Survey of Chemmani underway

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 June 1999, 01:37 GMT]
A land survey began today of the site at Chemmani in the Jaffna peninsula where the mass graves of hundreds of civilians murdered by Sri Lankan security forces are alleged to be buried said sources.

Officials from the government's survey department are carrying out the work, they said.

Two other Sri Lankan government officials, including one from the Counter Subversive Unit, have arrived from Colombo they added.

The survey report is expected to be submitted to the Jaffna courts next Monday.

The exhumation of the graves is scheduled for June 16.

The revelations of the mass graves were made in July 1998 by a former Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier, Somaratne Rajapakse, who, along with several other soldiers, was on trial accused of involvement in the rape and murder of Jaffna schoolgirl Krishanthy Kumaraswamy in 1996.

The graves are said to hold up to 400 bodies.