The excavations at the mass grave, which was discovered near the old CWE (Sathosa) building in Mannar, have been resumed, according to the Judicial Medical Officer in charge of the inspection Dr S. Rajapaksa.

He stated that the 105th day of the excavations is to be resumed from today (27) after it temporarily came to a halt recently.

Under the instructions of the Mannar Magistrate’s Court, a group of officials from the German Embassy, including the Ambassador are slated to join the inspection of the excavations at the mass grave, he further commented.

The skeletal remains belonging to 235 individuals have been unearthed so far, out of which 229 were removed through excavations and the excavated skeletal remains are currently placed at the Mannar Magistrate’s Court complex, Dr Rajapaksa said.

The skeletal remains in one part of the mass grave, in which soil mounds were first removed, have been recovered as of now and inspecting the other parts of the location will be carried out under the third phase of the excavations.

Several skeletal remains had been discovered on March 26 from a mound of soil in the Emil Nagar area in Mannar, which had been removed from the demolished CWE building and investigations regarding the location were launched subsequently.

The excavation process was launched under the orders of Mannar Magistrate A.G. Alexraja, following the submissions made by Mannar police.

The investigations, led by Prof. Raj Somadeva of Archaeology at the Postgraduate Institute of the University of Kelaniya, the officers of the Archaeological Department, Government Analysts and the Judicial Medical Officers including Dr Sameendra Rajapaksa, Mannar police officers, have been conducted for 105 days at the location under the orders of the new Mannar Magistrate T.G. Prabhakaran.

According to Prof. Somadeva, the age estimation of the skeletal remains is not yet determined.

He stated that investigations have revealed some unearthed skeletal remains were placed in a methodical manner at one part of the grave, however, in another part of the grave; the placement of skeletal remains is irregular.

The excavations at the site have recovered skeletal remains that belong to 17 children and these are slated to be sent over to a lab in Florida, the United States for radiocarbon dating, the Judicial Medical Officer stated.