IDPs find skeletons near SLA camp

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 July 2002, 15:39 GMT]
Displaced persons clearing land for resettling near a Sri Lanka Army camp in Nunavil in Jaffna found a bag Monday morning with several human skeletons without skulls. There were some pairs of slippers too in the bag, residents said. The remains are beleived to be of local residents who were killed during Sri Lanka Army operations in the area two years ago, according to them.

The bag was found behind a damaged house in Church Lane, Nunavil near Chavakachcheri town.

Most residents of Nunavil fled the area when the Sri Lanka army that was retreating from Chavakachcheri turned its heavy guns and multibarrel rocket launchers on the towns and villages in the Thenmaradchi division.

Residents say that some civilians went missing during the army's retreat from the region.

The occupants of the house informed the local Sri Lanka army camp immediately about the discovery of the human skeletal remains.

Since 2000, the SLA had several camps in the area and the fate of several persons who did not flee the war at the time was known, residents said.