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JVP will not appear before panel, complains to IGP of soldiers visiting site
View(s):Presidential Commission inquiry into Matale mass grave
By Leon Berenger
Names of several eminent persons from different fields, are currently being vetted, before being appointed to a panel that would sit on the Presidential Commission to investigate the mass grave found in the backyard of the Matale Govt. Hospital (MGH) on November 26, 2012, a senior official said yesterday.
The panel is expected to be finalised along with the Commission’s ‘terms of reference’, within the next few days, Presidential Spokesman Mohan Samarasinghe told the Sunday Times.
Earlier in the week, President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered the setting up of the commission, after forensic findings confirmed that the grave, containing 153 skeletal remains, dated to the 1986-1989 period, which was the height of the armed uprising of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramana (JVP).
The JVP has already demanded an impartial inquiry be held into the mass grave, the single largest ever to be found anywhere in the country, while at the same time, the party says it would not go before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry. “We have no faith in these so-called inquiries. What is needed here is an independent probe conducted by independent persons or groups”, JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said.
He added that this was a serious matter which the authorities must treat in the same manner. “We will even take the matter to international fora, if there are attempts to quash the real findings,” Mr. Dissanayake said. The JVP, for its part, has also begun collecting data of their cadre who went missing without a trace in the Matale District and has already spoken to several relatives of such persons.
“We will share all this information with the forensic experts and the relevant authorities to establish the identity of those dumped in the grave,” he added. Meanwhile, in a related development, the JVP alleged that a group of Army personnel had visited the grave site on Wednesday night this week, and sent a protest note to Police Chief N.K. Illangakoon.
In the note, the JVP had stated that a group of some 10 persons clad in Army uniform, had arrived at the hospital in a Bolero jeep, and stayed on the premises for a considerable period of time, violating a court ruling that prevents unauthorised persons from entering the site, as investigations were still in progress.
Army Spokesperson Brig. Ruwan Wanigasooriya told the Sunday Times that he could not confirm or deny the allegations, adding that it was a matter for the police to investigate, as it has already been referred to them.
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