Poonthoaddam residents complain of stench from cemetary

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 19:13 GMT]
Foul smell from Vavuniyaa-Poonthooddam general cemetery due to improper mass burial of dead from Sri Lanka miltary supervised Vanni internment camps which hold more than 300,000 Tamil civilians is posing health hazard to the village residents, civil society sources in Vavuniyaa said. Corpses are buried en masse in graves, and routinely, bodies of recently dead are placed over partly decomposed bodies buried earlier.

Bodies of IDPs who die inside internment camps are buried in the Poonthooddam general cemetery in addition people die in the general hospital.

The stench has become a public health nuisance, village residents complained.

Officials responsible for IDP burials have suggested to their superiors to install incineration equipment to burn the bodies.