News

News

Mass graves to be opened up
By Santhush Fernando
Local and foreign forensic experts are to exhume the bodies of 24 Britons in a mass grave at Kirinda in Hambantota for DNA testing and identification despite warnings by a top judicial medical officer.

The Ruhuna University's forensic medicine chief, Prof. Chandrasiri Niriella, will lead the team for the exhumation of four mass graves at Krinda after the British High Commission obtained an order from Tissamaharama Magistrate Inoka Ranasinghe. He said teeth and samples of muscle and bone tissue would be obtained from each body for DNA testing.

Last week Prof. Niriella and a team exhumed 15 bodies of Germans in Unawatuna after obtaining an order from Galle Magistrate G.M.W.P. Jayathileke. He said the exhumations were done within the law and he believed there was no risk of of any outbreak of diseases.

But Consultant Judicial Medical Officer Dr. Channa Perera has a different view. He said he feared the exhumation of mass graves might lead to an epidemic. Dr. Perera said the day after the December 26 catastrophe, he had offered forensic teams to identify bodies before burial but higher authorities had turned it down, apparently because they were anxious to dispose of the bodies.

Top

Back to News