Foreign ministry withdraws Chemmani statement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 February 1999, 14:15 GMT]
The Foreign Ministry spokesman today apologised for the mistakes in its statement on the alleged mass grave at Chemmani which was issued last Wednesday.

Speaking at the weekly cabinet press briefing today, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ravinath Ariyasinghe said that his Ministry's statement contained errors regarding the court proceedings in Jaffna regarding the exhumation of the alleged mass grave in Chemmani.

He said that this was due to certain problems in communication between state agencies dealing with the matter.

Mr.Ariyasinghe further stated that the Attorney General's department had got in touch with his ministry regarding the statement.

The TamilNet was the first to report that the Foreign Ministry statement was a complete distortion of the proceedings in the Jaffna magistrate's court on January 8 regarding the alleged mass graves in Chemmani and that the Jaffna additional magistrate S.A.E Ekanathan was going to take up the matter with the judicial services commission.

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