Chemmani: alleged rape victim's body found

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 September 1999, 14:15 GMT]
Three human skeletons, including one suspected to be that of a woman allegedly raped and beaten to death by a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officer, were found today in a grave pointed out by ex-corporal Somaratna Rajapaksha, the key witness in the investigation into the mass graves at Chemmani and Ariyalai near Jaffna.

Investigators dug near the Chemmani road junction SLA sentry which Rajapaksha had specifically identified as the spot where a man and his wife who were dragged out by the SLA from their home at Mulli in Ariyalai and murdered had been buried along with another civilian.

A piece of a woman's clothing, an earstud and the waist band of a male's underwear were found also found in the pit near the skeletons.

The skull of one of the bodies in the grave was pulled out earlier in the day when a bulldozer was removing the upper soil at the spot.

According to an SLA soldier convicted in the rape and murder of the Jaffna school girl Krishanthy Kumarasamy, the man and his wife had been watching TV with their two children in their house at Mulli when they had been dragged away to the SLA camp in the area.

The convicted soldier turned state witness in the mass graves investigation alleged that he had later found the woman standing naked near Lt.Dunuwila, an SLA officer at the camp.

Her husband had also been standing nearby. The woman had been raped according to the witness.

Lt.Dunuwila had ordered the soldier to bring a mammoty (spade like implement) and with it, he had beaten the woman and her husband to death.

The children were orphaned and according to informed sources are growing up with relatives in Tellipalai in Jaffna. Lt.Dunuwila was later promoted and deployed elsewhere said sources.

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