Post-mortem on aid workers' bodies to be held this week

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 October 2006, 11:53 GMT]
The remaining fifteen bodies of the seventeen aid workers of the French based non-governmental organization "Action against Hunger" (ACF) in Muthur, killed in August, are scheduled to be exhumed on Wednesday (October 18) at four cemeteries in Trincomalee town in the presence of Anuradhapura Magistrate, four Judicial Medical Officers (JMO) and ACF officials, legal sources said. Two bodies earlier exhumed on the orders of the Anuradhapura Magistrate are now stored in Police morgue in Colombo.

Remaining fifteen bodies would be transported to Colombo in a freezer truck by the police immediately after the exhumation. Post-mortem on all the seventeen bodies is scheduled to be held for two days beginning from October 19 in Colombo police morgue, legal sources further said.

Post-mortem on these bodies will be carried with a team of at least four Australian forensic experts as observers who are scheduled to arrive in Colombo on October 18, Post-mortem examinations will be carried out by Dr.D.L.Waidyaratne, JMO, Anuradhapura general hospital, according to sources.

Initially the magisterial inquest into the massacre was held by Muttur Magistrate sitting in the Trincomalee court complex as Muttur court has not been functioning since the fighting broke out in August. The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) directed Muttur Magistrate to transfer the case before Anuradhapura court when he was about to make an order at the conclusion of the inquest based on the post-mortem examinations' report furnished by Dr.D.L.Waidyaratne, JMO, Anuradhapura general hospital.

Dr.D.L.Waidyaratne conducted post-mortem examination on all the seventeen bodies in the Trincomalee general hospital immediately after they were brought down from Muthur. Thereafter bodies were buried by the relatives of the victims.

Currently the case is being heard by Anuradhapura Magistrate in Kantalai Magistrate's Court and fresh post-mortem examinations are scheduled to be held on all the 17 bodies to ascertain the cause of deaths.

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