Another mass grave has been exhumed in the Pearl of the Indian Ocean! Experts have determined the date and the doubts have been cleared. They are certainly not Homo Balangodensis but the JVP youth of the early nineties. It was the result of the suppression of their protest against the infamous Peace Accord (PA). Let the members of the armed forces remember that by destroying the JVP youth and their protest they allowed the PA to win. And safeguarding the PA was the main item in the agenda of the government, International Community and of course of the LTTE. For, thanks to the PA, the LTTE better organized themselves, better armed themselves and began killing hundreds and thousands of the members of the armed forces and the civil population. The LTTE was gaining ground and they with the Diaspora and the International Community were confident of winning the war!
Will there be a Commission of Inquiry into the mass grave? Who will testify? I shall give a list of people who ought to testify; for, if not all of them, most of them are still among the living. To begin with the District Secretary of Matale must testify. The administrators of the Hospital and other doctors, nurses, and the minor staff will have to talk. The SSPs, OICs and Police higher rankers with the military leadership and commanding officers of various army camps in the district will never be able to say, like Duminda Silva, "I forget" or I don’t know. The judges and magistrates need not testify for they were jobless those days. Let’s leave the politicians out of this for today sensible people know that what the current politicians say are not only lies but utter rubbish. Listening to them is a waste of time.
The mothers and fathers, the brothers and sisters and the children of those buried in the hospital premises of Matale are still waiting at least to know what happened to their loved ones. They have a Right to Information about the members of their families. It is a human right. The JVP should know something which can be corroborated and authenticated with the information garnered from other sources. The truth must be sought, found and proclaimed. We owe it not only to the relatives of those unfortunates buried in the Matale hospital premises but also to ourselves. It is only truth, not politics, that will make us free.
Fr JC Pieris
Galle
island.lk