Child's Remains Found in Sri Lanka Mass Grave in Jaffna

Colombo, Jul 17 (PTI) - Among 65 sets of human remains exhumed from a mass grave in Sri Lanka's Jaffna district, the skeletal remains of a girl aged between four and five years have been identified. The grave first came to prominence during the LTTE conflict in the mid-1990s. "The findings of the excavation at the Chemmani mass grave were reported to the Jaffna Magistrate's Court on July 15 by Raj Somadeva, a forensic archaeologist overseeing the exhumation," stated Jeganathan Tathparan, a lawyer, in a conversation with PTI on Thursday.

Earlier this year, a court-ordered excavation was mandated for the mass grave after human skeletal remains surfaced during regular development work at the site. Tathparan highlighted that the remains of the child were accompanied by school bags and toys. Somadeva confirmed to the court that the remains belonged to a girl in the age bracket of 4-5 years. In addition, two more skeletons are speculated to be of children, inferred from similarities in clothing and anatomical attributes, according to the lawyer.

The Chemmani site first garnered international attention in 1998 when a Sri Lankan soldier revealed the existence of mass graves purportedly containing hundreds of civilians allegedly killed during the clashes between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government in the mid-1990s.

An initial excavation in 1999 unearthed 15 skeletons. However, further actions were stalled until these recent discoveries. The gravesite is one of numerous such sites found throughout the country. Thousands were killed and vanished during the 26-year civil conflict, concluding in 2009.

The principal Tamil political faction, Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), in a communique to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, emphasized that the Chemmani mass grave stands as undeniable evidence of war crimes and "a genocidal campaign against Tamils."

Excavation activities, which halted on July 10, are planned to resume on July 21. Amnesty International estimates that between 60,000 and 100,000 individuals have disappeared in Sri Lanka since the late 1980s.

The Tamil community in the island nation contends that around 170,000 individuals were killed in the final stages of the civil war, while United Nations estimates suggest the figure is 40,000. The LTTE was pursuing a separate Tamil homeland.

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