Duraiappa stadium mass grave

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Duraiappah Sports Stadium in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, yielded a mass grave during renovations in 1999. Workers digging foundations for new changing rooms uncovered a pit a few feet wide under the turf, where 25 skeletons—including two children—were buried. The bones were found with the skins of six oil drums nearby, and the remains were packed into hardened clay about 3 feet below the surface.

One witness, Paramanthan Selvarajah, was at the site hoping to find news about his son Pirapakaran, who disappeared in July 1996 after being taken by the Sri Lankan army. Pirapakaran, who was 24, is among more than 12,000 Tamil civilians believed to have disappeared during the war. By 2007, the conflict had claimed more than 65,000 lives.

S. A. E. Ekanathan, the Jaffna magistrate, asked forensic experts to help. Ruhuna University professor N. Chandrasiri said the excavation did not use proper scientific methods and that important evidence may have been destroyed. He estimated the site might be about ten years old, which raised questions about who buried the people—possible involvement by the Indian Peace Keeping Force or the LTTE. The LTTE controlled the area from 1990 to 1995, and the Sri Lankan Army has held it since then.

The human-rights group UTHR said the ages of the victims were not known, making it hard to determine when they died. They urged a thorough, impartial investigation and exhumations, as well as a public notice to help families come forward. They also criticized the excavations as not satisfactory or professional. A local newspaper called for impartial investigations into other mass graves in the North-East.

Although some reports said the skeletons were sent to Colombo for further analysis, there has been no additional information released about this mass grave.