A baby bottle, a squeaky toy and a schoolbag are among items that have surfaced from a mass grave site in Sri Lanka’s formerly war-torn northern region, along with 141 human skeletons including some that appear to be of children of different ages.
The findings were made at a cremation ground in the Chemmani area near Jaffna town, the cultural heartland of the country’s ethnic Tamil minority. But hardly any burials take place here, as Hindus mostly cremate their dead according to religious customs.
Excavations have been underway since June, after workers found human remains while digging to build an electric crematorium.
A pit test over nine days discovered 19 sets of human remains. Shallow burials of about 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in a scattered and disorganized manner, and the absence of clothing, indicated the site was a mass grave, according to a report provided to a court in June.
Since the area was secured and declared a crime scene that month, a total of 141 skeletons have been discovered within a 165-square-meter (1,776-square-foot) area. About 135 of the bodies had no clothing, and only one set of adult clothing was identified. Tests confirmed that a skeleton found with a schoolbag was that of a girl between 4 and 6 years old. Toddlers’ dresses, socks and footwear, tiny bead bangles and a baby powder tray were also recovered.
The identities of the dead and the cause and timing of their deaths are all unclear. But many think the victims could be civilians who disappeared during Sri Lanka’s civil war, which broke out in 1983 between government forces and ethnic Tamil rebels, who fought to create an independent homeland for the minority group. The war ended in 2009.
Several Tamil armed groups and an Indian peacekeeping mission were active in the region over the decades. But attention has focused on the Sri Lankan military, which had a heavy presence for over a decade in Chemmani, as the gateway to Jaffna town.
Decades-old confession heightens suspicions
A confession made by an army soldier before he was sentenced to death for rape and murder 27 years ago has strengthened suspicions about the site.
In 1998, Somaratne Rajapakse along with four alleged accomplices from the military and police were sentenced to death for the gang rape and murder of a schoolgirl and the killing of her mother, brother and a neighbor.
The five, who weren’t hanged and remain in prison due to a moratorium on executions, have maintained that they were not involved in the rape and murder, but only disposed of the bodies under orders.
Rajapakse told the court that he knew where up to 400 bodies were buried in Chammani.
“We cannot say exactly who the perpetrators are yet, but the finger points to the (state) army,” said Brito Fernando, an activist working with the families of people who disappeared during various armed conflicts in Sri Lanka.
The area, including the cremation ground, were under Sri Lankan military control from 1996, when it captured Jaffna from the rebels, until after the war ended in 2009. The military operated checkpoints, and anyone who entered or left the area was searched.
In 1999, Rajapakse led police to a spot where the schoolgirl, her family and the neighbor were buried and later showed police other places where more remains were found. But the investigations were abruptly stopped.
Families want closure
Items found at the site were publicly displayed earlier this month in the hope that their owners would be identified, and many people from surrounding villages and beyond visited the site.
Amalanathan Mary Calista, whose husband has been missing since 1996 when the military arrested him in their village, said she hoped seeing proof that her husband was dead would bring a sense of closure.
“I went there hoping to see at least his clothes. There was a sarong (clothing that wraps around the waist) but it wasn’t my husband’s. He was wearing a blue sarong at the time. It was disappointing,” she said.
“I only saw the clothing of little children,” she added, as she wept.
She said her husband is among 24 people who never returned home after the military searched their village. Families had tried to block the army vehicles from taking away the detained people, but the authorities pushed them aside with guns and the vehicles sped away, she said.
“My wish is that he should be alive and return, but we can do nothing if it is not so,” she said.
“The state army arrested him. They must say that they arrested him and that he died at their hands. They also must pay us compensation,” she said.
Woman recalls military taking her brother and husband away
Sivanathan Selvamalar said she watched her younger brother being loaded into a military truck blindfolded during that same raid. Years later, in 2009, her husband was also detained at a checkpoint. He called her to tell her of his arrest and was not heard from again.
“We went to see the things, thinking they may have buried people who were arrested around this area, but we saw only the things of little children,” she said.
“We have checked all the prisons but have not found them. When we are told that more than 100 skeletons have been dug out, we fear the worst,” she added.
No children listed in missing person reports
A 2003 report by Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission said it investigated 281 complaints of missing persons from 1990 to 1998. Of these, three were found in prisons and later released, while the rest are still unaccounted for. The report said the military was responsible for 243 cases, while the Tamil Tiger rebels were responsible for 25. The responsibility for 10 others is unknown.
No children were listed as missing.
Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, the editor of the only newspaper in the region at the time, said several families returned to Jaffna after fleeing into rebel-held territory as the military moved in. Some reportedly went missing after being stopped at checkpoints set up to look for infiltrating rebels, he said.
Calls for DNA analysis
Although previous investigations stalled, there is hope now that victims will be identified, Fernando said. But he said the government must do more to conduct a credible investigation.
“We don’t have proper guidelines to investigate the mass graves and have no DNA bank to help with identification,” said Fernando, adding that the government should fund a DNA bank and enlist international support in the identification of victims.
“Only a proper investigation by the government can free its military from suspicion,” he said.
Any direct probe into the military would likely anger Sri Lankan nationalists. Many of the majority ethnic Sinhalese admire the military for winning the civil war.