Statements recorded from Chemmani victim's relatives

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 June 1999, 11:38 GMT]
Officials from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) yesterday recorded statements from the relatives of the Rasaiah Satheeskumar, 29, and Mahenthiran Babu, 23, whose skeletons were exhumed from the Chemmani gravesite last week, said police sources.

Forensic experts dug the Chemmani gravesite on June 16 and found skeletal remains. The site is believed to contain bodies of hundreds of Tamils who disappeared from military custody.Photo:AP

The police are expected to continue with further legal processes primarily on information revealed in these statements, the sources said.

The police would seek assistance from the Attorney General's Department in view of continuing the legal processes, the sources added.

The skeletal remains of the Rasaiah Satheeskumar, and Mahenthiran Babu were exhumed from the Chemmani gravesite on June 17.

Their relatives have said that they were arrested by Sri Lanka Army soldiers in Jaffna on August 19, 1996 and have been reported 'missing' since then.

Their skeletons were exhumed on information given in the courts by former SLA soldier, Rajapakse. He claimed hundreds of Tamils arrested by the SLA soldiers in Jaffna were tortured and killed; their bodies were then buried in the Chemmani gravesite.

The SLA soldier claimed that he had buried several of these bodies in the Chemmani and Ariyalai areas of the peninsula.

Corporal Rajapakse has been sentenced to death for the abduction and murder of a Jaffna school girl and her relatives but says that his only involvement was to bury the bodies on the orders of his superiors.

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