Recovery of skeletons in Mullaitivu: Army denies allegations

The Army today rejected allegations in connection with the discovery of skeletons from a land in Puthukuirippu in Mullaitivu.

“Some interested parties are attempting to portrait this as evidence of an incident for which the government and security forces should be held responsible. There is no factual basis for such conclusions and we reject these false and misleading allegations,” Military Spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said in a statement.

“It is deplorable that such premature conclusions are drawn without allowing the investigations to proceed without hindrance. Such assertions are misleading the local public as well as the international community,” he also said.

The remains of at least nine bodies buried in a garden of a family in Puthukkudiririppu, North of Mullaitivu were discovered on Friday.

He also said that a proper investigation and inquiry is ongoing “I do not wish to delve on this particular incident until that process reaches its conclusion”.

“Obviously there is an attempt to use these premature conclusions to support their claims for an international investigation which is not really necessary as there are well established domestic processes to conduct proper investigations which are evident in this as well as in numerous other instances,” he said.

He also said that some parties have prematurely concluded that these remains belong to people who died in February 2009.  Although such assertions are not supported by forensic evidence it is pertinent to mention that by early 2009 the LTTE had one of their defenses in this area as they were desperately trying to stop the advancing security forces. The fighting cadres of the LTTE were reinforced by large numbers of civilians who were forcibly employed by the LTTE under many different formations such as Ellepaddai, etc. Further the LTTE unhesitatingly killed any individual or group of people that attempted to defy their orders. It is a well known fact that the LTTE did all they could to hide such deaths in order to prevent people uprising and mantain their cadre's morale high. The skeletal remains found recently near a former LTTE held area could very well be such dead buried secretly.

On the other hand by early 2009 the civilians were beginning to cross over to security forces held areas and the LTTE was desperately trying to prevent the exodus. They even resorted to killing them by direct employment of fire power as well as the use of suicide bombers.