Court restricts media coverage of Sri Lanka's mass grave

: Post 08 September 2018

By Kithsiri Wijesinghe

Restrictions have been placed on media coverage of a mass grave believed to be the largest discovered in Sri Lanka's war torn Tamil area.

The recently appointed Magistrate for Mannar has banned experts unearthing bodies from speaking to journalists on the progress of ongoing investigations at the SATHOSA mass grave.

F A marked human skull found in Thruketheeswaram mass grave in Mannar - December, 2013 orensic teams have so far unearthed 140 bodies including those of women and children.

Some had deep cut marks.

Court registrar

Since excavations commenced in May, Judicial Medical Officer Dr Saminda Rajapakshe and lead Forensic Archeologist Professor Raj Somadeva used to share information with journalists.

The newly appointed Mannar Magistrate T Saravanaraj has now named the court registrar as the official media spokesman who is not known to be a competent forensic expert.

"The judge will be visiting the mass grave site daily and get reports from experts, which will be given to the registrar. Journalists should get there information from the registrar," an expert at the site who preferred to remain anonymous told JDS.

No reason has been made public.

A Tamil journalist from Mannar speaking to JDS on condition of anonymity expressed fears that the SATHOSA mass grave will face the same fate of another burial site unearthed from the same area.

Excavations of the Thiruketheeswaram mass grave with at least 82 bodies discovered in 2013 was halted abruptly without identifying the victims.☐