A court led top level meeting decided to hand over further excavations at the Kokkuthoduvai mass grave to Sri Lanka archaeology department assisted by a team of Judicial Medical Officers (JMO) after state authorities assured that international practices will be followed.
The suspected mass grave was accidentally found while laying water pipes in Kokkuthoduvai along the Kokkilai route on 29 July.
Decisions on future excavations were postponed to the 20th after the meeting at the Mullaitivu court complex led by the District Judge T. Pradeepan.
International observers will be allowed during the investigation, although any foreign involvement in further exhumations was ruled out.
Investigators were directed to secure funds through the Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) for the operation. Procedure to protect unearthed findings including human remains and strengthening the security of the site is to be discussed in detail at the next meeting.
Mullaitivu district JMO Kanagasabapathy Vasudeva and Jaffna JMO Sellaiya Pranavan participated in the meeting attended by senior police officers including the officer in charge of Kokkilai Police station.
Senior attorney for OMP Jaganathan Tatparan, Tamil National Alliance MP M.A. Sumanthiran, lawyers Kesavan Sayanthan, V.S.Thananjayan and Ruchika Nithayanandaraja were present. Ranita Gnanaraja and V.S. Niranjan of the Centre for Human Rights and Development (CHRD), represented affected parties.
Jaffna district MP and secretary of the Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF) Selvarasa Kajendran too was present at the meeting which included Rev. Jude Amalathas and Hindu priest Velan Swami.
Former Northern Provincial Council member Thurairasa Ravikaran who was among the first to visit the site when it was found and the first excavation along with social activist Peter Elancheziyan was also present at the meeting with Mariasuresh Easwary, head of the Association of Relatives of Enforced Disappearances (ARED) in Mullaitivu district.
A team of JMOs including Pranavan and Rudrapasupathy Mayuran from Jaffna Hospital would would be led by JMO Vasudeva to assist the archaeology department that will direct the exhumation operations.
Representatives of victims expressed fear any exhumation not done according to international protocol and expertise would hamper the investigation and bury the truth.
