Mass Graves Haunt Ranil, Premadasa And Douglas

By Pearl Thevanayagam -December 29, 2013 |

Pearl Thevanayagam

Apart from war massacres there lies the question of the military burying bodies of 2000 university students under Batticaloa stadium circa 1990 and in a cemetery in Chemmani and Mannar.

Fr. Harry Miller, an American missionary priest, attached to St Michael’s College told this writer in 1995 that the stadium was built over the bodies of these students and a military zone barred from the public.

Fr. Miller arrived in Ceylon in 1947 and was a witness to events unfolding since then. Ensconced in his top floor of St Michael’s he relentlessly recorded events as they unfolded. He is visited by foreign correspondents and his word is Bible truth in that he neither supports the LTTE or the government. He tells it as it is.

He returned to the US a few years ago and I am not sure whether he is still alive.

Which leads us to the Batalanda Commission kick-started inquiries into Ranil Wickremasinghe’s alleged torture chambers in Kelaniya ( a block of housing flats) during the late ‘80’s when JVP youth were hunted down and shot in the middle of the night during the Premadasa regime by Black Cats led by DIG Udugampola and their bodies displayed in junctions and Kelaniya river.

This commission was conveniently placed in cold storage like all other Presidential Commissions.

I personally witnessed at least six bodies per day in ‘89/’90 at Enderamulla Junction where Bus 261 stops to take passengers to Gaspara Handiya in Pettah. On the way I saw bloated bodies of youth floating on Kelani River down Peliyagoda way.

I still recall the horrors of the night when dogs howled as jeeps sped past Keells Housing Scheme in Enderamulla and gunshots were heard before we saw blood splattered bodies lining the public road-side where Bus 261 stopped.                                               Read More