Muttur aid workers' bodies exhumed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 October 2006, 04:06 GMT]
The exhumation of fifteen bodies of the seventeen aid workers killed in Muttur town during the first week of August this year commenced Wednesday at four different cemeteries located in Trincomalee and its suburbs in the presence of Anuradhapura Magistrate, four judicial medical officers, and the representatives of the French based non-government organization Action against Hunger (ACF), civil society sources in Trincomalee said. Earlier two bodies of the aid workers were exhumed and sent to Colombo police morgue.

Officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and relatives of twelve victims were present at that time of exhumation.

The exhumed bodies were scheduled to be transported Wednesday evening to Colombo in freezer trucks to be stored in Colombo police morgue till the fresh post mortem examinations are held under the observance of a team of Australian forensic experts who are expected to arrive in Colombo this week, sources said.

Anuradhapura Magistrate Wasantha Jinasena who has been specially appointed by the Sri Lanka's Judicial Services Commission (JSC) to conduct the inquest proceedings into the killing of the aid workers last week fixed the date for the exhumation of remaining bodies.

The inquest is being held in Kantalai Magistrate Court as the Muttur court is not functioning since the outbreak of fighting in August, sources said.

Chronology: