By Newswire Editorial

A special application to reopen investigations into the 2012 Matale mass grave was heard at the Matale High Court yesterday (11 November).

The petition was filed by attorneys Himali Kularatne and Lakmal Sooriyagoda, representing the Families of the Disappeared (FOD), an organisation comprised of family members of those who were forcibly disappeared during various time periods.

“We filed a petition requesting the resumption of the court proceedings that were previously conducted at the Matale Magistrate’s Court regarding the Matale mass grave issue,” Britto Fernando, the President of FOD told Newswire.

According to the petitioners — 15 member mothers of the FOD whose family members disappeared during the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) uprising in the south in the late 1980s — the case was temporarily stayed by Matale Magistrate Court in 2015.

The case was laid by as a result of the conflicting carbon dating results by Beta Analytics that dated them before the 1950s.

The forensic archaeologist, Raj Somadeva, and Judicial Medical Office Dr Ajith Jayasena disputed the Beta Analytic findings, suggesting there may have been contamination resulting in the carbon dating report contradicting the archaeological dating.

In 2012 workers installing a biogas plant at a construction site in the Matale General Hospital found human remains. By February 2013, 155 bodies were exhumed.

According to the report of the forensic archaeologist, Somadeva, the remains found indicated the use of firearms and blunt instruments, with iron nails being driven into skulls, and signs of decapitation. He concluded they dated from the late 1980s period, based on some artefacts found among the remains.

Attorneys Kularatne and Sooriyagoda are expected to make written submissions to the Matale High Court on 13 January. (Newswire)