19 December were unearthed from a grave in Mirusuvil area in the Thenmaradchi Monday, said police and hospital sources in Jaffna.

The victims were displaced from Mirusuvil and were living in Pt.Pedro. They were arrested by SLA soldiers when they went to Mirusuvil area on 19 December, to collect their personnel belongings from their houses.

One of the missing, Maheswaran Ponnuthurai, managed to escape and alerted local authorities in Manthikai and the relatives about the unlawful detention.

According to Maheswaran the soldiers had blind-folded the villagers and had severely assaulted them. Sources in Jaffna said the grave was exhumed after site was identified by two soldiers.

According to hospital sources, the victims have been identified as:

Vilvaraj, 41, and his sons Prasath,5 and Pratheepan,15 Thevakulasingham,31 Baskar Gnanabasakaran,19, Jeyachandran Nadesu,21 Gnanachandran Kathiran, 35 and his son Shanthan.

Their bodies were brought to the Manthikai hospital Monday evening.