COLOMBO: Sri Lankan authorities are to dig up the site of a suspected mass grave next week after claims it contains the bodies of scores of Muslims killed by Tamil rebels 24 years ago, police said yesterday.
The move comes amid criticism that Sri Lankan authorities have been turning a blind eye to recent attacks against Muslims carried out by Buddhist militants. At least four Muslims were killed and hundreds of homes destroyed in rioting last week at two southern resort towns.
“The site will be exhumed on July 1,” a police statement said adding that security has been tightened in the area ahead of the exhumation. “According to the complainant, the bodies of nearly 100 Muslims killed by the Tigers are buried there.”
The announcement came the day after a judge ordered the dig to be carried out following a complaint from a local resident that nearly 100 Muslims were killed by Tamil Tiger rebels in the east coast town of Kalavanchikudy in 1990 before then being buried on the beach.
Sri Lanka’s 37-year civil war, which ended in 2009, mainly pitted the majority ethnic Sinhalese, who are Buddhists, against the minority Tamils, who are mainly Hindus and live in the north.
AFP
