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A blue schoolbag in a mass grave. Sri Lanka’s bloody past is re-emerging from the soil
The excavation revealed personal items and skeletal remains, with over 90% uncovered without clothing, intensifying demands for independent international investigations into wartime abuses.
- Earlier this year construction workers unearthed remains in a Hindu cemetery in Jaffna, prompting a court-ordered excavation in May and June that found 19 skeletons initially and 240 remains at Chemmani mass gravesite, with personal items including a blue school bag and baby’s milk bottle recovered.
- From 1983 to 2009, the UN and Amnesty International estimate up to 100,000 killed and thousands disappeared during Sri Lanka’s civil war, with many graves in the north believed to contain victims.
- Investigator noted that more than 90% of the remains lacked clothing, bodies were buried in shallow graves of 1.5-2 feet, and children and babies were among the skeletons, including entries 177 and 178.
- Clutching photos, hundreds of residents marched on August 30 to Chemmani demanding independent international oversight, while UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged acknowledgment and the government pledged investigations and a truth commission.
- Despite calls for outside oversight, the Office on Missing Persons was established in 2017 but lost victims' trust, with the Sri Lankan delegation reporting just 23 traced from over 23,000 cases and stalled probes at Chemmani.
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Editor’s note: This article contains images and descriptions that some readers may find disturbing. Two human skeletons lie entwined on rough earth: the arms of one wrap the head of the other, as if trying to protect it from danger. Known simply as numbers 177 and 178, their identities remain a mystery. They are part of the 240 human bone remains, including children and babies, discovered in this mass grave in Chemmani, in the Jaffna district, n…
·Washington, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources14
Leaning Left1Leaning Right0Center11Last UpdatedBias Distribution92% Center
Bias Distribution
- 92% of the sources are Center
92% Center
C 92%
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