Jaffna Magistrate urges early exhumation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 1999, 13:25 GMT]
Jaffna additional magistrate, M. Ilancheliyan, instructed the CID and the attorney general's department this morning to begin examination of the alleged mass graves of Tamil civilians in Chemmani in Jaffna on August 30, 31 and September 1.

He ordered the CID and the Police to bring the five Sri Lanka Army (SLA) personnel who were convicted in the rape and murder of the Jaffna school girl Krishanthy Kumaraswamy to identify the areas where civilians allegedly killed by the SLA are said to be buried in Chemmani and nearby areas.

The judge further instructed the Police and the Attorney General's (AG) department to exhume the grave sites from September 6 to September 30.

The counsel from the AG department pleaded that it was not possible at this juncture to begin examination or exhumation of the alleged grave sites of civilians arrested and killed by the SLA in Ariyalai near Jaffna town as there are bunkers and defence positions of the government security forces in the area.

The additional magistrate M.Ilancheliyan drew the attention of the state counsel to what he (the magistrate) considered an undue delay in the exhumation process and urged the counsel to expedite the investigation.

Mr. Ilancheliyan said that the confidence of the public was being eroded by such procastinations.

The state counsel, however, said that it was not possible to speed up the investigations of the alleged mass graves for practical reasons and that if the court were to order an early date for the exhumations then the AG will have to appeal the decision.

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