Peace for the World World ! Your War Our Lives
The Dalai Lama
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
(Full Story)
Back to 500BC.
Saturday, April 9, 2016
SRI LANKA/WORLD : Why investigations into mass graves failed so far
by Basil Fernando-April 8, 2016
The existence of a mass grave may come to the notice of the public by
many different ways; a statement by a witness made during a court
hearing - as in the case of Chemmani Mass Graves: discoveries of some
scattered remains of bones by workers when digging a site for
constructions purposes, as in the case of the Matale mass grave; or by
surfacing of some remains of human bodies as a result of heavy rains or
due to any other accidental reasons.
However,
what happens after such a revelation does not depend on accidental
reasons alone but on very objective factors such as the political will
of the government in power in a particular time to uncover the mystery
behind such surfacing of a mass grave with the view to ensure that the
law is enforced irrespective of whatever political circumstances, the
corporation of the law enforcement agencies to do their duties in the
investigation into all the circumstances which has led to the making of
such a mass grave with the view to prosecute the offenders, and the
technical capacities that exists within a particular country to engage
in a scientific inquiry into the discovery of the secrets contained in
the materials that have been discovered from a mass grave and many other
factors.
Sri Lanka is a place where very many mass graves have been discovered as
shown in the illustration which mentions 22 sites where mass graves
have been discovered. Since the publication of this map, few more places
have been added to this list.
Chemmani Mass and the Matale mass grave are the only two instances in
which some progress was made in terms of a judicial inquiry to discover
their backgrounds, however even in those two instances after the
beginning of some initial steps mainly due to expressions of public
opinion from local as well as international sources, the entire process
has been stopped. Many excuses have been given for such stoppages, which
are basically of technical nature.
