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Government official coordinating Kaithady mass grave exhumation shot

The gravel mining workers who first discovered the body of the Hindu Priest in this mass grave reported it to GS Ratnarajah. The GS coordinated the exhumation by bringing together officials from police, judiciary and SLMM.

Four bodies were exhumed from the site so far. All have been reported as missing earlier. Two of the exhumed bodies have been identified. One is the Hindu priest Venkatakrishnasharma (50) who was reported missing since May 26. The other is Visuvalingam Paranitharan who went missing a month ago. His body was in advanced state of decay and his family identified him through the cell phone that was found with the body.

The site of this Kaithady mass grave (see map) was surrounded by SLA camps, mini camps and checkpoints. There is no way bodies could have been buried here without the knowledge of the SLA. It is also worth noting that Jaffna member of parliament, Kajendran had earlier reported that residents in Kaithady had complained to him about screams they have heard from the Kaithady SLA camp.

LTTE has recorded 53 disappearances in Jaffna district alone from December 2005. Many more disappearances have not been documented properly. This situation arose because SLA arrested several hundred people during this period. Some have been released and some have not. In many cases where the arrested have not been released SLA had denied any knowledge of the persons. Due to this procedural confusion many who have disappeared have not been tracked accurately.

09 June 2006

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